Whitney Tsai Nakashima is a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. Her research integrates historical museum specimens with modern genomics to study evolutionary and adaptive processes in birds. She received her B.A. from Occidental College, worked as the Lab Manager at the Moore Laboratory of Zoology Bird and Mammal Collection, and received her PhD. from UCLA.

Birds see and produce an astonishing diversity of colors that span the human visible, ultraviolet, and infrared spectrums. These colors are produced by numerous mechanisms, and they may be perceived by bird species differently, depending on their visual system sensitivity. In this presentation, Whitney will introduce the avian rainbow, show how color functions in the life of birds, and explore how visual system sensitivities have evolved across the bird tree of life.
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This park is set along the Tuolumne River, with a riparian habitat of oak, cottonwood and sycamore trees. There is a small pond there, and trails that were created during a recent renovation. We will be looking for resident passerines and wading birds, as well as waterfowl coming in to overwinter. Great-tailed Grackles and Yellow-Billed Magpies may be abundant there. We will meet at the main parking lot by the restrooms and walk down to the trails from a gravel road that ends at the boat dock. Bring water and snacks.

On this field trip, we’ll explore Woodward Reservoir and the surrounding area, looking for waterbirds on the reservoir and birds of open grasslands. A good variety of ducks and geese should be present as well as herons and egrets, grebes and perhaps a loon or two. Nearby grasslands may have raptors such as Merlin, Prairie Falcon, Ferruginous Hawks as well as grassland sparrows, Horned Lark, and if we are lucky, Mountain Bluebird. We’ll return to Oakdale by around noon. Meet at the Cost Less Market, 888 N. Yosemite, Oakdale, at 8:00 a.m. There is a Dutch Brothers coffee shop there. Bring your own water and snacks. Please note that there is an entrance fee per vehicle for Woodward Reservoir, with a reduced rate for seniors, so car-pooling will be advantageous. For questions contact John Harris at jhh.birder@gmail.com 

Eric is retired and living in western New York. During the 1980s, he worked summer jobs surveying birds on Alaska's North Slope for USFWS (1984), on a Cal Fire engine crew (1985), and monitoring Spotted Owls for the Klamath National Forest (1986-88) while pursuing his Bachelor's in Wildlife Management at Humboldt State University. In the early 1990’s, he worked in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve for Botswana’s Parks and Wildlife Department as a Peace Corps Volunteer. From 1993 to 2024, he worked for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service National Wildlife Refuge System as a Refuge Biologist and Manager at Santa Ana NWR Texas; Ash Meadows NWR, Nevada; and San Joaquin River NWR, California.

The Camino de Portuguese is one several pilgrimage routes which culminate at the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, Spain. Eric hiked, with his wife and three other companions, about 250 km (155 miles) from Porto, Portugal to Santiago de Compostela from June 10-20, 2025. Their rigorous walking schedule left little time for dedicated birding at any one area. The Merlin app and opportunistic photography were used during quick stops to expedite bird identification of over 70 species during the ten-day walk. After the conclusion of the Camino, the group spent seven days traveling by bus and train to Cape Fisterra and Vigo, Spain, as well as Lisbon and Porto, Portugal. They also flew out to Madeira Island for two days, where additional new birds were observed.
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