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, and is currently working towards a Ph.D. at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

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.

Justin Schuetz, Senior Scientist

Justin moved from upstate New York to the Kern River Valley in 2005. He is very broadly interested in understanding how behavior, ecology, and evolution interact to shape patterns we see in Nature. During research for his dissertation, Justin traveled to South Africa and Tanzania to study brood parasitism in African finches and its consequences for the evolution of chick begging displays. He received an A.B. from Bowdoin College and Ph.D. from Cornell University. (more info)

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.

Board Members

Terri Middlemiss, President

Bob Barnes, Vice-President

Lynn Overtree, Secretary

Brenda Burnett, Treasurer

Terri Gallion

Dan Burnett

Dave Kurdeka

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