Tag Archives: scicomm

Wildcat Canyon Birding: Late Summer

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Townsend's Warbler

This is the second essay I wrote on birding in my local open space. Originally posted on Next-door as a way to reach out to neighbors and get them excited about enjoying the biodiversity in our local park.

 

 

 

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Birds in Wildcat Canyon: Late Summer Edition. After more than a week of extreme heat, smoke, and park closure, my binoculars and I finally made it out to Wildcat Canyon yesterday. It was pretty quiet, but I ended up with around 37 species including several fall migrants. I heard a Western Tanager, so they are still coming through. I also had four species of warblers, a sure sign that fall is approaching! Wilson’s Warblers breed in the park so the one I saw may have been a local bird from this summer, but Yellow Warbler, Townsend’s Warbler, and Black-throated Gray Warblers are all newly arrived from their breeding grounds. [photo is a Townsend's Warbler, probably a young female]

FALL WARBLERS: Up for a challenge? Fall warblers can be tricky to find and to identify. In the spring, male warblers are considerate enough to SING LOUDLY AND DISTINCTLY, OVER AND OVER AGAIN. We’re not so lucky in the fall, and today I was straining my ears to pick out quick, infrequent call notes. Also, the adult birds will now be mixed with the young of the year, so be prepared for some drabber plumages along with the more vibrant yellows that the spring males of some species show off. Sometimes warblers will join our noisier resident birds in foraging flock, so if you come across some chickadees or bushtits, take a moment to pick out bird movement in the trees and maybe you’ll spot some other species too. The warblers and other migrants can show up anywhere, and different species may prefer different vegetation, but in general good places start your search include patches of willows in Wildcat Canyon and the mixed woodland along Wildcat Creek in Alvarado Park.

ACORN TIME: Fall in our oak woodlands means the start of a food bounty for some of our local wildlife. Watch for Western Scrub-jays flying around with their mouth full. Like many corvids (crow relatives), these jays will obsessively collect food then stash it around the landscape. And of course there are the aptly-named Acorn Woodpeckers. Family groups of these noisy hoarders can include multiple breeding males, multiple breeding females, and stay-at-home kids from previous years! The whole family works together to stash large numbers of acorns in tree sections called granaries. Other wildlife that incorporate acorns in their fall diet includes Wild Turkeys, California Quail, Band-tailed Pigeons (our fantastic large native pigeon), Woodrats, and Fox Squirrels. The Huchiun Ohlone people who lived in what is now Wildcat Canyon also relied on acorns as part of their diet.

LEAVING SOON: if not already gone, many of our breeding birds that head further south for the winter. These include the Wilson’s Warblers and Orange-crowned Warblers, along with Black-headed Grosbeaks.

OUTSIDE THE PARK: Looking for other places to see migrating songbirds? Wildcat Canyon is pretty dry, and in our parched summer landscape birds may be a little easier to find around water. Keep your bird bath filled, you could get surprise visitors to your backyard! One spot I’ve visited in late summer (although not yet this year) is Creekside Park on the Albany/El Cerrito border, on the north side of Albany Hill. The solitary wooded hill rising out of the urban landscape may be an attractor for birds coming through. Once they’re drawn in, they pause and forage in the trees along the creek. I’ve never had a sketchy experience there but as always be aware of your surroundings.

One of the most exciting bird migrations we get in the Bay Area is the fall migration of raptors. Not all raptors migrate, but some species and populations do, and they often take routes with advantageous topography and thermals to make their way south. The best place in the Bay Area is probably Hawk Hill in the Marin Headlands just north of the Golden Gate Bridge. Prime days will see dozens or hundreds of hawks of several species zoom past, some practically at eye level. Osprey, Sharp-shinned and Cooper’s Hawks should start increasing soon, and the overall peak is usually late September. Go on a sunny day for your best chance. Visit https://www.parksconservancy.org/programs/golden-gate-raptor-observatory for more details.

I’ve always thought we should get more migratory raptors along San Pablo Ridge than we do. Could be I’ve just not caught the right day yet!

Make the First Move: SciComm advice

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Today I listened to a panel of Science Journalists at a COMPASS* science communication event.  There is such a thing as bad science journalism, which has created some distrust and fear on the part of some scientists regarding how their research might be translated for the masses. The panel put together 4 accomplished journalists to hear their perspective and to learn advice for how to make sure interactions with science writers turn out as successful as possible.

The fine print: The following are from my notes and don’t represent everything that was covered. Also, I didn’t write down which journalist said what, so these statements may not represent the experience or opinion of individuals on the panel.Those panelists were:

Moderator: Nancy Baron, COMPASS
Journalists:
• Chris Joyce—National Public Radio
• Ken Weiss – Pulitzer Centre on Crisis Reporting
• Erica Gies – Independent Journalist
• Lauren Sommer – KQED/NPR

 

Some keys for communication with journalists:

  •             Be enthusiastic.
  •             Use short sentences and ditch the jargon.
  •             Provide the big picture/Context/Why it matters.
  •             Talk about how you got into it, why you are passionate about it.

A big message from the workshop was that researchers should be proactive in the process of getting their research out to journalists.

Even before contacting someone in the press, do some work ahead of time to be able to concisely discuss the context or rationale for the research, and to be able to do so in everyday language (no jargon). To me this sounds not too different from giving an elevator talk, which we should all be able to do anyway.

A contact email is more likely to succeed in tempting a journalist if it stands out. Make the email title catchy or provocative, not boring. Start with the problem or context before the research result. Provide hooks or links to other big stories (even outside of science).

It’s not just about the research. One thing (especially for radio/TV) is to see the discovery happening. Radio likes the sound of the environment, walking through the marsh. That can mean you shouldn’t wait until the paper is out- within reason- journalists don’t care as much about that, the peer-reviewed manuscript is only part of the story and usually not the most interesting part.

Don’t get too hung up on avoiding press because you are worried about scooping yourself with respect to journal embargoes. Obviously if you have research you think has a good shot for one of those top journals, be careful, but there are definitely ways to talk about your research without violating journal policy. Journalists should be willing to hold a story if an embargo does come into play. The opinion of the panel was that most writers would rather start on the story farther in advance anyway since they will have more time to get the story right. Also, on a hot paper, journalists know you will be fielding interviews from many news outlets, so they like to be able to get in before the crush.

How to help journalists get it right:

  •             Be patient! They are not experts in the field.
  •             If you don’t think they are asking the right questions, you can suggest to them what you think the right questions are.
  •             You can ask them to pause during an interview and recap to make sure they are getting the picture.
  •             A writer is more likely to agree to share a particular tricky part
  •             Analogies are great to help with complex topics.
  •             Provide names for other people they can talk with.

 

To deal with controversial topics, you can give them a heads up of people they will hear from with different view points, why they find your work problematic, and why you don’t think they are right.

For talking about uncertainty in science without killing the story, be prepared by determining limits of how far you are willing to go in terms of confidence in your conclusions. Journalists won’t publish a story if it is so filled with caveats there is no message or story. They would rather talk in bold confident terms (their editors even more so). If there is uncertainty, you can still talk about the stakes of knowing the answer, and why continuing to search for the answer is important.  Don’t lead with your caveats.

Final message:

“Journalists are not your partners, but they can be your tools”

 

*Mark Schwartz says: COMPASS is the group that coordinates Science Communication for (among others) the Leopold Fellows, The Smith Fellows, The Wilburforce Fellows and Liber Ero fellows (i.e., ALL  the major ecology/conservation fellows programs interested in fostering engaged science).