On Sunday, February 15th, interns from Pittsburg High School and Antioch High School met up in Vallejo to participate in the 30th San Francisco Bay Flyway Festival. Located at Moschetti Artisan Roaster throughout the entire weekend, this festival brought community members together to celebrate the migration of more than 1 million shorebirds and hundreds of thousands of ducks, geese, hawks and other wildlife during peak migratory season in the San Francisco Bay. Attending this event as both festival-goers and exhibitors, these interns had the opportunity to learn from the organized presenters and guides as well as teach the public about their projects with Earth Team.
After spending some time setting up their booth, including a large fold-out table, table cloth, program sign, flyers, and free fruit snacks, the interns embarked on a guided birding walk. Following the event founder and host, Myrna Hayes, the interns walked about 10 minutes to Lake Dalwigk Park where they found a thriving wetland ecosystem full of birds and native plant species.
Myrna brought her scope for the interns to practice with, adjusting their view to help them identify stationary birds. The interns also shared many pairs of binoculars to get a better look at the various birds present, ultimately working together to identify 14 different avian species. Marking each bird’s scientific name, behaviors, and observed population count, the interns took this opportunity to strengthen their field data collection skills. This data was reinforced by birdsong identifications made by taking audio recordings on the Merlin app.
Myrna guided the interns along one of the park paths, enriching their environmental knowledge by pointing out native plant species and further explaining the informational signs. With the on-and-off sprinkle of rain getting heavier, the group decided to turn back early to start their community outreach efforts at the Earth Team festival booth.
For the rest of the event day, interns took turns manning their booth and engaging in conversations with those who stopped by. Most interns took this opportunity to explain either their work sampling and researching Tire and Road-Wear Particles (TRWP) or their experiences collecting data on birds for the Pacific Flyway project. The interns from Antioch High School also had the chance to share their progress promoting greater climate literacy within their school district.
When taking a break from the booth, interns channeled their creativity into painting rocks to give a personal touch to the beauty of nature. They also had the opportunity to hear a presentation from Jenny Papka of Native Bird Connections. Jenny not only explained the basic lifestyle of raptors as well as the urban and wild threats that pose risks to their populations, but she also brought out live raptors to exhibit their unique characteristics. After showing a red-tailed hawk, for example, Jenny introduced a barn owl with its distinct heart-shaped face and then a great horned owl that displayed the ability to rotate its head over 180 degrees!
Overall, the Flyway Festival was an amazing experience for Earth Team to be a part of. So much gratitude for those who organized this event and welcomed these intern teams. And thank you to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation for supporting Earth Team’s environmental education efforts.
