Date & Time
Wednesday, February 22, 2023
7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
This program will be via Zoom. Note early start time of 7:00pm.
Meeting ID: 881 2954 7642
Passcode: 045496
Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88129547642?pwd=T3E3TWR6czRHYk5WSXNxaXRFaEFzQT09
Jay Sheppard will discuss some of the challenges and results of his study of this uncommon desert bird. The LeConte’s thrasher is a shy, poorly-known, and little-studied species found in the hottest and driest deserts of the American Southwest and northwestern Mexico. The bird rarely, if ever, drinks any water. Jay has spent years studying this enigmatic bird and gives the results of his study with some insight into its daily life. Some 350 thrashers were color-banded and followed around an 1800-acre tract in the San Joaquin Valley for several years. Extensive information was learned about the life history of this bird. His monograph, “The Biology of a Desert Apparition: LeConte’s Thrasher (Toxostoma lecontei),” was published in 2018.
Jay is a retired ornithologist from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and lives in Laurel, Maryland. He worked for a number of years at the Bird Banding Laboratory, located at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Refuge in Maryland, and later in the endangered species program office in Washington, DC. He was born and raised in Ohio, went to Miami University, served 5 years as a Navy officer with the Pacific Fleet, and moved to Maryland in 1972 after graduate school at Long Beach State University. He has been watching and studying birds and nature since as long as he can remember.
Western Field Ornithologists announces their second mono-graph in their series: Studies in Western Birds.
LeConte’s Thrasher is a little-studied, shy, and poorly-known bird that is found in the hottest and driest deserts of the American Southwest and northwestern Mexico. Mr. Sheppard has spent years studying this enigmatic thrasher. This mono-graph gives the results of his study that included 353 color-marked thrashers near Maricopa, California. The systematics of the genus Toxo-stoma and the taxonomy of T. lecontei are examined. A detailed discussion of this thrasher’s distribution, ecology and conservation are followed by a thorough study of its general life history. The latter includes extensive data on reproduction, population dynamics, reproductive output, behavior, molt, development, vocalizations, and feeding and prey analysis. Dispersal and other movements, pair bonds, survival, and territoriality were studied in the color-marked population at Maricopa, California. Detailed notes and records from hundreds of other field observers and sources were utilized to provide as complete a life history and distribution of this species as currently possible. Future research needs are enumerated. This book has 224 pages, 89 figures and 28 tables. Mr. Sheppard is a retired ornithologist of the US Fish & Wildlife Service and resides in Laurel, MD.
To place an online order, go to:
https://westernfieldornithologists.org/product/the-biology-of-a-desert-apparition-lecontes-thrasher-toxostoma-lecontei/
Jay does not receive any benefit from the sales of this publication. Any proceeds above the cost of production remain with Western Field Ornithologists, a Non Profit organization.
