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4 December 2001--LORENA GRADUATES! My wife Lorena becomes an M.D. today! I am very proud of her.
2 December 2001--MORE FIELD RESEARCH. Thanks to grants from KU Natural History Museum, my advisor, and Yale Peabody Natural History Museum, I will be completing my doctoral field work over the next three months. Today I leave for El Salvador, and return on 1 March.
26 November 2001--NEW BIRD PHOTOS. I have indexed another 131 photos of birds to the Bird Index, for a total of 409. Virtually all of the new material was taken during summer 2001, and can be found in the new photo galleries (see next news item). The new photos are indicated by the phrase "added 26 November 2001".
25 November 2001--NEW PHOTO GALLERIES. I have added 5 new photo galleries, including 343 photos of flora and fauna and habitats, in El Salvador. You can see galleries now for Cerro El Pital, Volcán de San Miguel, Cerro Cacahuatique, Perquín, and La Montañona (Dept. Chalatenango).
13 November 2001--LECTURE IN FLORIDA. I presented the lecture "Bird conservation in El Salvador: the roles of protected areas and coffee plantations," to the TropiLunch at the University of Florida. 12:45-2:00 pm Tuesday.
8 November 2001--PAPER ACCEPTED FOR PUBLICATION. The manuscript Birds of Montecristo National Park, El Salvador was accepted for publication today, in the international journal "Ornitologia Neotropical".
5 November 2001--INVITED LECTURE IN BOSTON. I presented the lecture "The Songbird Coffee Connection and the National Parks of El Salvador" to the Nuttall Ornithological Club at Harvard University, 8:00 pm Monday.
16 October 2001--INVITED LECTURE IN EL SALVADOR. I presented the lecture "Efectos del estrato de sombra sobre poblaciones de anfibios, reptiles y aves en plantaciones de café de El Salvador: implicaciones para programas de certificación" in a symposium on coffee and biodiversity organized by the British Museum and SalvaNATURA, as part of the V Congress of the Mesoamerican Society for Biology and Conservation, at the Hotel Intercontinental, in San Salvador, El Salvador. The congress was a great success, with about 500 participants from 15 countries.
19 September 2001--LECTURE AT KU NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM. I presented "Conservation of birds in El Salvador's montane 'islands' and coffee plantations" for the Wednesday lunch program, 12:00 to 1:00 in Room 320 Dyche Hall.
13 September 2001--LECTURE AT JAYHAWK AUDUBON SOCIETY MEETING. 7:30 p.m. Thursday, at the Lawrence Senior Center, corner of 8th and Vermont Streets. The program featured a color slide presentation entitled "The Role of Coffee Plantations in the Conservation of Highland Birds in El Salvador."
13 August 2001--PRESENTING AT AOU MEETING. This week I will be attending the American Ornithologists' Union annual meeting in Seattle, thanks to travel grants from my advisor, my department, and the Marcia Brady Tucker Travel Award from the AOU. I will present the paper, "Effects on resident birds of shade trees in coffee plantations, and applications to coffee certification." More details are available on my research page. I will be out of communication until 20 August.
9 August 2001--BACK FROM EL SALVADOR. I have just concluded a successful field season in El Salvador, conducting faunal surveys at 5 highland sites, including San Miguel Volcano, Cerro Cacaguatique, Perquín, La Montañona (in Chalatenango department), and Cerro El Pital (also in Chalatenango). Preliminary results suggest that we have documented a new bird species and two new snakes for El Salvador. This work will contribute to analyses of the importance of highland forests for biodiversity conservation, that form part of my doctoral dissertation. The work generated much interest and enthusiasm in El Salvador. Virtually all national institutions involved in biodiversity conservation collaborated, for which I am grateful. The national newspaper, La Prensa Gráfica, published six full-size pages and one magazine cover on the study, all with color photographs (see the Revista Dominical, 22 and 29 July, available through www.laprensa.com.sv. In addition, La Prensa Gráfica published two full color-pages and a magazine cover about birds on 13 May 2001, to promote the publication of the Lista de Aves de El Salvador (see news note below, 1 May 2001).
4 May 2001--GONE BIRDING! I have gone to El Salvador for the next three months. I can be contacted in El Salvador via my regular e-mail, which I will try to check at least twice per month. For more urgent communication, leave a message for me at (telephone) 011-503-284-1878.
1 May 2001--EL SALVADOR BIRD LIST PUBLISHED. The "Lista de Aves de El Salvador" was published last week by SalvaNATURA. Authors are Oliver Komar & Juan Pablo Domínguez. The booklet contains 76 pages, including 4 color plates with 48 photographs of birds. It contains the updated list of 522 birds reported for El Salvador with scientific and Spanish names. Each bird's local status is given. Also included is a section describing 27 birding areas and what can be seen there. Sponsors of the book are Shell El Salvador, Mesoamerican Biological Corridor Project, Hotel Perkin Lenca, and Eco-Albergue Perquín. Published in Spanish in El Salvador. The booklet sells for approximately $5.00 plus postage. Let me know if you would like to purchase a copy.
18 April 2001--FIELD RESEARCH FUNDED. Thanks to grants received from the KU Natural History Museum Panorama Society, the KU Center for Latin American Studies (Tinker Field Research Grant), and from my advisor Dr. Town Peterson, I will be able to conduct three months of field research in El Salvador during May, June, and July. I can be contacted in El Salvador via e-mail, which I will try to check at least twice per month. For more urgent communication, leave a message for me at (telephone) 011-503-284-1878.
18 April 2001--INVITED LECTURES. I gave two lectures today. For the University Forum, I presented "Biodiversity conservation in El Salvador coffee plantations." For the evening meeting of the Baldwin Bird Club, I presented "How drinking coffee affects birds in Central America."
25 March 2001--NEW BIRD PHOTOS. I have added another 116 photos of birds to the Bird Index, for a total of 278. Others scanned won't get posted until September at the earliest. All of the new photos are indicated by the phrase "added 25 March 2001"; they are mostly coastal birds.
20 March 2001--NEW SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATION PAGE. I have started a page for my scientific illustration projects, including maps and drawings to accompany papers, or projects from my Scientific Illustration course (Spring 1999).
4 March 2001--I NEED YOUR HELP! My summer field project, valuable conservation research for El Salvador's national park system, is not yet funded. I need to raise more than $5000 by April 20. The work will form a chapter in my doctoral dissertation, but there is not time to get grants. Please read about the project on my research page and consider if you can support this work in some way. THANK YOU!!!
18 February 2001--A THIRD EARTHQUAKE?. Yesterday, San Salvador was jolted by a minor earthquake, measuring at least 5.3 on the Richter scale, and lasting just 6 seconds. Lorena told me that cars were moving up and down as the earth moved beneath them (she was at a shopping center when it happened). Although the quake caused a few small landslides, no one was seriously injured. The quake was apparently just a strong aftershock, but because it was centered in San Salvador, it was felt strongly in the city and caused panic. The newspapers originally reported some deaths, but that was a false alarm.
15 February 2001--A SECOND EARTHQUAKE. Remarkably, El Salvador was struck with a second earthquake on Tuesday, 13 February, exactly one month after the first. This one measured 6.6 on the Richter scale, with the epicenter 30 km east of San Salvador. According to geologists, it was not an aftershock, but was related in some way to the earlier quake. The Diario de Hoy reported today that this second quake destroyed 31,532 homes, caused numerous landslides, left 168,000 people homeless, injured 2937 people, and killed 283. The areas most affected were different than those most affected in January. Once again, all of my wife's family are okay. This quake, and the constant aftershocks, have the entire country nervous and jittery, perhaps on the edge of panic.
9 February 2001--NOW A PH.D. CANDIDATE. Today I passed the oral comprehensive exam, and am officially a Ph.D. candidate. The next challenge is completing and defending my dissertation thesis, which is likely to be a two year process, given the extensive field work I propose to do.
26 January 2001--EARTHQUAKE IN EL SALVADOR. A 7.6 magnitude (Richter Scale) earthquake rocked all of El Salvador on Saturday 13 January, and was felt from Panamá to México City. Aftershocks since then have numbered over 2000. The quake caused widespread devastation, including 16,120 landslides, causing loss of at least 844 lives. Updates may be available from El Diario de Hoy and La Prensa Gráfica. As of 15 February, the Diario de Hoy reported 4723 wounded, 278,456 houses damaged or destroyed, and 1,330,000 people homeless ("damnificados"--may include people who have merely suffered losses) (that is 22% of the population!). Concurrent with the quake was increased volcanic activity, all apparently minor in the form of extensive fumaroles, especially in the Santa Ana Volcano (see photo from El Diario de Hoy). All of my wife's family has survived the quake, and I send best wishes to all Salvadorans who have been affected and are seeking ways to rebuild their lives.
31 December 2000--NEWS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS FROM YEAR 2000.
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