Communications coach and trainer for environmental scientists. Writer and naturalist. Nature Trust BC and Sitka director. Liber Ero advisor. Views are my own.
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Articles by Nancy Baron
Bluebirds work for free
On a sparkling May morning, I was putting out food for the birds on my morning rounds. For the fourth year now, we have had western bluebirds nesting in our orchard in a bluebird box. My husband Ken Weiss has built a feeding platform nearby where I leave live mealworms. The parents have five hungry mouths to feed as well as their own. They hunt bugs, picking the orchard clean. A little supplemental food increases the chances that more of the chicks will survive.
The other housing crisis
My favorite place to drink morning coffee is under two big oak trees in our yard. The birds sing gustily announcing their presence at the start of every day like a roll call. The purpose of their singing is to advertise their availability for a mate, or if they have found a partner, they are declaring their territories, as they get down to the business of building nests.
Nature’s epic travelers
On a recent ocean evening swim off Ash Avenue, my husband Ken and I were dazzled by an aerial river of glistening white elegant terns (their official name) flying overhead. Twisting and plunging around us, the best hunters emerged with a tiny fish in their sharp beaks, shaking off a backlit spray of water. Dinner! Any visit to the beach these days is certain to treat you to the sight of winter arrivals and birds passing through on their fall migration. This is a time of flux.
Baby boom
If you are looking for a reason to be happy, look no further than the birds that surround us. Right now, it is the height of baby bird season. As dawn breaks, songbirds sing to declare their territories. Then they get back to the business of nest building, incubating eggs and feeding their hungry babies — on an astonishingly rapid time scale. If you have a bird feeder, you might notice that it is particularly busy right now as there are more mouths to feed.
Neighborly connections
Like many of us, I feel discouraged by the daily onslaught of bad news. Yet I can always turn to one antidote to bolster my spirits. I walk outside to observe what’s happening in that other world — the natural one. I wander into the avocado grove to see if the pair of western bluebirds are still scouting for a nest site. Spying them popping in and out of our nest box carrying grass, my mood kicks up a notch.
A Cuban nature adventure
I recently returned from Cuba. With all the news of countrywide black outs and hurricane damage, I wasn’t sure we should go. Travel to Cuba remains feasible from the United States for now, although it requires a special visa. We were instructed to check the box for humanitarian aid and participated in an educational endeavor as part of the program. All in all, it was an easy trip, and one that I’m glad I made.
Protect wildlife by closing off beach near rookery
I am in support of the closure of the 1,500 feet of beach comprising the harbor seal rookery of Carpinteria on a three-year trial basis. I would like to add that it will also create a de facto “no disturbance marine protected area” for other species as well. I have noticed many birds also seek reprieve from disturbance in this small, protected section of beach including pelicans, cormorants and shorebirds such as long-billed curlews, whimbrels, Heermann’s gulls, sanderlings and others.
Help is on the way for wildlife
Have you been thrilled to see the sight of a red-tailed hawk circling overhead? Or paused to listen to the hoots of a great horned owl? We are lucky to live in a place where wildlife is still abundant. Yet increasingly, wildlife rescue organizations receive sick or injured animals brought in by caring people who find them. A recent California Department of Fish and Wildlife study found that 95% of mountain lions and 88% of raptors (hawks and owls) tested had exposure to anticoagulant rodenticides.
Taking swallows under her wing
Marine biologist Holly Lohuis is a champion for the oceans and co-director of the Santa Barbara Channel Whale Heritage Area. Photos in her Carpinteria condominium show her scuba diving with sharks and holding a giant Humboldt squid on Jean-Michel Cousteau’s expeditions. And this year, when a pair of barn swallows decided to raise their young in her condominium’s carport, Holly took them, too, under her wing. On my recent visit, the carport was being pressure washed by contractors.
Crazy duck love
In spring and summer, mallard ducks are especially noticeable as they search for safe places to nest and raise their young in urban areas and wild. They can land and take off from the tiniest bodies of water – hence their name of puddle ducks. Anyone who has a swimming pool or ornamental pond has likely seen them splash down. Almost any place to build a nest will do, hidden in courtyards, schoolyards or tucked behind pots in big tufts of grass, so long as it’s close to water.
Here and there: water is life
When my friend, ecologist Sandy Andelman, asked if I wanted to join her on a business trip to Botswana and Namibia and do a wilderness adventure, I leapt at the chance. Sandy knows her stuff. She spent a decade studying elephants and vervet monkeys in Kenya and Tanzania before moving onto international efforts to conserve biodiversity in Africa and beyond. Botswana and Namibia are two countries that have managed, better than most, to preserve their wildlife.
Froggy went a-courtin’
These are good times for frogs. With all the rain we have been having, spring nights are filled with their choruses – especially if you have a pond or creek nearby. The most boisterous and common frogs we have are the Baja California (formerly Pacific) tree frogs. Most of the year they live quietly on land, hidden by their camouflage. But come the rain, they head for water, where they “sing” their hearts out to find a mate.
What’s missing?
Are we moving toward a “Silent Spring?” One in eight birds in the world today are threatened with extinction, and over half are in steep decline. North American bird populations have dropped 30% since 1970 – that’s one in three birds. And many of the losses come from our most common birds: sparrows, warblers, finches and blackbirds. These dismal statistics are swirling around in the news. Personally, I find it hard to wrap my head around them.
What’s missing?
Are we moving toward a “Silent Spring?” One in eight birds in the world today are threatened with extinction, and over half are in steep decline. North American bird populations have dropped 30% since 1970 – that’s one in three birds. And many of the losses come from our most common birds: sparrows, warblers, finches and blackbirds. These dismal statistics are swirling around in the news. Personally, I find it hard to wrap my head around them.
King of the night
At dusk, at this time of year, I often step outside to listen for the first hoots – a morse code of short and long “Hoo-hoo hooooo hoo-hoos” that tell me the Great Horned Owls are rousing for the night. With their large size, staring yellow eyes, horn-like ear tufts and ghostly flight, Great Horned Owls are the proverbial hoot owl of children’s storybooks and Halloween. Soon after the first owl starts up, I listen for a responding set of hoots.
Adventure on the John Muir Trail
After nearly 20 years of marriage, my husband Ken and I decided to renew our vows at the place he proposed to me – Donahue Pass – at 11,060 feet on the John Muir Trail in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. We were nervous. Although we often hike, we have rarely hoisted heavy backpacks in recent years. But the stars aligned. We won a permit in the lottery for reservations and planned a six-day backpack to the high mountain pass we so vividly remember.
Hanging with hummingbirds
Each morning as I drink my coffee I enjoy watching the hummingbirds at our feeders, sipping their morning beverage too. Anna’s Hummingbirds are relatively large hummingbirds, with green feathers and brilliant red throats. Allen’s Hummingbirds, though smaller, are the feistiest. We keep two feeders going because the Allen’s will drive all others away. Allen’s Hummingbirds are found only in coastal California to southern coastal Oregon. Their populations have plummeted over 80% due to loss of habitat.
Bhutan beauties
The pilot’s voice came over the intercom: “Don’t be alarmed by the sharp turns as we land – this is normal.” The plane threaded its way through Himalayan Mountain peaks then dropped sharply towards Paro, the only town with a runway flat enough and long enough for an international jet to land. As we descended through clouds, I could see a narrow valley hemmed in by mountains. The runway lay ahead, just over a rocky ridge we would have to clear to reach it.
Spring forays
I can’t remember a more beautiful spring. The aftermath of the rain is a gift – as if the earth is celebrating. The colors of the spring bloom, which have been captured by NASA satellite images from space, are drawing flower gazers to California from all over the world. Those of us lucky enough to live near Carpinteria have only to stroll along the Carpinteria Bluffs, hike the Franklin trail or walk around our neighborhoods to take in the spectacle.
Everything has to Eat
Each morning I eagerly watch for the American Kestrel, a small, cinnamon colored falcon, that hunts from the perch in our avocado orchard. Like me, with my daily patterns – yoga, a short meditation, then coffee – the Kestrel has patterns too. He arrives early to start his daily routine – hunting for a meal. Many birds use this perch throughout the day. It affords them a splendid view and is also functional.
Dodging storms, counting birds on Santa Cruz Island
Nothing was certain. Could we make it to Santa Cruz Island between the waves of storms? Yet on Tuesday, Jan. 3 we set off from Ventura Harbor in rollicking seas aboard the aptly named “Island Adventure” for the annual Christmas Bird Count (CBC) – one of the thousands of Audubon Christmas Bird Counts that take place each year across the continent between Dec. 14 and Jan. 5. The CBCs provide a snapshot of what species are increasing or decreasing and moving over time.
The power of sound
I wake up in the morning torn between a desire to save the world, and savor the world, it makes it hard to plan the day.” —E.B. White I recently left my job of 22 years working as a communications coach for environmental scientists. It’s time to spend more time savoring the world – although I will continue conservation work. To celebrate my transition, I headed off with my husband Ken Weiss and friends Trisha and Ross Beaty for a 400 kilometer bicycle ride through the Burgundy region of France.
The Solace of Spring
There is a lot to be sad about in the world these days. Perhaps that’s why, even more than usual, I am watching spring’s perpetual patterns for reassurance. The Cliff Swallows returned March 16 from their wintering grounds in Argentina. With the weird weather, I worried whether they would find enough insects to migrate to their little colony on our garage in the hills above Carpinteria. When I heard the familiar churring and squeaking from the sky, I was elated.
My Last COMPASS Rodeo?
I recently returned from my first post pandemic in-person leadership training workshop with the Global Sustainability Fellows and Diana Wall, lead scientist at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado. What joy to be with these inspiring young scientists from all over the world – working on issues from infrastructure to pollinators and everything in between! These PhD and Postdocs– world changers all – formed new and what will likely be lasting bonds.
Saving curlews
Each time I walk our beaches in the winter, I look for long-billed curlews, a big shorebird with a curved bill as long as their body. These cinnamon-colored birds search the water’s edge for food during the winter months. Standing 18 to 26 inches with a three-foot wingspan, curlews are North America’s biggest shorebird. I love to watch them and see what they find. Shorebirds have sensitive bills with sensory organs and thousands of nerve endings.
Vulture culture
Look up almost anywhere near Carpinteria, and you can spot turkey vultures soaring overhead. These black raptors are distinctive because of their large size, their two-tone grey underwings and tilting flight. Looking slightly drunk, vultures hold their wings in an upward V, soaring masterfully on updrafts to get the lay of the land, or swooping close to the ground to sniff for carrion. They rarely flap their wings.
A Christmas Miracle
In a time-honored holiday tradition, 52 people fanned out around Carpinteria – on land and at sea – to complete the Christmas Bird Count. Hugh Ranson and his team went on the Channelkeeper and spotted two previously unreported species: the Red-necked Grebe and Short-tailed Shearwater. Jenny Slaughter’s team wended their way to Jameson Lake high in the hills, where they spotted Common Goldeneye ducks and the only Black-crowned Night Heron.
The lonely bluebird
The bluebird and his mate swooped onto the perch and surveyed our property. My husband Ken and I held our breath. We had mounted two blue-bird boxes on the edge of the avocado orchard near our little pond and facing an open area. Western Bluebirds have lost most of the tree cavities they need for nests due to declining numbers of standing dead trees and increasing numbers of aggressive European Starling. Birds like Starlings and English House Sparrows have taken over most natural tree cavities.
Who goes there?
One of my favorite things is to sit at the kitchen table with my husband Ken, and review the images captured on our motion-activated wildlife camera. These photos, as they pop up on the computer screen, reveal animals that I rarely see because they mostly move under the cover of darkness. Others are more familiar. All are animals whose daily activities include a visit to the watering holes we provide. Some photos are better quality than others, but they all tell stories about the animals around us.
Mitlenatch migration
This summer, my annual migration to Mitlenatch Island off the coast of British Columbia was an obstacle course. First, there were three Covid-19 tests and a complex crossing at the U.S./Canada border. Then, my flight to the coast was cancelled due to wildfires in British Columbia. In a panic, I drove two hours to another town where I caught the last plane before a shroud of smoke shut down the region’s airports for days.
Meet Carpinteria’s cutest celebrities
It’s been 61 years since anyone has seen anything like it on Carpinteria State Beach. The rare sighting has turned three Western Snowy Plover chicks into instant celebrities, drawing attention of tourists, state biologists and a beach brigade of self-appointed plover lovers. The three starlets, fluffy specked cotton balls on long skinny legs, have become local darlings and the subject of much discussion: How to protect something so small, so vulnerable, that they are threatened with extinction?
Sharing the beach
The Snowy Plover sat nestled under a roofed cage with bars wide enough for it to come and go, as if it were relaxing under a palapa. “Don’t they mind the cage?” I asked. “Surprisingly they don’t – many of these birds were born inside a cage,” explained Cris Sandoval, director of the Coal Oil Point Reserve. Along the beach was a roped off area. If it weren’t for the crate-sized enclosures, I might not have noticed the pale plovers sitting on their nests – minimalist arrangements of shells and sticks.
In search of the big bird at Pinnacles National Park
When Covid hit last year, my husband and I decided to buy a used sprinter van as an escape mobile into nature. We bought it sight unseen from a couple in San Francisco. They met us in Paso Robles, gave us a quick intro to #vanlife and off we drove. We have not looked back. This spring we have been getting out in search of birds and wildflowers in Vincent Van Go, as we named our sprinter. Recently, we headed north to Pinnacles National Park.
Do birds make people as happy as money?
This month marks my one-year anniversary of writing “In the Naturehood.” Being home and paying attention to what is going on in the natural world around me has been the silver lining of this year of pandemic life. For two decades now, I’ve devoted my career to helping scientists tackling environmental challenges, often on a global scale.
The importance of home
Since we moved into our home in the hills above Carpinteria more than a decade ago, we have had a large boisterous family of Acorn Woodpeckers as neighbors. They have lived here for many generations – much longer than us. Acorn Woodpeckers live in a colonial nest where they pile in and sleep together at night. On our property, their home happens to be in the top of a support utility pole at the foot of the driveway.
Just add water
Following our first rainstorm of the year, I ventured out into a freshly washed world with my binoculars. After the previous day’s steady rainfall, which measured an inch and a half in our rain gauge, birds were swarming the feeders. They too had been hunkered down and were hungry. They fed furiously to make up for lost time. Rosy house finches and white-breasted nuthatches vigorously high-graded the sunflower seeds in the mix, tossing millet to the ground.
Who gives a hoot?
It’s owl season. At dusk and dawn listen for the sounds of male and female Great Horned Owls duetting back and forth. Or if you hear a raspy shriek, look for a Barn Owl floating by on moth-like wings. This is the time of year owls are bonding with their mates and looking for nesting sites. Each evening, from our perch in the hills above Carpinteria, we hear both the hooting calls of the Great Horned Owls and the screeches of Barn Owls. Barn Owls are particularly noisy during courtship.
A hard journey home
The Townsend’s Warbler was hungry and thirsty. All night it had flown under the canopy of stars, finally visible after days of flying through smoke. Weeks ago, it had set out from its breeding grounds in the old-growth forests on Vancouver Island, off Canada’s West Coast. It flew 20 miles across the ocean to the mainland and joined up with other insect-eating migrating birds, searching for food by day and flying by night. Smoke began to cloak the air until it could no longer see the stars.
Birds of a feather
Like clockwork at 7:30 a.m., a flock of Band-tailed Pigeons shows up at our feeders in the hills above Carpinteria. I admire these big, slate-colored birds with their distinctive white band on the back of their neck. When sunlight hits them, their necks are an iridescent green and a pale gray band borders their tails. Their wings make a loud clapping on takeoff. Fast and powerful fliers, they range far and wide in search of food each day.
Island idyll
Every summer, I make a pilgrimage to a different naturehood where I work as a volunteer warden and naturalist. It’s a seabird island called Mitlenatch Provincial Park. Mitlenatch, one of the world’s Important Bird Areas (IBAs), lies in the Strait of Georgia between Vancouver Island and the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. There, our primary duties are to act as guardians of the island’s wildlife, which means explaining the island’s protections to visitors.
The irresistible urge to be social
For more than a century, the miraculous return of Cliff Swallows to Mission San Juan Capistrano occurred on St. Joseph’s Day, March 19, inspiring books, songs and festivals. A less famous group arrives around the same time to nest under the eaves of our garage in the hills above Carpinteria, having flown together 6,000 miles from their wintering grounds in Argentina. We have welcomed the return of the swallows for the past decade that we’ve lived in our hillside home.
Rites of spring
For a long time, the male Red-shouldered Hawk was alone. He would scout the neighborhood with rapid wingbeats, looking for one of his kind, screeching, “Keeah Keeah Keeah…” He would land on the perch below our house and cry incessantly searching for a female and telling all others to stay away. Red-shouldered Hawks are soaring hawks known as buteos. Like their larger Red-tailed Hawk cousins, their broad wings help them ride aloft on wind currents.
Good neighbors
On Earth Day, I was talking to my neighbor Val from six feet away in her driveway, when a little gray fox trotted past. It was a beautiful creature—grizzled gray with cinnamon accents and a billowy black-tipped tail. I followed, and found it peering into an avocado orchard where a worker below was blocking its way. It stared at me, deciding, then wheeled and disappeared through a hole in the fence into my neighbor Lon’s yard. I have never before seen a gray fox, at least alive.
Getting a lift from bird watching
During this time of coronavirus stress, I have rediscovered a tonic for what ails us: watching birds. Typically, I travel for my work. Now like everyone else, I’m grounded. But I’m finding an upside to the downside. For the first time in years, I have time to watch spring unfold and observe the movements of migrating birds. Unlike us, birds are free to fly, limited only by their ability to find food and fuel up for their demanding journeys north.
INSIGHT: Giving Science a Voice in Public Policy
Scientific research has long played a critical role in identifying and solving society’s problems. Scientists have helped forecast and prepare for acute risks from floods to wildfires, and provided vital information to guide solutions to chronic challenges ranging from stabilizing food supplies to managing finite marine fisheries. But research alone is not enough.
Release Notes: November
ðŽ„ We’ve got a few stocking stuffers for you this holiday season, including a souped-up Infusionsoft integration, a sneak peek at upcoming Docs SSL support, and a brand new Help Desk Tip. So grab a nog, read up on what’s new, and have yourself a Merry New Year! Infusionsoft users have something new to cheer about with Help Scout’s supercharged bi-directional integration.
Science communication: In the cross hairs of controversy
In the world of science communication, academia has its own scarlet letter: A, for Advocacy. Many scientists shudder at the thought of being branded advocates. As a result, they can undermine the message of their research by caveating every assertion, or even avoiding interaction with the public — something I have encountered many times as a science-communication coach. Lee Badgett is an academic who has fought with that tension and come out swinging.
Release Notes: October
No man is an island, and neither is Help Scout. This month we continued to beef up our integrations to keep your systems in sync and your teams on the same page. We’ve also added something you’ve been waiting for, or should we say, waiting since. We’re working on something new in the queue to help you prioritize which conversation to tackle next. The new Waiting Since column lets you see at a glance how long customers have been waiting for a reply.
Salmon Trees | Hakai Magazine
Article body copy About Salvaged: In this column we republish seminal articles that helped us look at the world in a new way. While not necessarily the first time an idea or point of view found print, these articles helped shed new light on coastal science or societies. The text has not been altered from its original form. Nancy Baron’s article, “Salmon Trees,” was originally published in Issue 110 (April/May 2000) of Equinox magazine.
So you want to change the world?
Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Marine ecologist Jane Lubchenco (right) has helped to launch training programmes that help scientists to engage with policymakers. Fifteen years ago, when I began to work as a communications coach, few scientists felt that engaging outside academia was part of their job. Now, when I ask workshop participants to stand if they 'want to change the world', almost all rise to their feet. Often, they look around in astonishment to see so many peers standing with them.
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