| The staff |
| In the first five seasons, the La Mancha Raptor Banding Station worked with a small but very capable crew of banders and assistants from Mexico and North America. Here are profiles of the people that have been regularly found inside the La Mancha blinds from 1998 through 2002. |
| Karen Scheuermann (1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002). She is a volunteer trapper and birder with nine years of trapping experience at the Golden Gate Raptor Observatory in California. Karen is the co-founder of the La Mancha Raptor Banding Station along with Ernesto Ruelas and has been the heart and soul of the project since the very start of it. |
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| Fernando Rincon (1998, 2000, 2001,2002). Fernando is a birder and naturalist who has been part of the Pronatura's projects since 1995. He joined La Mancha from the beginning and has been there four of the five seasons. He has also trapped raptors at the Sandias in New Mexico and has conducted raptor migration counts at Dinosaur Ridge in Colorado and the Gulf Coast in Texas |
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| Eduardo Martinez (1999, 2000, 2001, 2002). Eduardo is a biologist and birder who has been part of staff at La Mancha from the second season to date. Though strongly involved with the raptor banding station, he has also worked in passerine and mammal projects in both Mexico and the U.S. |
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| Alexaldo Garcia (1999, 2000, 2002). Alex, along with Julio, is one of the best results of Pronatura's effort to get the local people involved with the conservation of raptors. A native of Chichicaxtle, one of Pronatura's main raptor counting sites, Alex has been part of the fun since his childhood, and became part of the staff at La Mancha during the second season, though he visited and helped out during the first season. |
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| Julio Lobato (1999, 2001, 2002). Another native of Chichicaxtle, Julio has been involved with Pronatura's projects a long time before he began banding at La Mancha. Like Alex, he joined during the second season, but was of great help as a visitor during the first one. |
| Beatriz Marquez (1998). Betty is a biologist who worked at La Mancha during the first season. She was a volunteer for different Pronatura projects before coming to La Mancha. |
| Hugo Corzo (2001). Hugo is a biologist and birder, and was a raptor counter for Pronatura for several years. Hugo gained his trapping experience at the Sandias in New Mexico before he joined La Mancha staff. |
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| Photo by Jeff Acuff, 1999. |
| Photp by Alexaldo Garcia, 2002. |
| Photo by Karen Scheuermann, 1999 |
| Jeannette Morss (1999). Jeannette is a biologist and birder who worked at La Mancha during the second season. She gained raptor trapping experience at the Cape May Bird Observatory in New Jersey, and is now director of the Whitefish Point Bird Observatory in Michigan. |
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| Jimi Scheffel (1999). Jimi gained raptor trapping experience as a volunteer with the Golden Gate Raptor Observatory in California, and came to work at La Mancha during the second season. |
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| Julia Camp (2000). Julia is a biologist and birder with experience banding raptors at the Golden Gate Raptor Observatory in California, Boise Ridge in Idaho, and the Goshutes in Nevada, and also has experience banding passerines. She worked at La Mancha during the third season. |
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| Jeannette, Jimi, and Julia brought a wide range of experience and new ideas to the La Mancha Raptor Banding Station, and helped train the Mexican banders in the early years of the program. |
| The visitors |
| Each year La Mancha also has visiting volunteer banders who, besides bringing their advice and expertise, help to increase the efficiency of the trapping sites during the peak days. These volunteer banders helped out at La Mancha for few days to a few weeks each season: Randy Breaux, Jon Johannsen, Val Fairman, Katie Fehring, Eric Jepsen, Siobhan Ruck, Jeff Acuff, Stephen Wilson, Zach Smith, Aaron Barna, Jorge Montejo, and Bill Clark. |
| Other visitors who brought fresh energy to the trapping days are Sergio Aguilar, Betsy Balzer, Jerry Broadus, Joanna Burgess, Clarice Clark, Susan Cox, Michelle Guay, Sandi Lee, Lori Lewis, Rigoberto Mendoza, Leticia Cruz, Sean O'Connor, Kate Peterlein, Rafael Rodriguez, Joan Schnabel, Leah Waarvik, Habacuc Ychante, Dulce Infante, and Prairie Bob |
| Acknowledgments |
| There are many people and organizations that have been of great value in the development of the La Mancha Raptor Banding Station. |
| Special thanks to past Pronatura Director Ernesto Ruelas and current Director Norma Ferriz, for their enthusiasm and support for the banding station, and to Pronatura biologist Octavio Cruz for managing the BBL banding permit under which La Mancha currently operates. |
| Other Pronatura staff and volunteers who have helped with the banding station are: Sergio Aguilar, Jorge Montejo, Carlos Armenta, Giberth Gordillo, Martin Pe�aloza, and Juana Sandoval. Pronatura counters and volunteers who have assisted at La Mancha are: Rafael Rodriguez, Rigoberto Mendoza, Efrain Castillejos, Sue Thomas, Zach Smith, Sean O'Connor, Niels Maunemee, Aaron Barna, and Ruth Tingay. Antonio Casas, Chino, and Bob Straub also assisted with the banding station. |
| We would like to thank Dr. Roberto Hernandez-Rosas for his permission to conduct the trapping effort on his land, and to La Mancha residents Don Lon, Hector, Hernan, and Jose for assistance in preparation of the trapping sites and construction of the blinds. |
| Thanks also to the Instituto de Ecologia, A. C. for permission to stay at the La Mancha research station, and to Enrique, Fernando, and Tacho of the research station for making La Mancha a comfortable home during the trapping season. |
| Thanks also to HawkWatch International, which provided the BBL banding permit for the first two years at La Mancha, and to HawkMountain Sanctuary for processing U.S. donations in all five years. |
| Organizations which have made cash or in-kind donations to the La Mancha Raptor Banding Station are: the Niagara Peninsula Hawkwatch, the Hawk Migration Association of America, HawkWatch International, the Golden Gate Raptor Observatory, and Kodak. |
| Individuals who have made cash or in-kind donations to the La Mancha Raptor Banding Station are: Jeff Acuff, Lillian Armstrong, Betsy Balzer & Jimi Scheffel, Peter Bloom, Randy Breaux, Davida Bushner, Clarice Clark & Jerry Broadus, William Clark, Susan Cox, Norval Fairman, Katie Fehring, Greg Gothard, Paul Granthem, Jon Johannsen, Sandi Lee, Lori Lewis, Amy McAndrews, Kim Meyer, Patricia Overshiner, Abraham Pelayo, Ralph Pericoli, Warren Plumb, Siobhan Ruck, Karen Scheuermann, Joan Schnabel, Leah Waarvik, and Steven Wilson. |
| ��Muchas Gracias!! |
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| Photo by Karen Scheuermann, 1999 |
| Photo by Karen Scheuermann, 1998 |
| Photo by Karen Scheuermann, 1999 |
| Photo by Karen Scheuermann, 1999 |
| Photo by Karen Scheuermann, 2001 |
| Photo by Siobhan Ruck, 2000 |