October 16, 2019 — Fires, cattle grazing, and wild birds are three major facts of life for a lot of people in inland Mendocino County. Last night, the city council chambers in Ukiah were packed with people who had come to hear a Peregrine Audobon Society sponsored talk by Frank Fogarty, an avian ecologist at Humboldt State University who spent two years studying the effects of wildfire and grazing on wintering bird communities. The vast majority of ornithological studies are done on breeding populations, which means that what's going on with birds during the rest of their life cycle is largely a mystery.
We’ll hear from Fogarty about why he thinks it’s important to study this subject, and what he found out about the birds who make their home in a landscape that is increasingly prone to fire.