Date: 9/3/26 11:27 am From: Liz West via groups.io <elizwest...> Subject: [SJBirds] September Meeting
SJ Birders:
General Meeting

The Evolution of the Flamingo’s Smile
Christopher Torres, PhD
Tuesday, September 8th
7:30pm - 9pm
Central United Methodist Church
3700 Pacific Ave, Stockton, CA 95204
The homemade snacks are delicious!
Christopher Torres, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Dept. of Biological Sciences at the University of the Pacific, will talk about “The Evolution of the Flamingo’s Smile”.
Flamingos are among the most iconic birds on the planet – with their ostentatious coloration and perpetually inverted smile, it’s easy to understand why they are featured in zoos (and front yards) the world over. Flamingos are also among the world’s most highly specialized birds, employing an approach to filter-feeding utterly unlike anything else. As such, flamingos provide an ideal model system for studying what drives the evolution of beak shape, what drives birds to become increasingly specialized at the ever-increasing risk of extinction, and how those shifts in ecology and morphology correspond to shifts in Earth history. But flamingo evolutionary history remains shrouded in mystery, being marked by enigmatic origins, cryptic fossils, and repeated brushes with extinction.
In this talk, Chris will share current understanding of that history, and will tell several tales about how he and his colleagues are seeking to dispel many of those mysteries, including:
How, after two centuries of study, it was only relatively recently discovered that grebes are the closest living relatives of flamingos.
How the understanding of what came before flamingos and grebes remains poor, despite the existence of a nearly complete fossil documenting that exact moment in evolutionary time.
How a lineage of bizarre, prehistoric ‘straight-beaked flamingos’ managed to achieve a near-global distribution… and then vanished from the fossil record.
How the ancestors of modern, ‘curved-beaked flamingos’ nearly met the same fate… before spreading back out across the globe.
How California – along with the rest of North America’s West Coast – was covered in flamingos as recently as a few tens of thousands of years ago.
How baby flamingos undergo one of the most unique post-hatching changes in beak morphology known among birds. And how watching those baby flamingos grow up might provide insights to the earliest stages of flamingo life.
Date: 9/3/26 11:25 am From: Liz West via groups.io <elizwest...> Subject: [SJBirds] Beginning Bird Walk
SJ Birders:
Introductory Birding at Lodi Lake
September 5 @ 8:00 am - 11:00 am
Join leader Cavan Allen and co-leader Karan Odom at the north end of Laurel Ave. in Lodi (on the east side of Lodi Lake Park, off of Turner Rd.) at 8:00 AM. Birders of all skill levels are welcome, but the focus will be on birding fundamentals. Extra binoculars and field guides will be available.
Location: Lodi Lake,1101 W Turner Rd, Lodi
Date: 8/21/26 3:51 pm From: Liz West via groups.io <elizwest...> Subject: [SJBirds] Ripon Beginning Bird Walk
SJ Birders:
Beginner Birding at the Oak Grove Park in Ripon
August 22 @ 8:00 am - 10:00 am
Join leader Henry Koertzen for a beginner birding walk for folks if all ages through this beautiful oak grove on the bank of the Stanislaus River. ALL LEVELS OF BIRDERS ARE WELCOME, particulalrly newbies who are interested in learning more about birds and birding. Everyone has to start somewhere! Bring your own optics if you have them, but there will be a few loaners available.
Note: there are no bathroom facilities on site.
Directions: We will meet at the park’s gravel parking lot. The entrance is at the south end of S Stockton Ave, on the outside of the curve where it turns to become Doak Blvd. The entrance road is on the outside of the chain link fence. (1250 S Stockton Ave, Ripon, CA 95366)
Date: 8/12/26 6:56 pm From: Liz West via groups.io <elizwest...> Subject: [SJBirds] This Weekend's Field Trips
SJ Birders:
Woodbridge Wilderness Survey
August 15 @ 8:00 am - 10:30 am
Join leader Cavan Allen for our monthly census of this small riparian area on the banks of the Mokelumne River.
Woodbridge Wilderness Area, 301 E. River Meadows Dr.,Woodbridge
Monthly Census @ Fish Hatchery
August 16 @ 8:00 am - 10:30 am
FREE
Join leader Liz West for our monthly census of this lovely riparian area on the Mokelumne River below Camanche Dam. Meet the leaders in the fish hatchery parking lot below the dam at 8:00 AM.
Date: 8/7/26 8:06 am From: Liz West via groups.io <elizwest...> Subject: [SJBirds] Cosumnes River Walk
SJ Birders:
Cosumnes River Walk
August 8 @ 6:00 am - 11:00 am
FREE
Join leader Jim Rowoth for the monthly River Walk bird count through the varied habitats of the CRP. Meet Jim at the visitor center on Franklin Blvd.
Jim Allan will be leading the walk for Jim Rowoth.
