I had a great time presenting with Sara Kross at the inaugural event of Sac Science Distilled, brought to us by Capitol Science Communicators, Science Says and the Powerhouse Science Center. We packed a bunch of folks interested in science into Old Ironsides and they imbibed and snacked while we gave our talks. It was a fun, interesting, and interested crowd.

Here are some slides from my talk, which summarized my research on bird occupancy in walnut orchards and in hedgerows and riparian patches on orchard margins, bird reduction of the Codling Moth (a major pest for walnut growers), and whether habitat patch presence or characteristics of the patch indirectly affect this pest control service by birds.

And some nice tweets and pictures from Science Says:

We got some local news coverage as well; thanks KCRA3! (Did I really say those things and in that way?).

Sac Science Distilled is currently held at Old Ironsides on the Sacramento Grid on the third Wednesday of each month. It is free to the public and is a 21+ event.

Looking forward to presenting with Sara Kross at the inaugural Sacramento Science Distilled. Come on out to the Old Ironsides in Sacramento, Wednesday September 21, 6pm, and learn about falcons and wine, woodpeckers and walnuts, oh my!

I presented some of my research at the EntSA meeting in Minneapolis, Minnesota this past week. It was my first time at an entomological meeting, because I usually study the birds that eat invertebrates (insectivores) and spend more of my time following the work of community ecologists or ornithologists. Crossing over somewhat and interacting with folks from different societies or with different research interests than my own is one of my favorite things to do, though, so I was very excited to take part in the Section Symposium: Integrating Ecological and Social Science to Support Synergies and Applied Solutions in Agroecosystems, organized by Kelly Garbach and Katharina Ullman.

One of my aims in deciding to go to grad school was to stretch outside of my bird-centered way of thinking about ecology and conservation. Conducting research in agricultural systems has been a great way to interact with many different types of researchers, growers, and policy makers. Being invited to participate in this seminar is a signal to me that I am on my way to meeting this aim.

One of the best parts of attending a conference is the time spent socializing over meals and drinks with amazing and interesting people. All of these folks are doing really interesting work in agriculture and biodiversity conservation both from the ecological research and the social science research perspectives.

The title slide of my talk.

And a nice tweet from @KellyGarbach of me after my talk answering a question from David Kleijn, whose work has greatly influenced mine. Another important reason for attending conferences!

I was invited by the California Walnut Board’s Production Research Advisory Council Entomology Working Group to present my research on walnut pest reduction by birds. This is exactly the kind of work I want to be doing: conducting research that informs conservation and environmental policy and interacting with the stakeholders that influence and are affected by policy changes. Walnuts are a huge agricultural commodity in the Central Valley of California; this area produces over 99% of U.S. walnuts. Birds utilize walnut orchards during all seasons and walnut orchards cover a lot of land. I want to know if birds reduce the pests that cause walnut growers so much grief, if there are practices we can use in orchards (e.g., habitat retention or restoration) to facilitate bird occupancy and pest reduction services, and whether bird consumption rates of walnut pests is high enough to reduce the number of pesticide applications needed in orchards.  Thus, the walnut board is a really important stakeholder with which to share my research. I think the talk went well. I don't think anyone is jumping on the habitat creation bandwagon because of my talk, but I'm pretty sure that some of the folks in the room had never considered birds as a possible beneficial predator of walnut pests. I also learned a lot about what the biggest concerns are of the Board, and about some interesting research from entomologists who presented. My colleague Kate Ingram also presented her work on walnut pest reduction by bats.

I was invited to present my Mono Lake riparian songbird research in a symposium at the Joint Meeting of the American Ornithologist's Union, the Cooper Ornithological Society and the Society of Canadian Ornithologists in Estes Park. The symposium was Successes and Challenges in Riparian Restoration: Birds as the Yardstick.

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The symposium included talks by Barbara Kus, Chris Tonra, Dan Twedt, and Kristen Dybala to name a few.

The highlight of the trip was seeing a McCown's Longspur for the first time, while birding up in the tundra of Rocky Mountain National Park (which was actually a pretty rare find for the location), and the daily romps of Rocky Mountain Elk through the conference grounds.