Ph.
D. student, Centre for Wildlife Ecology
Department of Biological Sciences
Simon Fraser University
Burnaby, British Columbia
Canada V5A 1S6
Voice: (778) 782-5618
FAX: (778) 782-3496
Professional Biography
I
was born and raised in Guadalajara, Mexico, the land of mariachis and tequila.
I received a BSc in Marine Biology from Universidad
Autonoma de Baja California Sur. During my last years of school I worked
as volunteer in the seabirds program of the Marine Biology department.
For my undergraduate thesis I worked with seasonal variation and abundance
of Western Sandpipers at Ensenada de La Paz. I moved to Ensenada, Baja
California, and enrolled in the M.Sc. program of CICESE
. I spent over two years studying the length of stay and local survival
of Western Sandpipers wintering at Estero Punta Banda. After I finished
my MSc, I worked as a research assistant for another winter season on the
same Western Sandpiper project. Later I headed out to Puerto Angel, Oaxaca
and worked as an assistant professor at the Universidad
del Mar . During the year that I spent on the coast of Oaxaca I monitored
waterbird and seabird populations at several coastal lagoons. Prior to
my move to beautiful British Columbia, I went to the Long Point Bird Observatory
to be part of their Latin
American Training Program. In October ë98 I began my PhD work at the
Centre for Wildlife Ecology, SFU on the wintering ecology of Western Sandpipers
in Bahia Santa Maria, Sinaloa, Mexico. My senior supervisor is Dr. David
Lank.
Current Research
At
present, my research interests center around the ecology of wintering Western
Sandpipers
in the Bahia Santa Maria , Mexico. I am looking at distribution, habitat
use, foraging behaviour, predation, and competitive interactions and see
how they differ with regards to age, gender, and habitat/site quality.
During the non-breeding season, each winter site differs in its suitability
for shorebirds (e.g. weather, food resources, number of competitors, predation
risk, and habitat heterogeneity). It is not clear how birds (adults vs.
first-year birds, and males vs. females) choice sites, according to attributes
that each habitat have. The preliminary results of my first field season
show that Bahia Santa Maria has a
shorebird wintering population over 400,000 birds and Western Sandpipers
represent over 80%. From the landscape point of view, Santa Maria has different
sites available (habitat gradient: lagoon š lagoon mangrove/brackish marsh
- freshwater marsh)
for shorebirds. Each of these sites has different Western Sandpiper abundance.
I captured and banded
Western Sandpipers at different sites. Age and sex ratio differ between
sites. During the winter, adult males use large open sites (thereafter
‹male-biased sitesŠ), meanwhile first-year males and both age groups of
females (thereafter ‹female-biased sitesŠ) concentrate in small and more
vegetated sites. Birds in male-biased sites are different from birds in
female-biased sites in: 1) they are proportionally heavier, and 2) they
have proportionally longer wing chord than birds in female-biased sites.
Although feeding rates did not differ between sites, the vigilance rate
was higher in the single female-biased site. Also, some birds in male-biased
sites show territorial
and non-territorial behaviour. What mechanisms could produce such results?
Two possible reasons for this are: 1) interference behaviour of dominant
individuals, and 2) condition dependent (e. g. age, sex, weight, and body
size) habitat use. A common aspect of both alternatives is the degree of
site heterogeneity that may favor a local differential distribution. Birds
during the non-breeding season have more flexibility with regard to settlement
and survival decisions than when they are breeding. Therefore, it is important
to test what mechanism are affecting the local distribution of birds according
to age and sex differences, taking into account the site quality and site
heterogeneity.
I
would like to acknowledge Patolandia Hunting Club, CONACYT, the Centre
for Wildlife Ecology, the Lincoln Park Zoo Field Conservation Fund, the Canadian Wildlife Service Latin American Program,
the American Wildlife Research Foundation, and a Segal Travel Grant at SFU
for supporting this project.
Publications
Fernández,
G., H. de la Cueva, N. Warnock, and D. B. Lank. Low annual survival rates
of Western Sandpiper wintering at a small estuary in Northwest Mexico.
To: Condor. In review.
Fernández,
G., H. de la Cueva and N. Warnock. Phenology and site fidelity of transient
and wintering Western Sandpipers at estero Punta Banda, Mexico. To: J.
Field Ornithology. In review.
Hernández-Vázquez,
S. and Fernández-Aceves, G.J. 1999. Biología reproductiva
de la garza cucharón (Cochlearius cochlearius) y garza verde
(Butorides striatus) en la Manzanilla, Jalisco. Ciencias Marinas
25(2): 277-291.
Fernández
G., R. Carmona and H. de la Cueva. 1998. Abundance and seasonal variation
of Western Sandpipers (Calidris mauri) in Baja California Sur, Mexico.
The Southwestern Naturalist 43: 57-61.
Carmona, R. and Fernández, G. 1997. Índice de ponderación de la densidad y la proporción (IPDP), una alternativa para la presentación de los datos de preferencia del hábitat: un ejemplo (Charadrius wilsonia). Rev. Inv. Cient. UABCS 8(1-2): 15-20.
de
la Cueva, H. and Fernández, G. 1996. Night feeding of Black Skimmers
at estero Punta Band, Baja California, Mexico. Western Birds 27: 162-163.
Carmona,
R., G. Fernández, G. Brabata y E. Arvizu. 1995. Variación
temporal en la abundancia del rayador, Rynchops niger (Charadriiformes:Laridae)
en Baja California Sur, México. Rev. Biol. Trop. 43:
313-315.
Carmona,
R., J. Guzmán, S. Ramírez and G. Fernández. 1994.
Breeding waterbirds of La Paz Bay, Baja California Sur, Mexico. Western
Birds 25:151-157.
Fernández,
G., R. Carmona and G. Brabata. 1993. Primer registro de Ajaia ajaja
(Threskiornithidae) en la península de Baja California, México.
Rev. Inv. Cient., 4: 111-113.
