Setup: 5:00 p. m.
Dinner: 6:00 p. m.

Place: Alviso Adobe Community Park
3465 Old Foothill Road, Pleasanton 94588

Topic: Annual Potluck Picnic/Installation of Officers/Silent Auction Climax

Program: Robert Meese – “California’s Tricolored Blackbirds: Population Trend, Low Reproductive Success, and Essential Conservation Actions”

Ohlone Audubon’s annual potluck picnic will be held once again in the relaxing and mild-weather surroundings of the lovely Alviso Adobe Community Park in Pleasanton. The 7-acre site of the interpretive park was established in 1854 by Francisco Alviso. Its original adobe building, one of a few remaining in the Bay Area, depicts what a home would have been like in the 1920s.

Bob Meese has been conducting research on Tricolored Blackbirds for 10 years and banding them for 8 years. His talk will focus on two topics related to tricolored blackbird conservation: the recent, rapid decline in abundance and his research that is intended to explain it; and conservation measures that have been and will need to be taken to stem the decline and to reverse the population trend. He will review his work of the past 10 years that shows chronic poor reproductive success and the relationship between insect abundance in regions surrounding breeding colonies and reproductive success. He will review conservation actions of the past decade which have been shown to be insufficient to halt the decline in abundance and suggest additional measures that may be taken which may result in more effective conservation outcomes.

Remember that this is your last opportunity to be the highest bidder and take home the beautiful Keith Hansen Print.

As always, our members will provide us with a nice spread of delicious food. Please bring your own table service, serving utensils, and a favorite dish to share (about 10 to 12 servings). By last names please bring (A - G: Dessert); (H - N: Vegetable, salad, or side dish); (O - Z: Entree). Beverages will be supplied courtesy of OAS. Visitors are requested to refrain from bringing alcoholic beverages into the park. If you would like, you can come early and bird among several large oaks on the grounds of the Alviso Adobe.

To reach Alviso Adobe from Fremont or Contra Costa, take I-680 toward Pleasanton to the Bernal exit. Drive west on Bernal to Foothill and turn right. Follow Foothill a little more than a half mile to the Alviso Adobe on your left. From Hayward, take I-580 to the Foothill exit and follow Foothill about 3 miles to the Alviso
Adobe on your right. Meet in the Milking Barn. —MLT/J&A