Hi Birders

You are cordially invited to attend Los Angeles Audubon Society's
monthly meeting this coming Wednesday, December 9, 2009 at 7:30pm.
The address is Plummer Park, 7377 Santa Monica Blvd., Rm 6 of the
Community Center, West Hollywood, CA 90046. Refreshments will be
served at the bookstore after the meeting.

Please join us this night as our local, gull expert, Larry Allen,
gives a presentation at our December monthly meeting. Larry has led
identification workshops for the chapter and fieldtrips studying our
gull species:

What Gull is That Speciation among the Larids

When the next edition of your favorite North American field guide is
published, you will note that the scientific names of many Gull (and
other) species will have changed: Bonaparte's Gull will be
Chroicocephalus philadelphia and Laughing Gull will be Leucophaeus
atricilla for example. And, if your field guide follows AOU order,
Swallow-tailed Gull will be the first picture in the gull section

Larry will discuss the reasons for these changes and touch on the
history of gull systematics. We will explore some of the problems
imposed by hybridization and the comparatively recent evolutionary
radiation of many gull species. Larry will also provide
identification tips to help in discriminating among the many members
of this interesting and complex group.

***

We are looking for volunteers to help out with our Lancaster
Christmas Bird Count, Saturday, December 19, 2009. Please contact us
if you'd like to participate in this area where habitat can still be
found supporting resident LeConte's Thrasher and wintering Mountain
Plover, and raptors.

See you Wednesday night!

Mary Freeman
Glendale, CA
Programs Chair and Fieldtrip Leader for LAAS
Co-compiler of the Lancaster CBC