Alvaro’s Big Walk for Phalaropes

Alvaro Jaramillo

January 31st

It is pitch black outside as the sun hasn’t come out yet. Alvaro gets ready for his Big Walk…how many miles will he be able to walk? How many bird species will he see? He knows his feet will hurt, but he is committed to making every step count as an effort to raise funds for phalarope conservation.

Alvaro Jaramillo is a world recognized expert ornithologist, and he is also an author! He valiantly embarks on his Big Walk in Half Moon Bay California, making it a carbon free fundraiser. During his walk, Alvaro will try to see as many birds as he possibly can and walk as many miles as possible to raise money for phalaropes, tiny migratory shorebirds that rely on saline lakes to survive.

Results!

Alvaro’s Big Walk Results

On January 31st, Alvaro walked 16.6 miles and saw 111 bird species, raising $13,500 for phalarope conservation with the help of 170 donors! Way to go!

Some major highlights during his walk were a Slaty-backed Gull, a Northern Gannet, and a Laughing Gull. He also spotted a nice number of Rhinoceros Auklets and Northern Fulmars close to shore, nine species of gulls, three falcons, a Red-breasted Sapsucker, plenty of California Thrashers, and an uncommon Blue-grey Gnatcatcher.

You can see every species he saw and where he saw it here!

Where do the funds go?

Ryan Carle, Science Manager at Oikonos

Ryan, Oikonos’ Science Manager who works on seabird and shorebird conservation projects in California and Chile explains it all!

“These funds are incredibly meaningful for us. Briefly, they will enable us to hire an awesome seasonal ecologist, conduct a dozen surveys of Mono Lake, tag Wilson’s phalaropes for the first time, and continue coordinating with partners from Canada to Argentina for the sake of phalaropes. Below is a longer story about what we do and how the funds will help!

The longer story:

Phalaropes in Mono Lake, CA by Marie Read

Next July, our field ecologist Sarah and I will wake up around 4 a.m. and gaze into the darkness while we shuffle around and brew coffee and check the wind for the 100th time. We’ll drive down to the Mono Lake dock, gingerly back the boat in around submerged tufa rocks, and take off just as the sun rises over Negit Island, to spend a marathon day counting phalaropes at 60 points, circumnavigating the vast distances of Mono Lake. We’ll conduct 12 full Mono Lake surveys over the summer, to capture the ups and downs of the population as Wilson’s and red-necked phalaropes visit on the way to their destinations in South America. We time our surveys concurrently with counts at six other major phalarope sites in western North American phalarope sites so that we get the big picture on what’s happening with phalaropes.

Part of the flock of approximately 45,000 Wilson’s phalaropes recorded by our surveys at Mono Lake in July 2021. Photo by Ryan Carle.

To help us with all this work, we’ll be hiring a seasonal field ecologist next summer, and thanks to these funds that position is now solidly funded! We are excited to be able to offer a paid opportunity to get involved with this project to an early career scientist.

When we’re not in the field, Ryan will continue to keep coordinating the International Phalarope Working Group–one day that may mean virtually touring the saline lakes of Saskatchewan with partners to understand their surveys there, and another talking in Spanish about phalaropes on zoom to high schoolers living by Laguna Mar Chiquita, Argentina–one of the most important places in the world for Wilson’s phalaropes.”

A big thank you!

We are infinitely grateful for what Alvaro has done for phalarope conservation and Oikonos. He continues to inspire us with his love for birds, and we continue to learn from him. We are also immensely grateful to everyone that donated, and everyone who cheered him up!

If you’d like to support Alvaro’s Big Walk, it’s not too late! You can still donate here!

Make sure to keep your eyes out this year to keep up with our work with phalaropes!