Brenna Marsicek out in nature. (photo courtesy of Brenna Marsicek)
In this episode we talk about Community Science and how anybody, even kids can get involved with our in-house Community Science extraordinaire, Brenna Marsicek, the Director of Outreach here at Southern Wisconsin Bird Alliance!
Find out more ways to get involved with our community science programs here!
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Transcription
Hey and welcome to Questions Asked by Curious Kids, or QuACK, a podcast made by Southern Wisconsin Bird Alliance. This is a podcast where we gather questions about nature from kids to be answered with a local expert. My name is Mickenzee, I'm an educator and I'll be the host for this series. This episode, I'm back with Brenna Marsicek, our Director of Outreach here at Southern Wisconsin Bird Alliance, or SoWBA. And today we'll be talking all about community science and how to get involved. Okay, let's jump in with Brenna.
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Mickenzee: Welcome back, Brenna. We're so glad to have you on again. This episode, we're highlighting community science and how anybody, even kids, can get involved. As the Director of Outreach here at Southern Wisconsin Bird Alliance, you're involved in so many community science projects. And even the last time you were on the show, we were talking about Bird Collision Corps, which is one of our community science programs. But that's just the beginning of our projects, right?
Brenna: Right.
Mickenzee: But before we dive into all those details, could you tell us about, you know, what is community science and why it's important for people to get involved?
Brenna: Yeah, definitely. Yes. So community science is one of the names of this idea that regular people can do real science and contribute to a shared database that professional scientists analyze and use the results of to better research and study something. It goes by other names too, community science is a really common one, citizen science, participatory science. It goes by lots of different names, but it all generally describes the same thing: that you don't have to have a degree in biology or any other type of science to do research, that regular people can participate in these programs and help study a research topic. It also means that there's a shared protocol, that everybody follows the same steps to collect data, and that all of the data are put into one centralized database that scientists are able to review that information from. What makes community science extra awesome is when there's a way for the participants to do more than just data collection. If they're able to think about some of the whys and ask some of their own questions, that maybe they just kind of keep to themselves and observe as the community science program goes on. Or maybe they share those observations or questions with the person who's running the program, or maybe they are even able to help on the back end with understanding what the data that's been collected looks like and what it means. So a really good community science program is more than just community data collection. It's like actually following many of the steps of science that really gets people involved and excited about the research topic.
Mickenzee: Yes, it's really building and enhancing critical thinking and those science skills that maybe you don't get to exercise every day.
Brenna: Absolutely. If you're volunteering to do something like this, you're probably pretty interested in it. And so it allows you like this really close up look and deep dive into a topic that you already have some interest in, and allows you to learn so much more than you would be able to just by, you know, like watching a story on the news or talking to a friend about it. It allows you to actually, like, get into the topic pretty deeply.
Mickenzee: Yeah, and even the engagement of lots of participants tells the community, you know, what we care about together.
Brenna: Absolutely.
Mickenzee: It builds connection like that, I love that. And I mean, since this is a show for kids, what are some of the benefits of kids getting involved in community science?
Brenna: Oh, that's a great question because citizen, or community, science is really for anyone of any age. A lot of times the data that are collected have to be submitted online. With youth, it kind of requires that there's an adult, a trusted adult involved, so that that data that the kid collects is still able to be safely uploaded to the internet, you know. So I just want to start with that, to make that clear, because there are so many different benefits to kids participating and making sure that there's an adult who can help facilitate that is really important too.
Mickenzee: Absolutely, yeah.
A young birder helps her grandparents monitor Bald Eagles for the Bald Eagle Nest Watch Program (photo by Lyn Boyle)
Brenna: So, you know, kids have such a natural and fabulous curiosity and imagination for the world around them that hasn't been sort of tamped down by like, adult realities. You know, it's really awesome for kids to be able to explore some of these topics, like Bald Eagles, for example. We have a number of kids that go with their parents or grandparents or neighbors to monitor a Bald Eagle nest each week. And by doing that, you're spending a whole hour, in the woods a lot of times, staring at these eagles. And it sounds kind of boring because you're just like staying in one place, but a lot happens in that one hour that is more than just Bald Eagles. So you're looking at Bald Eagles and you're curious about like what that prey item in the talons of that Bald Eagle flying into the nest? Like, what are they eating in there, and will I see any of the babies yet today? But then you also observe all these other things that are happening around you, like, oh, there was the first frog song that I heard for the year, or like, oh, I wonder what that bird that's bopping around over there in the shrubs is. Or, you know, like you see a muskrat swimming through the water and you're wondering, like, where is it going and why, and where did it come from and what is it doing?
Mickenzee: Yeah!
Brenna: So, you know, there's so many ways to lean into that, like wonder and curiosity that goes well beyond the exact question that you're out there to research. And kids are so good at being observant about all the different things that's going on around them that I think kids are like kind of the best people to do community science because of that, you know, because they just notice so much and they're so curious about basically everything.
Mickenzee: Yeah, I like that you touched on the benefit going both ways. That the program benefits from having kids because of their curiosity and that keen observation, but it's also benefiting the kids.
Brenna: Absolutely. And, you know, I also say that kids are so good at convincing adults that things matter.
Mickenzee: Yes!
Brenna: And so when a kid is involved in a Bird Collision Corps survey, that kid is really good at talking to other people about why window collisions are a problem for birds, and that there's stuff that we can do about it. It doesn't have to just stay as it is, that we can solve a problem and maybe even study our own windows at home and be able to transfer some of those community science programs into smaller settings in different places. And kids are just, they're just so good at that.
Mickenzee: Yes, their voice matters and has a great impact.
Brenna: Absolutely.
Mickenzee: All right, and now I want to talk a little bit about our projects here at SoWBA that are really good for kids to get involved with.
Brenna: Yeah, we have a lot. Which is really fun, and they happen at different times of the year.
Mickenzee: Oh, awesome!
Young Birders do a spring Bird Collison Corps survey. Many hands make light work! (photo by Brenna Marsicek/SoWBA staff)
Brenna: Yeah. So no matter like what season we're in, there's usually something going on that kids can get involved with. But I will add that all of them require an adult to participate with. So let's see, let's start with where we are now in Spring. So right now this week, in middle of April, while we're talking, Bird Collision Corps just started up. So these are surveys that involve walking around the outside of a building and looking for any evidence that a bird has hit a window at that building. A lot of times that evidence is actually a dead bird. Sometimes the bird has been injured, and then we help that bird get to the wildlife center so it can be rehabbed and released. And sometimes it's just a smear on the window. So it really uses those, like, detective skills to observe those pieces of evidence. My kids are ten and nine, and they do Bird Collision Corps surveys with me each week. And they're very, very into it and really good at it, you know, because they're such good detectives. So that's a really fun one. It's kind of fun in an odd way because, you know, it's really hard to find a dead bird.
Mickenzee: Yeah. It's sad.
Brenna: It's really sad and discouraging. But on the flip side, you will never see a bird that close up and that still again. And you can, like, really notice some awesome coloring and like the size and the weight of that bird. And you can, it can take some time to actually notice those things about that individual bird and honor that the bird is amazing in its own right and unfortunately had to die that way. So that's one program. We also have Bald Eagle Nest Watch going on right now. I mentioned that is the program where people go out to a Bald Eagle nest once a week for an hour each visit through the whole nesting season. And eagles are one of those birds that start nesting really early in the year in February usually.
Mickenzee: Woah!
Brenna: So it's really cold when we start our Bald Eagle Nest watch monitoring. But the eaglets usually take quite a while before they're big enough and strong enough to fly. So at the end, our volunteers are watching big baby eagles in like, June.
Mickenzee: That’s so cool!
Brenna: You know, so it's a good chunk of the year and you go through a full, you know, a couple of seasons watching these eagles, which is really fun.
Mickenzee: I know some of our classrooms that we work with like to watch the eagle nest cams, the live cams of Jackie and Shadow. And this would be a really great connection to see eagles in our own area.
Brenna: Yeah, definitely. And those nest cams are really great because the cameras are pointed into the nest, whereas our volunteers are standing back a little ways, they’re on the ground, they can't see into the nest. But again, it's using those detective skills. You're watching the body language of the adults, like are they sitting? Are they not on the nest? Are they feeding? And then eventually you can see the little baby's head stick up over the edge. So, you know, it's really fun to have those nest cams that you can watch and actually see what's happening in the nest. And then it's like, kind of cool to be like, okay, so what's going on from the ground? I can't see exactly, but I'll have to like really…
Mickenzee: Use it to exactly piece together like, okay, this is probably what's happening in there.
Brenna: Yeah, right. We also have our Kestrel Nest Box Monitoring program going right now.
A young birder holds an American Kestrel after it was banded and got to release it so it could fly away (photo by Kaitlin Svabek/SoWBA staff)
American Kestrels are a small bird of prey. They're the smallest falcon in North America. And they're really fun fierce little birds.
Mickenzee: They’re beautiful, yes.
Brenna: Super pretty. They are in major decline like a lot of, they live in grasslands, so they like prairies and open spaces. So a lot of grassland birds are in decline. So fortunately with kestrels they really like nest boxes. They'll nest in them frequently. So we have volunteers that have a nest box assigned to them. Their job is to basically take care of the nest box and make it the best possible place for a kestrel to nest and then track if the kestrels are using it, if there are any eggs in it, if there are any chicks in it. And if there are, then the volunteers can go out and watch as a bander is able to put a band on the adults and the chicks.
Mickenzee: Woah!
Brenna: So to do this, we use what's called a spy cam. It's a tiny camera that we attach to a pole, because these nest boxes are pretty high up; they're like, you know, 12 feet up or something on a post. And so we put the camera in the nest box hole and it points down, so you can see on the other end of the camera line that whether there's a bird in there, if there are eggs in there and all that. And the other nice thing about using that spy cam is that it doesn't disturb the birds at all. So they can keep doing their thing, they barely even notice, and it doesn't bother them, it doesn't hurt them. And we're still able to collect data that way.
Mickenzee: That's cool, you get to use some, like, real spy gear too. That's exciting.
Brenna: Right! So then moving into summer and fall, we do a lot of monarch tagging at a couple of our sanctuaries. This is where we catch Monarch Butterflies in a net and we place a tiny, basically weightless, sticker on a very specific part of their wing. And that sticker has a unique number on it. So we write down the number and the sex of the monarch, if it's a male or female and what plant it was nectarine on when we caught it. Collect all that data and then we release the monarch. And there are people in Mexico who are looking for these monarchs as they're doing their migration. And if they find a monarch that has one of those tags on it, they write all the same information down and that way we can see if any monarchs from Goose Pond Sanctuary in Arlington, Wisconsin migrated all the way to the Oyamel Fir trees in Mexico.
Mickenzee: Woah, what a journey. Do you get to know if your specific butterflies made it?
Brenna: Yeah, if your butterfly is found in Mexico, you get like, a notice and a certificate, yeah that your butterfly made it
Mickenzee: Oh, awesome!
Brenna: So it's a really great program. It's really fun for families, really fun for basically anyone. Everyone turns into a kid when you have a butterfly net and you run through the prairie, it's just everyone's a kid it's so much fun. And then the last, actually two more, I'll mention Swift Night Out, which happens at the very beginning of the school year usually,when Chimney Swifts are migrating South. These birds are amazing. They are tiny, they almost never stop flying, they live almost their entire lives while flying. And they migrate from places like Wisconsin all the way to South America.
Mickenzee: Whoa!
Brenna: Yeah, it's like 6000 miles round trip, so it's a huge migration. And to be able to save up enough energy, in the evenings they'll fly into a chimney and roost there for the night. But it's not just like one chimney swift in the fall, there are huge groups of them that fly into chimneys and stay there overnight. So sometimes it's hundreds, sometimes it's thousands. And so we have an event called Swift Night Out. Actually, these events are held nationwide in a lot of different places, but the one that we help with is based in Madison, and it's usually that first weekend of September.
Mickenzee: It's so cool. I've seen it a couple times helping out at these events, and it's like a big tornado of birds funneling down into this tiny chimney. It is magical to see, it's so fun.
Brenna: And as you're looking at that huge flock that's circling around the chimney, you're thinking like there's no way they're all gonna fit. And then pretty soon they just drop down in there and they cling to the walls on the inside. I don't know what it looks like on the inside.
Mickenzee: The biggest slumber party ever.
Brenna: Yeah, totally. Like, bring the popcorn, that sounds awesome! So that's a really fun one for people to bring, like picnic blankets and a snack and just hang out and, like, bring some friends. And it's often at Cherokee Heights Middle School, so there's a playground and a big field where people can run around and just have fun together.
Mickenzee: That's great.
Brenna: And then I'll mention one more, which is in Wintertime. This is called the Christmas Bird Count and it's the longest running bird community science program in the nation. And it's been going for over 125 years so basically we spend one day trying to document as many birds as we can. So people are like, okay, I'm going to go over to Ace Wood Park and I'll count all the birds I see there, and then there are other people who go to a different part of town, and other people who go all over the place. And then everybody puts their data together, and then we can say, we saw 94 species of birds in just this one day and there were, you know, 46,000 birds total that we counted. And we put that into a nationwide database. And it helps track changes of which bird species are there and not there, and in what numbers, year to year over, you know, 125 years. Yeah, so it’s a really fun program for beginning birders and expert birders and everyone in between.
Mickenzee: Yeah, and oftentimes it's a group of people doing it together so it feels really nice to get out in the wintertime and celebrate birds together.
Brenna: Absolutely. It's great.
Mickenzee: So I mean, it sounds like you've, like, covered just a wide variety of interests, whether you want to do something slow paced and just observations, more like social types of community science. It really covers the whole spectrum of what people might be looking for. And using spy gear, I feel that would be really a good pull for me.
Brenna: And those are just the ones that we do in our organization, not even all of them that our organization does. Like, there are others and there are so many more! There's a community science program on anything, one on bumblebees and one on water quality and one on light pollution, and whatever you're interested in there's a program that you could do relating to that. So, you know, if you can grab an adult and ask for help with like searching for a community science program that's relating to the thing that you are really passionate about, you will find something. And it's absolutely worth your time because it's so much fun and you learn so much.
Mickenzee: Yes! Thank you so much, Brenna, for teaching us about these opportunities.
Brenna: Yeah. You're welcome, thank you.
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If you are interested in learning more about the community science projects SoWBA has to offer, please head to our website, swibirds.org, and go on over to the engage tab and click on Community Science. There you'll find not just the projects we have to offer, but other programs that get you out in nature too.
If you have a big nature question that you'd like to have answered, please have a teacher or grown up submit your question to info@swibirds.org with the title “Questions for QuACK”. Make sure to include your grade in the school you attend so I can give you a shout out. Thanks for tuning in and I hope you join us next time on QuACK!
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Audio Editing by Mickenzee Okon
Transcription by Juanita Duarte
Logo design by Carolyn Byers and Kaitlin Svabek
Music: “The Forest and the Trees” by Kevin MacLeod
