7872 Fay Ranch Road
Weldon, California 93283
760.378.3345
ssrs@southernsierraresearch.org
People
Mary Whitfield, Research Director
Mary has been studying Southwestern Willow Flycatchers (Empidonax traillii extimus) in the South Fork Kern River Valley since 1989. She has long been interested in understanding the effects of Brown-headed Cowbird (Molothrus ater) parasitism on population dynamics and breeding biology of this endangered subspecies. Recently, she has expanded her focus, studying post-fledging parental care and dispersal, as well as wintering ecology of Willow Flycatchers in Latin America. Mary received a B.S. from University of California at Davis, an M.S. from Chico State University.
Murrelet Halterman, Cuckoo Project Director
Murrelet has been conducting research on the elusive, but elegant Yellow-billed Cuckoos (Coccyzus americanus) since 1985 in California, Arizona, and Nevada. This work has involved comprehensive statewide and repeated local surveys, nest searching and monitoring, testing the current survey protocol, vegetation monitoring, banding cuckoos, radiotelemetry, population estimation, home range analysis, sexual dimorphism, nestling growth, and parental care. Murrelet is currently fininshing her Ph.D. on the probability of detection, sexual dimorphism, and parental care of the Yellow-billed Cuckoo at the University of Nevada, Reno.
Carlie Henneman, Research Associate
Carlie has extensive field experience working in Hawaii, Alaska, and Minnesota. She recently received a M.S. from the University of Minnesota where she delineated the range of Red-shouldered Hawks in the center of the state, assessed landscape-level associations between hawks and habitats, and updated a regional plan for assessing hawk population trends and prescribing controlled timber harvests in their territories.
Eli Rose, Research Associate
Eli has enjoyed fieldwork since his first field season in 1998 doing Marbled Murrelet surveys in the Pacific Northwest. He graduated from Humboldt State University with a Bachelors degree in Wildlife Biology in December of 2000. Since that time he has worked throughout the western United States on avian research, monitoring, and re-introduction programs. Much of this work has been in riparian areas in the desert southwest. He is currently working with the Yellow-billed Cuckoo and interested in the relationship between invertebrates and avian communities.
Shannon McNeil, Research Associate
In addition to extensive field experience on three continents, Shannon brings a wealth of computer and GIS skills to the team. She has a Computer Science degree with a minor in statistics. She dropped out of computer nerdism in 1997 quitting her job (and big bucks) as a software engineer and began working in the field of biology. Somehow she got pulled back in and worked as a GIS specialist for the BLM and Cochise County in AZ. She has worked with six endangered avian species and with Yellow-billed Cuckoos for more than five years. She spent her vacation helping ornithology students in Thailand and gave a presentation on the 2008 YBCU project to students and faculty at Prince of Songkla University, Pattani, Thailand.
Diane Tracy, Research Associate
Diane works both as a field biologist and restoration ecologist. Her experience includes fieldwork in the USA, Australia, Ecuador, Mexico, Thailand and Nepal. She earned a Bush Regeneration degree in Australia where she worked as a bush regenerator/consultant and was project lead on arid desert restoration in S. California. She is a Greener and has a Masters degree in Tropical Environmental Management studying cavity-nesting fauna in Northern Australia. Most recently she has been working for USNPS with sea turtles and piping plovers on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. She has worked with the SSRS and theYellow-billed Cuckoo for six years.
Denise LaBerteaux, Research Associate
Bruce Garlinger, Research Associate
Board Members
Dan Burnett, President
Dave Kurdeka, Vice-president
Terri Middlemiss, Secretary
Brenda Burnett, Treasurer
Terri Gallion
Sean Rowe
