Audubon's Climate Watch 2025 winter season (Jan-Feb 2025)
Participating in citizen science projects helps you shift away from the doom and gloom.
I find it helpful for one's mental health to join citizen science projects when there's so much doom and gloom in the news. I don't have the education to understand or change environmental policy myself, but I can at least do a small part of the legwork to support those who do and their work. It's hard to know what's right and what's wrong, there are so many layers to the world. But one thing is clear, we need data/information to figure out anything. So I can be sure that participating in citizen science projects is a positive thing. Nice to have that simplicity in life sometimes. (Read my interview with George Steele to learn more about the Christmas Bird Count, one of the oldest community science projects that occurs December 14 to January 5 every year.)
I created the first version of this illustration of eastern bluebirds in 2016, inspired by the National Audubon Society's Climate Watch Pilot Program, which is one of those projects that citizens can contribute to. There were a few details in the original piece I wasn't happy with, so I reworked it recently, which is the image above.
Climate Watch aims to document the response of birds to climate change by asking volunteers to count targeted species in their area and submit the data. The eastern blue bird is one of the target species. Audubon uses the data collected to project how each species' range will shift as climate change and other human impacts continue across the continent.
Climate Watch takes place during the winter, January 15 - February 15, 2025, so if you want to participate, now is the time to learn the survey protocol and sign up.
https://www.audubon.org/features/esri-climate-watch