My guest in this episode is Merav Vonshak. Merav is an ecologist, naturalist, and citizen science organizer located in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Merav is the founder of BioBlitz Club, a group that organizes BioBlitzes to raise awareness for environmental causes, often partnering with specific organizations, or simply to raise community awareness of nature that is nearby.

If you’re unaware of what a BioBlitz is - they are focused efforts to document all living organisms within a defined location and period of time. I’ve participated in a couple of these events now, and must say that I’m hooked. BioBlitzes provide a sense of exploration and discovery, they get you out in nature, and have a wonderfully enthusiastic community to learn from.

Back to Merav...prior to founding BioBlitz club, she received a Doctorate in Ecology at Tel Aviv University, and had postdoctoral fellowships at Tel Aviv University and Stanford University. She is an expert in ant biology, having studied impacts of alien ant species and human disturbance on ant communities.

Merav has a wealth of ecological information, and also a curator on iNaturalist.

In this episode we discuss the story of Merav’s formation of BioBlitz Club, some of the surprising discoveries from these events - including in highly urban areas, how to get people engaged and caring about nature, her ant research and how you can even identify ant species by smell (some smell like Banana Cream Pie!), using BioBlitzes and Citizen Science as part of a broader conservation awareness playbook, and much more.

Show notes at https://naturesarchive.com/2020/10/28/merav/

Welcome to my second in-between episode. These are short episodes in between my interview episodes.  I’m calling this one Cool Tools - Nature Identification Edition! I'll cover what I think are great tools to aid you in identifying, and thus, learning about the nature all around us. I cover phone apps and websites like eBird, iNaturalist, Merlin, BirdNet, and iBird Pro. I discuss optics like hand loupes, binoculars - and how to choose a good pair. I also discuss what makes for a great field guide (book) and have a long list of recommendations - from birds to butterflies to dragonflies to spiders and plants.

My show notes have links to everything mentioned.

NOTE: I begin this show with some discussion of the historically bad 2020 wildfire seasons. I wrote a bit about wildfire causes, policies, and more in this blog post. There are links to all of the studies I mentioned and more resources in that post.

Eddie Dunbar is an entomologist, the Founder and President of the Insect Sciences Museum of California and Adjunct Professor at Merritt College. With 38,000 species of insects in California alone, we need people like Eddie to help make sense of it all.

Eddie’s passion is to engage the public with insects so they can understand how they fit in our environment. Through the Insect Sciences Museum of California, Eddie promotes this engagement through numerous events such as “Bug Camps” and bioblitzes, and online through a popular Facebook group. The museum has portable displays, a large insect collection, and provides thorough field guides to parks of the Bay Area at bugpeople.org. In fact, Eddie and his volunteers have embarked on an immense project - creating an Insects of the San Francisco Bay Area virtual field guide.

Eddie’s unique background, including working with the UC Berkeley cooperative extension and researching pesticides, allows him to uniquely engage the public, who often see insects through the lens of pest control. Eddie has years of experience helping people change their views and understand the wide array of ecosystem services insects provide.

In this episode we talk about Eddie’s unique journey that led to the founding of the museum, his methods and tactics for engaging people online and in person, methods to create virtual field trips using Google Earth, ISMC’s projects, and how others can participate in ISMC or launch similar projects of their own.

Full show notes are on naturesarchive.com

Music Credits:
Opening: Fearless First by Kevin MacLoed
Closing: Beauty Flow by Kevin MacLoed
https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/

In this episode I discuss a project I started when the COVID-19 shelter-in-place began. In order to stay in-touch with nature, I decided I'd be more deliberate with investigating my own yard. The timing was perfect - Allen's and Rufous Hummingbirds were migrating through.

This simple decision to spend more backyard time quickly grew into a new Facebook group, and then a much bigger goal to photograph 365 species in 365 days.

I'm only 125 days into this, and now close to 180 photographed species. Along the way, I've learned a lot about my local ecology. I've also been able to connect to a number of new friends and experts through these Facebook groups and iNaturalist.

There have been so many lessons - large and small that I share in this episode, and I hope that it inspires you to start a simple nature observation practice, improve your backyard habitat, and just enjoy the nature available to you nearby. You never know where it may lead!

Full show notes with photos(!) are on podcast.naturesarchive.com

Music Credits:
Opening: Fearless First by Kevin MacLoed
Closing: Beauty Flow by Kevin MacLoed
https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/

Ever wondered how you can make a difference for nature, with or without a university degree? Or do you just want to learn about and be inspired by amazing plants, animals, people and nature in general?

I'm Michael Hawk, and I used to be a tech engineer and manager. I've always been a curious soul, asking great questions and eager to learn and share.

So, I started Nature's Archive Podcast, a journey deep into the heart of the natural world. Join me for captivating interviews featuring ecologists, renowned authors, passionate amateurs, and seasoned professionals, each sharing their remarkable stories and areas of expertise. Together, we explore the incredible complexity of nature, challenge old beliefs, and uncover unique perspectives.

From bird migration to wildfire ecology, from fungi to oak trees, and from the secret lives of spiders to the power of native plants in your backyard, we cover it all.

Visit podcast.naturesarchive.com to explore our most popular episodes and detailed show notes.

Nature's Archive is part of my lifelong commitment to nature conservation through Jumpstart Nature. I've left the tech world behind to dedicate 100% of my time to this cause.

But I can't do it alone. Join me on this journey to make a real difference for our planet. Subscribe to Nature's Archive Podcast today.

Jan Hintermeister is a prolific volunteer in many environmental causes and organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area. Jan has been a long time field volunteer and served multiple terms as the Board Chair for the non-profit San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory. He's been a County Parks Commissioner, a member of the Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority Citizen Advisory Committee, was instrumental in establishing a unique 40 acre open space preserve in what is now the shadow of Levi Stadium, home of the San Francisco 49’ers, and banded at the Golden Gate Raptor Observatory, and much more.

Jan also has many years of experience as a field trip leader and open space docent, too.

Jan shows us that you can maintain your day job and still drive meaningful change through volunteering. We discuss this balance between Jan's Silicon Valley engineering career and his volunteering - how he started and grew his engagement and impact in both direct environmental efforts, and through engaging in the political side. Jan offers a lot of very practical advice for engaging locally and making an impact.

Music Credits
Opening - Fearless First by Kevin MacLoed
Closing - Beauty Flow by Kevin MacLoed
Both can be obtained from https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/

Matthew Dodder is the Executive Director of the Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society - but that is just the tip of the iceberg. Matthew's journey into the world of nature conservation and education began with a blizzard in Massachusetts. Matthew's journey took him through seminary school and into a career in graphic design and marketing in Silicon Valley.

He never lost his interest in birds and ecology, spending his free time teaching birding and ornithology, and creating fantastic art work and bird-oriented products. Eventually, the preparation met opportunity, and Matthew was able to transition his career and take on the challenge of leading one of the largest Audubon chapters in California.

This episode covers all of that, how COVID-19 is causing Audubon to change and adapt, and much more, including how to use a melon to avoid a deadly bird encounter. Yes, you read that correctly - be sure to stay tuned for that!

Find Matthew's artwork on his website, and learn more about the Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society.

Music Credits:
Opening: Fearless First by Kevin MacLoed
Closing: Beauty Flow by Kevin MacLoed
https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/

You may already know Dorian Anderson from his epic 2014 Biking for Birds adventure - 17830 miles over 365 days, through blizzards, heat waves and crazy drivers. The goal of this trip was to see as many bird species as possible (called a Big Year) in order to reset his life and simultaneously raise money and awareness for the environment and "green" ways to enjoy it.

Dorian has a fascinating back story including a high stakes academic career including a post-doctorate at Massachusetts General and Harvard Medical School, a battle with alcoholism and drugs, an early love of nature, and is quite a photographer, too.

This episode covers all of that and more, including Dorian's approach to risk taking and discussion of his upcoming projects.

Find Dorian on Instagram and on his photography site.

FULL SHOW NOTES

Links
People and Organizations
Listed in order of mention on the podcast.
Mark Kudrav, who had a California bicycle Big Year in 2013
Noah Stryker, who performed an International Big Year, and his book Birding Without Borders
The American Birding Association
The Conservation Fund
Victor Emanual Nature Tours
Christian Hagenlocher – The Birding Project, a funds-limited Big Year
The Speckled Hatchback, Dorian’s blog

Books
Note: links to books are affiliate links
Birding Without Borders, Noah Strycker’s wonderful book about an International Big Year.

Support Us On Patreon!
Buy our Merch!

Music: Spellbound by Brian Holtz Music
License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
Artist site: https://brianholtzmusic.com

Discover the Jumpstart Nature Podcast - entertaining and immersive, it's the nature fix we all need.

Check past Nature's Archive episodes for amazing guests like Doug Tallamy, Elaine Ingham, and Rae Wynn-Grant, covering topics from bird migration to fungi to frogs and bats!