Help Document Bird Activity In Your Own Backyard With Nature's Notebook
by Erin Posthumus
Eris Posthumus
Erin Posthumus is the Outreach Coordinator and Liaison to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for the USA National Phenology Network (NPN). She will explain how we can be part of the USA-NPN’s “Nature’s Notebook” program to collect data on bird activity and other phenology in our own backyards.
Phenology, she explains, is the study of the seasons – when plants leaf out and bloom, birds migrate, and insects emerge. These life cycles are a critical part of nearly every ecological relationship. As temperatures warm and precipitation patterns change, phenology of many species is changing, and not always at the same rate. Migratory birds in particular face mismatches in timing between breeding periods and food resources, with cascading impacts on their ecosystems.
In this presentation Erin will look at what we know about the challenges birds are facing, how they are coping, and what you can do to help document the changes in phenology happening around us.
USA-NPN is a national-scale monitoring and research initiative focused on collecting, organizing and delivering phenological data, information, and forecasts to support natural resource management and decision-making, to advance the scientific field of phenology, and to promote understanding of phenology by a wide range of audiences. The “Nature's Notebook” platform engages professional and volunteer scientists in collecting data on plant and animal seasonal activity.
Our own Spokane Audubon Society’s 2024 calendar’s phenology notes reference using “Nature’s Notebook” to help update what we can expect to see or hear when throughout the year.
Erin coordinates local, regional, and national level data collection projects for the USA-NPN. She has a Bachelors in Environmental Biology and a Masters in Wildlife Conservation and Management and has lived and worked in eight states and three countries. A Seattle native, Erin joined the USA-NPN in 2010 as a Peace Corps Fellow during her graduate program at the University of Arizona.
This meeting is virtual on-line only via this Zoom link.
Or manually connect using the Meeting ID: 846 4235 6627 and Passcode: 989600.
