ATLAS OF COLONIES OF INLAND-BREEDING SEABIRDS IN CALIFORNIA

Project Description :: Mapping Approach :: Species Range Maps :: Species Tables

INTERACTIVE MAPS Northern Region | Central Region | Southern Region

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This project had its roots in California Gull research begun at Mono Lake in 1983 by PRBO Conservation Science (PRBO), expanded to include statewide surveys of California and Ring-billed gulls colonies in 1994, and culminated in statewide surveys of seven species of inland-breeding seabirds from 1997 to 1999. The many collaborators over this period have been invaluable, inspiring, and a pleasure to work with, and I sincerely and deeply appreciate their help in all aspects of this work. This project also greatly benefited from the pioneering work of California's early ornithologists whose field notes and egg collections formed the basis for understanding the historical status of various species and the great changes in their habitats and populations in the last 150 years. Many other avid field workers continue to make valuable contributions to knowledge of the state's avifauna by their published and unpublished field notes and insights for which I thank them. My sincere apologies to anyone whom I inadvertently may have failed to acknowledge here or elsewhere in the text.

Funding for surveys inland-breeding seabirds from 1997 to 1999 was provided by California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG), Chevron USA Inc., Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuge Complex, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the Richard Grand Foundation, the Weeden Foundation, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's (USFWS) Division of Migratory Birds and Habitat Programs (Region 1), and from individual donors to PRBO. Funding from USFWS for additional work on Caspian Terns contributed to knowledge of that species presented here. Funding of PRBO's research on California Gulls at Mono Lake has been provided by an anonymous donor, the Atlantic Richfield Foundation, the Conservation Endowment Fund, Golden Gate Audubon Society, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power via Hubbs-Sea World Research Institute, the Mono Basin National Forest Scenic Area Visitors Center in partnership with the Eastern Sierra Interpretive Center, the Mono Lake Committee, the Mono Lake Foundation, National Audubon Society, Recreational Equipment Inc., USFWS, and the membership of PRBO.

The following individuals or groups provided valuable information, advice, help in the field, logistical support, or access to private or restricted public lands without which this study would not have been possible: Dan Airola, Chuck Alexander, Matt Alexander, Bob Allen, Jack Allen, Dan Anderson, Lee Ashford, Jack Bailey, Bruce Barbour, Bob Barnes, Jenny Barnett, John Beckstrand, Ted Beedy, Doug Bell, Reuben Benavides, Nina Bicknese, Frances Bidstrup, Debbie Bliss, Steve Bobzien, Jay Bogiatto, Ken Bonesdale, Bill Bousman, Mike Brady, Steve Bruggemann, Deb Bumpus, Bureau of Land Management, Steve Burton, Tim Burton, CDFG, Dave Calleri, Central Valley Bird Club, Mark Chichester, Mike Chouinard, Beverly Clark, Danny Cluck, Howard Cogswell, Mike Cole, Laura Collins, Steve Collup, Jim Crew, Ralph Cutter, Thomas Darden, Don Davis, Adrian del Nevo, Al DeMartini, Bruce Deuel, Jan Dierks, Barbara Ditman, Leo Edson, Ray Ekstrom, Joel Ellis, Chris Elphick, Andy Engilis, Wade Epperson, Kathy Erwin, George Espino, Pete Famolaro, Elias Flores, Larry Ford, John Fredrickson, Jack Frey, Michael Fry, John Fulton, Jim Gain, Jay Dee Garr, Dave Germano, Greg Gerstenberg, Ron Gerstenberg, Andy Gordus, Annie Graves, Helen and Paul Green, Jim Hainline, Mike Hall, Bill Hamilton, Steve Hampton, Keith Hansen, Rob Hansen, Tim Hansen, David Hardt, Patrick Hendrix, Bob Herkert, Justin Hite, Kathy Hobson, Paul Hoffmann, Chuck and Barbara Holmes, Waldo Holt, Barbara Hopkins, Les Howard, Bob Huddleston, Joan Humphrey, Kevin Hunting, Craig Isola, Ron Jackman, Joseph R. Jehl, Jr. and colleagues, Mark Jenkins, Gary Karhoolis, Richard Kaufmann, John Kelly, Tim Kroeker, Marilyn Kundiff-Yee, Dean Kwasny, Kevin Laves, Steve Laymon, Valerie Layne, Danielle Lefer, Robin Leong, Ron Long, Carmen Luna, Victor Lyon, Sue Macias, Chris McIntire, Bob McLandress, Aidan Christine McNeil, Mike McVey, Pat Manly, Tim Manolis, Tina Mark, Dave Mauser, Dave Meissonier, Greg Mensik, Bartshe Miller, Jack Mitchell, Kathy Molina, the Mono Lake Committee, Pollo Moreno, Shannon Nelson, Kit Novick, Ed O'Neill, Lew Oring, Paul Oshel, Dale Overlack, Tom Palmer, Jennifer Parkin, Larry Parmeter, Bill Pellandini, Mike Peters, Jim Pike, Cheri Pillsbury, Port of Sacramento, Gary Potter, Dick Purvis, John Ranlett, Tom Ratcliff, Brad Reed, Rhonda Reed, Harold Reeve, Rich Reiner, Bruce Reinhart, Wes Rhodehamel, Anthony Ries, Michael Rigney, Mike Robbins, Chris Rocco, Chuck Roe, Ken Rombenberger, Gary Rotta, Tom Ryan, Ron Ryno, Karine Sande, Rusty Scalf, Jeff Scheele, Matt Schlesinger, Ron Schlorff, Larry Schmahl, Jeff Seay, Dan Shaw, Debra Shearwater, Joe Silveira, Claude Singelton, Arnold Small, Bob Smith, Gary Smith, Sam Snead, Jim Snowden, Pat Stackpole, Rich Stallcup, Brad Stovall, Emilie Strauss, George Studinski, Ken Sturm, Steve Summers, Bobby and Dick Tatman, Jerry Tecklin, Doug Thayer, John Trochet, Natasha Tuatoo-Bartley, John Tyler, Alan Uchida, USFWS, U.S. Forest Service, Bill Vanherweg, Ramon Vega, Jim Villegas, Dave Walker, Bruce Webb, Terry Weist, Richard Mewaldt, Ed Whisler, Dale Whitemore, Roger Wilbur, Brian Williams, Nancy Williams, Jenny Wilson, John Wilson, Tricia Wilson, David Wimpfheimer, David Winkler, Jon Winter, Mike Wolder, Dennis Wollington, Peg Woodin, Peter Wrege, David Yee, Quentin Youngblood, Dan Yparraguirre, and Bob Yutzy. Additional individuals who assisted with nest counts at California Gull colonies at Mono Lake and San Francisco Bay over the years are too numerous to list, but still their help is greatly appreciated. Similarly, a long list of state, federal, and local land management agencies or private land owners allowed access to lands or assigned personnel to help on surveys.

Paul Fonteyn, Kevin Hunting, Dave Mauser, Gary Page, Jennifer Roth, Tom Smith, Denise Wight, and Tara Zimmerman provided support and encouragement for the project. California Department of Fish and Game staff Lyann Comrack, Kevin Hunting, and, especially, Paul Kelly generously arranged airplane time, and CDFG pilots Wayne Burnett, Tom Evans, Lauren Goehring, Larry Heitz, Bob Morgan, and Ron Van Benthuysen provided their expert services on aerial surveys. Ken Blum of Tamal Sáka, Tomales Bay Kayaking, provided kayaking equipment for use on the surveys. Harry Carter, Gerry McChesney, Daryl Whitworth, and Phil Cappitolo (USGS Biological Resource Division) engaged in valuable discussion during conception of the project, provided camera equipment and film for photographing colonies on aerial surveys, and were very helpful in providing facilities and training for counting seabird colonies on aerial photographs. Lynne Stenzel gave valuable insight regarding sampling design for roadside surveys of Black Terns and Nadav Nur analyzed the survey data. Martha Leighton of the California Agricultural Statistics Service provided data on acreage by county of planted rice in the Central Valley, and Jay Dee Garr, Cass Mutters, and Jack Williams shared insight on the timing of rice planting in 1998 and methods of rice cultivation. Jim Snowden kindly shared long-term data on Black Terns from CDFG surveys of pheasant broods in Butte County. Jeff Seay/H. T. Harvey and Associates and Rob Hansen/Hansen's Biological Consulting and associates kindly arranged access to, helped on surveys, or shared data from their surveys of evaporation ponds, associated mitigation wetlands, and the Hacienda Ranch Flood Basin and the South Wilbur Flood Area in the Tulare Basin. Rob Hansen also supplied valuable unpublished field notes of Ward B. Minturn. Additional colleagues kindly sharing unpublished data included Dawn Harris for sightings of Black Terns from surveys of seven duck brood ponds in the Sacramento Valley, Kathy Molina for numbers of Caspian Terns at subcolonies at the Salton Sea, and Pat Stackpole for numbers of Double-crested Cormorants nesting at Stone Lakes NWR. California Department of Fish and Game, Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuge Complex, and Modoc National Forest provided boat support or personnel to help on surveys. Overall the help of state and federal land management agencies was extremely important to the success of this project. In particular, the Devil's Garden Ranger District of Modoc National Forest provided radio and logistical support; George Studinski was especially helpful in sharing extensive information about wetlands in that area and how to navigate boulder-strewn roads to get to them. Karen Cebra, Carla Cicero, René Corado, Krista Fahy, Kimball Garrett, Ned Johnson, Freda Kinoshita, Douglas Long, Robert McKernan, James Northern, and Philip Unitt provided data from egg sets, or confirmation of a lack thereof, from their respective institutions. Manuel Marin kindly confirmed the validity of California Gull egg sets from Stanislaus County housed at the Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology. Helen Green supplied data from the editors of the Middle Pacific Coast region of North American Birds on file with Golden Gate Audubon Society. John Beckstrand was especially helpful in compiling data on gull numbers from the Annual Narrative Reports of the Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuges, and Dave Mauser and Ken Sturm provided access to such reports and other unpublished data for various species contained in the files of the Klamath Basin and Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuges, respectively. Thanks to Kathy Molina, Brennan Mulrooney, Ken Sturm, and, particularly, Jennifer Roth for counting cormorant nests from slides or photographs of colonies at the Salton Sea. Grant Ballard, the Estuarine Institute, Janet Hanson, Catherine Hickey, Peter LaTourette, Mike Lynes, Lars Pomaro, Jennifer Roth, Diana Stralberg, and Dionne Wrights helped with GIS mapping, graphics, or scanning photos for figures. Diana Stralberg designed the digital map layout for the accompanying CD atlas of inland-breeding seabirds in California, which greatly enhances the value of this document, and Chris Rintoul performed the technical conversion of data files to produce the maps you see. Dan Anderson, John Cooper, Gordon Gould, Stephen N. G. Howell, Joan Humphrey, Kevin Hunting, Joseph R. Jehl, Jr., Gerry McChesney, Tim Manolis, Kathy Molina, Nadav Nur, Bruce Peterjohn, Tom Ryan, Phil Unitt, and Tara Zimmerman provided thoughtful reviews, or shared authorship, on prior reports or papers summarizing data from this project.

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