Meeting:

August 11, 2011

Guest Presenters:

Eleanor Osgood and Kara Donahue

Program:

A Bird-friendly Guide to Tree Trimming and Shrub Removal

This was a two-part presentation. First, the local habitats of the Los Angeles Basin were described along with some of the birds that reside and breed in each habitat. In the second part, Eleanor and Kara discussed tree and shrub trimming and removal, laws protecting birds, and ways to prune vegetation that will continue to enhance and protect nesting bird habitat on city streets, parks and home gardens.

Eleanor Osgood has had a passion for bird watching her entire adult life and became a serious birder in her mid-forties when she dedicated herself to learning more about birds common in the urban environment. She has been a member of the Audubon Society, locally and nationally, for over twenty years, five of them as a board member of the Los Angeles Audubon Society (LAAS). As part of an ad hoc Tree Trimming Guide Committee, she co-authored The Bird Friendly Guide to Tree and Shrub Trimming and Removal, which LAAS published in 2009. Since 1992 she has been a volunteer in the ornithology department of the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum. Between 2005 and 2010 she was a field coordinator with the Los Angeles County Breeding Bird Atlas, which was a joint project of the Los Angeles Audubon Society and the Natural History Museum. Eleanor also leads urban bird walks for Los Angeles Audubon. She is a member of her local Native Plant Society and enjoys gardening with drought tolerant and native plants. 

Kara Donahue found her calling when she took a bird biology course in college. After graduating, she travelled around the country working as a seasonal field biologist on a variety of projects studying birds. She participated in songbird surveys in Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Nevada, studied piping plovers on the beach in New York, trapped migrating hawks in New Jersey, Virginia, Nevada, and Idaho, and worked on San Clemente Island on the loggerhead shrike project, among many other projects. She has a Master’s degree in Raptor Biology from Boise State University and currently works for Southern California Edison on their avian protection program. She is also an active member of the Los Angeles Audubon Society.