Topic: Climate Change and an Iconic Colorado Species.
Speaker: Dr. Garth Spellman, Denver Museum of Nature and Science
Date and Time: Thursday, May 5th at 7 pm (doors open at 6:30 pm for socializing)
Location: Hybrid: In person at Evergreen Christian Church and virtual attendance via Zoom

As May embraces our Evergreen world, green grass, abundant wildflowers, and the songs, signs, and sounds of the breeding season are abundant, and our attention focuses on the new life around us.  At the highest, coldest elevations within our Bear Creek Watershed, a bird we may think of as one of “our” winter birds, the Brown-capped Rosy-Finch is busy bringing the next generation to life, scouting out locations in rockslides, caves, and cliffs for their nests, and scouring alpine meadows, snowfields for the insects and seeds they eat and feed to their young. But as we all know far too well, our climate is changing, and these birds that delight us in Summer and Winter are having to adapt to these changes.  How will these changes affect them?

Plan to attend our Thursday, May 5, 2022 chapter meeting to learn much, much more about these tough alpine loving birds and how they are responding to a changing climate  when Dr. Garth Spellman, Curator of Ornithology at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, presents “How climate change contributed to the origin of and could lead to the decline of an iconic Colorado species.”

Note: We are planning that this will be a hybrid in-person/virtual meeting, consistent with state and county requirements for public gatherings during the COVID pandemic. We plan to have Dr. Spellman present in person at the Church and we will stream his presentation via Zoom.

Presentation Details

The Brown-capped Rosy-finch is North America’s highest breeding bird species, nesting almost exclusively above 11,000 feet in the southern Rocky Mountains. Research has demonstrated that human-induced climate change is more extreme in high latitude and high altitude environments. The rapid changes occurring across the Brown-capped Rosy-finch’s breeding range have led to the species being listed as a species of conservation concern.  Dr. Spellman will discuss recent collaborative research efforts to understand the origin and life history of this enigmatic species and work aimed at understanding how the birds are responding to climate change from the genetic level to the landscape level.

Dr. Garth Spellman is the curator of ornithology at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. He grew up in Fargo, North Dakota, developing a passion for biodiversity science during his first summer job as a lab assistant pinning beetle specimens in a paleontology lab at North Dakota State University. He went on to receive a BA in biology from Carleton College, an MSc in zoology from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and a Ph.D. in biological sciences from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He began his professional scientific career at Black Hills State University, initially as a research professor and eventually moving on to become an associate professor. He then spent two years serving as a program director in the evolutionary processes cluster of the Division of Environmental Biology at the National Science Foundation. His peer-reviewed manuscripts have been featured in diverse scientific journals, and his work has been featured in several popular press articles and blogs. His research focuses on how recent and ancient environmental changes have affected bird species. Bird species are products of their environment and therefore are constantly evolving in response to environmental change. The response of a species to environmental change leaves lasting footprints in its DNA which are used to determine just how a species or multiple species have responded to past environmental changes.

Zoom Meeting Details

Evergreen Audubon is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Evergreen Audubon Chapter Meeting

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83158390470?pwd=YnczUHJ4WExONTU4RWNDQXZDQzhLQT09

Meeting ID: 831 5839 0470
Passcode: 030633

Dial-in according to your phone’s area code.  If you are dialing in from a Colorado phone, the number is:
+1 720 707 2699 US (Denver)
Meeting ID: 831 5839 0470
Passcode: 030633

Or find the appropriate number for your area code visit the Zoom website https://us06web.zoom.us/u/kzc31iRPZ