Annual Auction and Banquet

Saturday, February 18, 2023

with featured presentation:

“Climate Change is Transforming the Bodies of Birds!”

 
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Scale-backed Antbird (Willisornis poecilinotus).

Photo by Cameron Rutt.

Dr. Vitek Jirinec will talk about his studies of Amazonian birds, including their quickly evolving responses to climate change, and his other recent bird studies and adventures.


He states “…most of the bird species we catch in mist nets are shifting size and shape in response to climate change. Why should the general public care about this? Individual lifestyle choices of people in distant places – like us here in Humboldt county - have consequences for such a bizarre thing as the size and shape of birds in the middle of Amazonia. If that doesn’t put the ‘global’ in global climate change, I don’t know what does.”

Vitek moved to the US from Prague, Czech Republic. He received his BS in Wildlife at Humboldt State University in 2010, MS in Biology at the College of William and Mary in 2015, and PhD at Louisiana State University in Renewable Natural Resources in 2021. His dissertation research on the response of rainforest birds to the shifting climate in the pristine Amazon rainforest received broad coverage in popular media, including NPR, National Geographic, NBC, and the National Audubon Society.

Vitek Jirinec with an Amazonian Motmot (Momotus momota).

Photo by Philip Stouffer

The banquet will be at the Arcata D Street Neighborhood Center, 13th and D Streets. Social hour begins at 5:30 pm and dinner at 6:30 pm. Tickets are $35 per person until February 11, when the price will rise to $50.

 

To get a ticket send a check made out to RRAS to P.O.Box 1054, Eureka, CA 95502 or email gary@jacobycreek.net with “Banquet” in the subject line, or phone (707) 496-6581. The last day to make reservations is February 16th.