By Mosaics in Science Intern Jailyn Hoskins, San Francisco Bay Area Network Science Communication Team
June 2022 - Driving up from Louisiana to begin my internship with the San Francisco Bay Area Network, I was warned about how hot Pinnacles National Park would be. I thought California hot and Louisiana hot had to be different and remember saying “at least I’ll be able to impress them with my heat tolerance." Spoiler: that did not happen. The falcon monitoring work done in Pinnacles is intense, even on the “fun tour."
When I visited, the monitoring team was made up of UC Berkeley data science interns CeeCee and Noor, Wildlife Biologist Gavin Emmons, long term volunteer Mike, and myself, the science communication intern. I woke up on the second day of my summer internship at 5:45am, cold and in a borrowed tent. We were told to be ready for 6:30 to be picked up for the hike, and all audibly sighed when Gavin showed up at 6:25.
We were going to stay on a trail then go off for a bit to see prairie and peregrine falcons. The trail started off pretty steep and I remember being so relieved when we finished. We had hiked to the Bear Gulch Reservoir, and I was excited to turn around and head downhill (so were my calves; trails in Louisiana are flat!). When I realized we were just getting started I laughed a bit. We ended up going about a mile and a half off trail. I had never gone off trail before so I had no idea what to expect. There were uphill areas made up of scraggly rocks, dense areas of chamise shrubs that tore at our clothes (and ripped my pants in the back, haha), and a western rattlesnake that Gavin was so calm about.
Once we got to our first viewing spot we set up scopes and got to see how the data collection is done. A notebook and a pen-classic. At this point in the hike the temperature was about 90 degrees. I forgot to wear a hat so I was feeling how brutal the sun could be. Gavin and Mike pointed out the nests to us and we were able to observe both the peregrine and prairie falcon fledglings they had been monitoring. There’s no way I would have been able to spot them on my own. We had hiked a lot, but were miles away from the nest. I didn’t realize how far away we would be from the birds. Once the nests were in the spotting scopes I could still hardly make out what we were looking at. Being at this distance allowed for us to safely monitor without stressing out the birds.
Source: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service
