Subject: [Tweeters] WOS Program Monday May 4th
Date: Apr 26 18:41:25 2015
From: Blair Bernson - blair at washingtonadvisorygroup.com


This is our WOS Program for Monday Night May 4th
at the Urban Hort Center. Social starts at 7:00
and the program begins at 7:30.

Jennifer Ma ? COASST ? "What Dead Birds Can Tell Us"

In fall 2007, almost fifty murres floated into
usually empty Puget Sound beaches. In summer 2009,
thousands of scoters washed ashore along the
Olympic Peninsula. This fall and winter,
2014-2015, has seen an unprecedented wreck of tens
of thousands of Cassin?s Auklets along the entire
West Coast. What provoked these die-offs? Are they
natural? Are they signs of a catastrophe? How do
we even know about them? The Coastal Observation
and Seabird Survey Team (COASST) is a citizen
science program bringing together over 800
citizens with marine scientists from the
University of Washington. Since 1999, COASST has
collected data on over 50,000 beached birds (170
species!) from hundreds of sites, Alaska to
northern California. These real data from real
people form the definitive baseline against which
the impacts of oil spills, fishery bycatch,
harmful algal blooms, and global warming can be
assessed.

Jennifer Ma is originally from Brooklyn, NY and
has a degree in wildlife science from the State
University of New York College of Environmental
Science and Forestry (SUNY-ESF). Watching and
learning about birds have always been a passion of
hers and she pursues them avidly in the field and
her studies. She spent several seasons as a field
technician monitoring and surveying birds for
various organizations, including the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service, American Bird Conservancy,
Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and National Audubon
Society. Jenn joined COASST in September 2013 as a
master?s student at the University of Washington
Seattle. She will be working with the COASST data
to explore the trends and emerging patterns from
the last fifteen years of beached birds.


Everyone is welcome!!

--
Blair Bernson
Edmonds