Evening Programs, Fall 2025
Save these dates for upcoming meetings:
Wed. Sept. 10
Wed. Oct. 8
Wed. Nov. 12
Details will be posted when available.
Ecological Restoration: Past, Present, and Future at Valles Caldera
Wednesday, May 14, 2025 — 7:00 pm
Unitarian Universalist Church
107 West Barcelona Road, Santa Fe
Valles Caldera National Preserve is one of New Mexico’s natural gems, but it is also a landscape in recovery. A ranger from the National Park Service will speak about the restoration work undertaken since 2015 to improve animal habitat, create healthier and more resilient forests, restore watersheds, and protect endangered species; and will also discuss management plans for Valles Caldera’s future, including exciting developments in the park’s education and interpretation division.
Energy Management in Migrating Hummingbirds
Shayne R. Halter, UNM Department of Biology
Wednesday, April 9, 2025 — 7:00 pm
Unitarian Universalist Church
Hummingbirds use energy at extremely high rates, especially during migrations. To survive these long trips, they must maintain adequate amounts of body fat for fuel. Shayne’s research investigates how four species of hummingbirds balance their energy levels, as they transit the arid landscapes of the American Southwest. He combines measurements from feathers, body fat, and metabolism, to map migration and energy budgets, to determine how hummingbirds adjust for energy shortfalls. His emphasis is on how hummingbirds use nocturnal torpor to conserve fat during migrations. This research will help us assess hummingbird health and develop conservation measures, as climate and land-use change make food resources less predictable in the Southwest.
Shayne Halter was born in Las Vegas, Nevada and moved to Castle Rock, Colorado in his early teens. At Metropolitan State University of Denver he earned a BS in Aerospace Science, and spent over 20 years in the US Air Force as a navigator in C-130 Hercules aircraft. After retirement, he took classes at the University of New Mexico, earning a BS in Anthropology and MS in Biology. Shayne is currently completing a Ph.D. in Biology, with Dr. Blair Wolf. Shayne focuses on animal physiology and how animals cope with extremes in temperature and food supply. His recreational pastimes include skiing, mountain biking, camping, hiking, and birding.
Dragons and Damsels in the Desert Southwest: Odonate Diversity and Ecology in New Mexico
CANCELLED due to illness — will be rescheduled
Wednesday, March 12, 2025 — 7:00 pm
County in Illinois Rules That Homes Must Prevent Bird Collisions – A National First
May 21, 2025 · American Bird Conservancy
A local ordinance passed in Lake County, Illinois, is taking aim at one of the most worrying threats to declining birds: collisions with glass windows. More than a billion birds die in the U.S. in such collisions annually, contributing to the loss of 3 billion birds from North American populations since 1970. The ordinance is a national first and follows two years of collaboration between Lake County’s Planning, Building and Development Department and American Bird Conservancy (ABC), which commenced after local bird conservation advocate Donnie Dann asked the county to consider adopting a bird-friendly building policy.
Initial conversations centered on how to address bird collisions at County-owned buildings and about adopting a policy for new County construction and collisions at existing buildings. The next step was tackling something no municipality had done before: passing a bird-friendly building ordinance solely for new residential construction, including single-family homes.
“We’re hoping this groundbreaking homeowner collisions requirement could become trendsetting for other cities, especially since our latest study revealed that over 1 billion birds die from window collisions in the U.S. annually, with over 40 percent happening at homes. Together we can build a future in which glass is no longer a leading threat to birds,” said Bryan Lenz, ABC’s Glass Collisions Program Director.