Point Blue Launches New Tool for Exploring Palomarin Field Station Bird Data

Ruby-crowned kinglets are one of the migratory species highlighted in the Palomarin Field Station Data Explorer. The timing of their arrival at Palomarin is already reflecting the impacts of climate change; they are showing up much earlier than they used to!

Jessica Weinberg McClosky

July 2020 - For decades, Point Blue Conservation Science has been counting and banding birds at their Palomarin Field Station at the southern end of Point Reyes National Seashore. In some cases, their data sets extend back more than 50 years. Now, they have released a new portal making it easier than ever to explore that data: the Palomarin Field Station Data Explorer.

The Data Explorer is a set of interactive web pages, each of which tells one of the most important science stories emerging from Palomarin, and how they connect to some of the biggest conservation challenges around the world. The four data stories you can explore are:

• How Are the Birds Doing?

• Tracking a Changing Climate

• Habitat & Community Change

• Crossroads & Connections

Through these interactive stories, you can find out, for example, how the weather at Palomarin hasn’t changed too much since 1979. But migratory bird arrival times are already reflecting the impacts of climate change. Golden-crowned Sparrows and ruby-crowned kinglets are arriving much earlier than they used to! You can also check out a map showing where migratory species go when they leave Palomarin. The Point Blue team has learned that their field station truly is a crossroads for birds traveling along the west coast of North America. Different species come from as far as Bristol Bay, Alaska and Jalisco, Mexico.

Although Palomarin is temporarily closed to the public due to the coronavirus pandemic, a core team of staff and interns have been able to safely continue building on Point Blue's decades of research. The Data Explorer is a fun, new way to visit Palomarin and discover what they're learning. In making today’s data accessible in the context of decades past, it also shows why continuing long-term data collection is so crucial for conservation. What else is there to discover? Check out the Data Explorer yourself to find out.

Contributed by Kristen Dybala, Point Blue Conservation Science

For more information

• Point Blue Keystone Datasets: Palomarin Field Station

• Contact Point Blue Principal Ecologist & Palomarin Program Supervisor Kristen Dybala, Ph.D.

• Related work: San Francisco Bay Area Network Landbird Monitoring

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