Beatrice is an active volunteer and already monitoring heronries
Beatrice is the youngest of ACR’s nest site volunteers. She helps avian ecologist David Lumpkin monitor the heronry on West 9th Street in Santa Rosa. Four species of birds nest there. Beatrice is responsible for observing the Great Egrets.
“It is a very fun experience,” Beatrice says, being humble about being part of this long-term study and contributing to the research. “Through the (viewing) scope, we can see pretty well,” she adds, “since the heronry happens to be right in the middle of a street.”
This month, students at Lincoln Elementary School, located a short walk from West 9th Street heronry will learn more about these majestic birds each year at “Bird Day.”
“What would you like Lincoln students to know about egrets specifically?” Levy asks.
“Well for one, I’d just like them to know how cool they are! I also would like to share about what good hunters they are—at stuff other than fish. There are green herons that have been learning to drop bread in the water to lure fish to them. They’re fishing! It’s incredible.”
Conservation at the present, conservation in the future
After graduating high school, Beatrice hopes to attend Cal Poly Humboldt and study conservation science and field biology. One day, she’d like to be an environmental scientist—easy to imagine, given that she’s already contributing to valuable research with her involvement with the Heron and Egret Project.
Beatrice wants other people, especially those who are not in her age group, to know that her generation deeply cares about the planet.
“We understand that we’ve kind of messed up the place and that we need to do something about it.” Beatrice pauses. “Teaching each other awareness is a good place to start.”
For the full interview, please watch Why Beatrice Pezzolo Chose Nature. If you enjoyed this article, feel free to share it with a friend! You can also read more about the "Bird Day" joy at Lincoln School. If you enjoyed this article, feel free to share it with a friend!