LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Get ready for a truly fascinating program about double-crested cormorants featured for the Redbud Audubon Society’s Thursday, Nov. 17, Zoom program starting at 7 p.m.

Double-crested cormorants (Phalacrocorax auritus) are seabirds known to use urban structures as nesting habitat.

The old east span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and the eastern portion of the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge have hosted the two largest colonies of this species in the region.

Scientists Marc Rauzon and Meredith Elliott, who have studied these birds for three decades, will discuss their research which, among other things, shows the population dynamics of this resilient species.

Viewers will also learn about their efforts to study the Bay Area population of this adaptable, yet maligned, bird.

Rauzon was with the US Fish and Wildlife Service, where he studied sea birds and endangered marine mammals in Hawaii, Alaska, and California.

He is also an expert on the effects of invasive animals and plants on tropical islands. His latest book Isles of Amnesia (available on Amazon) details his experiences. Rauzon is also a research associate with Point Blue and a Geography professor at Laney College in Oakland.

Elliott is a senior scientist at Point Blue Conservation Science and has worked on a variety of seabird monitoring and diet projects.

She supervises the Point Blue marine laboratory where data on marine food webs are collected. She is a program leader with the ACCESS Program, an at-sea monitoring program founded by Point Blue, Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary, and Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary.

To register for the program, click go to www.redbudaudubon.org and click on the link on the home page that will take you to the registration form.

Please register soon; the link will be sent the day of the program.