A NOTE FROM OUR TEAM

Well, folks, we are nearing the finish line – there are just 12 days left in data collection for Project Phoenix 2023. We are so grateful to the 300+ volunteers who signed up to help us monitor birds during this year’s fire season. Our research would not be possible without you!

Whether you signed up last week or have been with us from the very beginning, every survey you conduct is valuable to us. Your data will help us answer critical questions about how birds respond to wildfire smoke and urban air pollution. Even if your community has not been impacted by smoke this year, the data you collect now will help us establish baselines to compare to in the future.

We are happy to share that with the support of the La Kretz Center for California Conservation Science, the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, and Dr. Morgan Tingley’s lab at UCLA, we will be running this program again next year… and we will be expanding to Washington and Oregon. We hope you will all participate!

Next week, we’ll be sending out a survey to all our volunteers to collect a bit more information about your monitoring sites and experience with our program. Folks who fill out our survey will receive one-of-a-kind Project Phoenix stickers and tickets to an exclusive, behind-the-scenes tour of the Ornithology Department at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. Stay tuned for more information!

Happy Birding! Let’s make these last two weeks count.

Olivia V. Sanderfoot, Ph.D. | Program Director, Project Phoenix

VOLUNTEER SPOTLIGHT: Bettina Eastman

Bettina Eastman is a wildlife biologist, naturalist, insect enthusiast, swimmer, seamstress, and jewelry maker who generally enjoys being creative. Her love of nature began as a child while listening to her mother regale stories of her own childhood with long walks to school through the woods of Europe. Bettina could visualize the rabbits foraging in the snow along the road to the train station as her mother described them. Growing up in Southern California she did not have a long trek to school, yet she was always aware of nature around her, even though she did not really study it until later in life.

Her interest in birds started by accident while fishing along a stream outside of Bishop. She saw a bird flit by and wondered what species it was. After receiving binoculars for Christmas, she started looking more closely at birds and has been studying birds for almost 30 years now. Her love of birds led to exciting fieldwork, and she eventually went back to school, earning a degree in Biology with an emphasis on Zoology.

Bettina has been a volunteer and community scientist for as long as she has been birding. A long-time participant in many Christmas Bird Counts, she is now a compiler for Sea and Sage Audubon’s Coastal Christmas Bird Count Circle and manages a phenology study called BirdSeasons CA. The data for this behavioral study is entered into a national database called “Nature’s Notebook,” which is part of the National Phenology Network based at the University of Arizona. She also does outreach for Orange County Parks, California State Parks, and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW), to name a few. For Bettina, educating the public about the risks wildlife face is an everyday conversation that she hopes will light a spark of interest in others to care for our planet. Having participated in many different community science projects, it was an easy decision for her to add her name to the list of volunteers for Project Phoenix. She looks forward to gaining a better understanding of how smoke and air pollution impacts birds and hopes that some of this knowledge will also shed light on how birds will respond to air pollution created by the drying up of the Salton Sea.

You can connect with Bettina on her Instagram (@bettinaenaturehb) and her iNaturalist (bettina-eastman)!

Thank you so much for your contributions to Project Phoenix, Bettina!

We love to hear from our volunteers! What motivated you to join Project Phoenix? Click here to share your story.

FROM THE FIELD: After Hours in the Garden with Project Phoenix

Last Thursday, Project Phoenix volunteers, partners, and community members gathered together at UCLA’s Mathias Botanical Garden for an evening of birding.

We heard from our Program Director, Dr. Olivia Sanderfoot, who shared the science driving Project Phoenix. After a snack, we set out for a bird walk through the garden. Our bird walks were led by two very talented graduate students from the Tingley Lab and the Co-President and Vice President of UCLA’s very own Bruin Birding Club!

Birders observed several species of birds common to the Los Angeles area, including Northern Mockingbirds, Anna’s Hummingbirds, Townsend’s Warblers, and a Red-tailed Hawk!

Additional photos from the event can be found on Instagram – click here for a round-up of our favorites!

BIRD OF THE WEEK: Nuttall’s Woodpecker

by Caitlin O’Neil | Communications Lead, Project Phoenix

Nuttall’s Woodpeckers are highly recognizable thanks to their fashionable plumage – classic black and white stripes that cover their whole body. Males of this species sport an eye-catching red crest on top of their black caps. Nuttall’s Woodpeckers are named after English botanist and ornithologist, Thomas Nuttall, who wrote A Manual of the Ornithology of the United States and of Canada in the 1830s.

These woodpeckers are found primarily in California’s oak woodlands, although they can venture into wooded suburban areas and woodlands near streams. Despite their range being confined to oak woodlands, Nuttall’s Woodpeckers do not eat acorns! They prefer to dine on insects, like beetles, beetle larvae, and termites found inside trees and on tree bark. To access the insects inside trees, Nuttall’s Woodpeckers rapidly drive their beaks into the bark, creating their iconic drumming sound. They will occasionally enjoy fruits from poison oak and elderberry shrubs, as well as blackberry bushes.

Not only do they use trees to hunt for their food, but Nuttall’s Woodpeckers also use oaks, cottonwoods, willows, and sycamores as their homes. A bonded pair of woodpeckers will build their nest in the cavity of a dead tree trunk or branch. Nests are approximately 11 inches deep, with wood chips on the bottom to cushion their eggs. Nuttall’s Woodpeckers will guard their territory against encroaching woodpeckers, flaring their crests and flicking their wings.

IN THE NEWS: Megafires and Redlining

New York Times: How Megafires Are Remaking the World

Project Phoenix researchers Dr. Morgan Tingley and Dr. Olivia Sanderfoot were interviewed for a Sunday feature story in The New York Times exploring the various ways that “megafires” are impacting wildlife and their habitats.

Los Angeles Times: How L.A.’s bird population is shaped by historic redlining and racist loan practices

The Los Angeles Times recently highlighted a new study that explores how bird populations in Los Angeles have been affected by racist practices and policies surrounding housing and development, especially the creation of green spaces. The study was led by Dr. Eric M. Wood, associate professor at California State University, Los Angeles.

FEATURE STORY: Birdability Week BioBlitz Project

This week (October 16th-22nd) is Birdability Week!

We highlighted Birdability in one of our first-ever newsletters back in July, and this week we wanted to return to this team’s incredible effort to change the world of birding. Birdability is a non-profit on a mission to ensure birding is accessible to everyone. They offer many resources on their website, including recommended access considerations and best practices. Birdability also hosts an interactive map of crowd-sourced birding locations, each with an extensive checklist documenting access considerations. Anyone can submit reviews to add sites to the map!

Birdability Week is “a celebration of birders with disabilities and other health concerns, as well as an opportunity to share resources and ideas to help the birding community become accessible, inclusive, and welcoming to every body!” To celebrate, Birdability is hosting a series of virtual events, including a Birding Trivia Night tonight (October 19) with the American Birding Association. (Click here to register). In addition to these virtual events, they are also hosting an Accessible BioBlitz Weekend on iNaturalist. Join them Friday, October 20th to Sunday, October 22nd and help highlight all of the incredible wildlife that can be enjoyed from accessible spaces. Learn more and register for the BioBlitz here!

Thank you to all our partners and supporting organizations!

Project Phoenix is grateful to our partners and all the supporting organizations who help our program soar. Visit our partners page to learn more about the incredible work of these non-profit organizations – from science to conservation to outdoor recreation, these orgs are dedicated to protecting our environment for people and the birds we love.