Embedded Files
Wednesday - November 10th, 2021
Hey there!
It's Giving Week at Google so, if you're a Googler, check out go/aishawithaneye if you'd like to donate to my project to save the burrowing owl! Our next planting will be in the spring!
If you've donated and expect to receive a donation gift, please send me an email.
Last weekend I gave a talk at the Girl Scouts of Northern California's Climate Action Conference about "How to Start Your Own Nonprofit." Check out my deck at howtostartyourownnonprofit.aishawithaneye.com.
Stay tuned for the Youtube video I'm creating where I explain this deck in more detail, but it's essentially the step-by-step "recipe" you follow to start your own nonprofit the way I did. I'll be making more videos about how to run and organize your nonprofit next.
Happy Hump Day!
Aisha with an π
Tuesday - September 14th, 2021
Hey, everyone!
We've got 4 volunteers signed up for the weeding tomorrow and we could use more! Please forward this onto your friends and family who may be interested as well!
Here's the info again, but I will be sending out more detailed instructions if you let me know you can attend:
TOMORROW, Wednesday, September 15th from 8am-10am.
Here's what's required:
Wearing sun protection (sun screen + hat) and close-toed shoes and pants that cover your legs (to avoid scratching yourself on the prickly weeds)
Bringing a water bottle (and eat a hearty breakfast for energy)
Be at least 12 years old, and accompanied by a guardian if under 18
Gloves will be provided, but I recommend you bring your own. The thicker the better because there are some really thorny weeds out there right now.
Email me back if you'd like to attend!
Aisha with an π
Wednesday - September 8th, 2021
Hello!
We have another weeding for the burrowing owls at Burrowing Owl Billows next week! Same time, same location, different day:
Wednesday, September 15th from 8am-10am.
Here's what's required:
Wearing sun protection (sun screen + hat) and close-toed shoes and pants that cover your legs (to avoid scratching yourself on the prickly weeds)
Bringing a water bottle (and eat a hearty breakfast for energy)
Be at least 12 years old, and accompanied by a guardian if under 18
Gloves will be provided, but I recommend you bring your own. The thicker the better because there are some really thorny weeds out there right now.
Email me back if you'd like to attend!
Thank you to our 7 volunteers from our last weeding in August! A special thank you to Sushmita for taking and sharing photos!
Next time, maybe we'll have everyone looking at the camera and more of the ground y'all weeded instead of the big blue sky. However, this is an improvement over the last group photo, which is nonexistent.
Good news to everyone who's been wanting a weekend session so they can attend when they're off work and without their kids in school: we will do the next planting on a weekend. We are currently figuring out when to schedule the planting, so, if you have any preferences or good ideas for when that should be, now is the time to let me know!
Aisha with an π
Tuesday - August 10th, 2021
Hey, everyone!
Thanks for jumping in and we're now up to 7.5 out of our 12 volunteer cap! That means we've still got plenty of room for help that we could definitely still use.
This is for our weeding for the owls tomorrow morning, the 11th, from 8-10am at Burrowing Owl Billows in Shoreline Park.
If you're a donator, stay tuned. It's the NEXT newsletter that I wanna make special for ya. ;) But, please, if you haven't received your donation gift and are expecting one, email me. This is basically a 1-woman operation, so it comes with my 1-woman mistakes, despite how perfect I try to be... as a 1-woman.
Aisha with an π
Sunday - August 8th, 2021
Hey, everyone!
We've had only 2 signups so far for this upcoming weeding at Burrowing Owl Billows on Wednesday, Aug. 11th, 8-10am!
We could really use more help!
I'll also write up a post for Nextdoor, but if you know anyone else who could help, please forward this email along to them.
Here's what's required to volunteer:
Wear sun protection (sunscreen + hat) and close-toed shoes and pants that cover your legs (to avoid scratching yourself on the prickly weeds)
Bring a water bottle (and eat a hearty, HEALTHY breakfast for energy)
Be at least 12 years old, and accompanied by a guardian if under 18
Gloves will be provided, but I recommend you bring your own. The thicker the better because there are some really thorny weeds out there right now.
Please reply back to this email for me to sign you up!
Aisha with an π
Sunday - July 18th, 2021
Good morning and welcome to Sunday! οΈ
Thank you to our 7 volunteers who showed up to weed Burrowing Owl Billows on 7/7!
You can find more photos taken from the event here.
The next weeding is scheduled for
Wednesday, August 11th, 8-10am
and here's what's required:
Wear sun protection (sunscreen + hat) and close-toed shoes and pants that cover your legs (to avoid scratching yourself on the prickly weeds)
Bring a water bottle (and eat a hearty, HEALTHY breakfast for energy)
Be at least 12 years old, and accompanied by a guardian if under 18
Gloves will be provided, but I recommend you bring your own. The thicker the better because there are some really thorny weeds out there right now.
Please reply back to this email for me to sign you up!
Aisha with an π
Tuesday - July 6th, 2021
We still need more volunteers to come out to help weed the burrowing owl habitat at Shoreline Park!
The event is TOMORROW, Wednesday, 7/7/2021, from 8am - 10am at Burrowing Owl Billows.
We have 7.5/12 sign ups, which is a healthy group, but there is still space for more. The more weeds we pull, the better the habitat does, and the better chance the owls have. Please come help us!
Reply back to this email if you can and I'll sign you up!
Here is what's required again:
Wear sun protection (sunscreen + hat) and close-toed shoes and pants that cover your legs (to avoid scratching yourself on the prickly weeds)
Bring a water bottle (and eat a hearty, HEALTHY breakfast for energy)
Be at least 12 years old, and accompanied by a guardian if under 18
I've had several inquiries about bringing younger children, so I'd like to explain why there's this age limit. The work here requires both a level of physical strength and a level of discernment that, typically, children younger than 12 haven't developed yet. While a parent could argue that this is a good teaching opportunity, due to our limited resources, those who have a higher impact and create fewer distractions are who's needed here. Younger children can still help the owls, but see below for an activity where their abilities can be more effectively applied.
Gloves will be provided, but I recommend you bring your own. The thicker the better because there are some really thorny weeds out there right now.
Aisha with an π
Wednesday - June 30th, 2021
Aloha from Hawaii! πΊ
I have officially moved to Maui! I thought I was coming here to help save the sea turtles π’, but it turns out that they're ok, but there are 6 African penguins π§ being held hostage for profit by the Hyatt. I'm now figuring out how to help them.
But what about the BURROWING OWLS π¦, Aisha?!
I'm STILL saving them! The project to save the burrowing owls has reached a point of stability that I can continue to organize and produce videos for it remotely. My dream when I first started The Guardian Project was to undertake saving multiple animals through setting up and expanding multiple projects globally. Through sharing my process I'd like to create a network of where we're all working together to save animals. I am not going anywhere... virtually.
However, unfortunately, I will not physically be there for the weeding coming up on
Wednesday, July 7th, 2021, 8am-10am
but Phil and Ryan, Mountain View City's biologists, will be there as usual to educate and guide you. We have 6/12 slots still available, so please sign up if you'd like to join us!
Here's what's required to join the volunteer event, once again:
Wear sun protection (sunscreen + hat) and close-toed shoes and pants that cover your legs (to avoid scratching yourself on the prickly weeds)
Bring a water bottle (and eat a hearty, HEALTHY breakfast for energy)
Be at least 12 years old, and accompanied by a guardian if under 18
I've had several inquiries about bringing younger children, so I'd like to explain why there's this age limit. The work here requires both a level of physical strength and a level of discernment that, typically, children younger than 12 haven't developed yet. While a parent could argue that this is a good teaching opportunity, due to our limited resources, those who have a higher impact and create fewer distractions are who's needed here. Younger children can still help the owls, but see below for an activity where their abilities can be more effectively applied.
Gloves will be provided, but I recommend you bring your own. The thicker the better because there are some really thorny weeds out there right now.
REPLY BACK to this email if you'd like to sign up. FORWARD this email on to friends/family/neighbors/and others you think would be interested in joining.
Let's talk about how Burrowing Owl Billows is doing as a habitat for the owls:
For those who are new, we do bug counts because they're a good data point to track to determine our habitat's ability to provide sustenance for the owls. Generally, more bugs mean more food for the owls and more plants mean more bugs.
Phil counts while I enter the numbers into a spreadsheet.
We count bugs that we sweep up in a net as we pass over the habitat.
And we count bugs we observe on which plants as we walk through the habitat.
By doing this, I can create this graph to visualize our progress.
As you can see from the purple line, we've never had more bugs at Burrowing Owl Billows! This means the habitat is growing.
However, you can also see from this graph that we don't have as many owls this year as we did around the same time last year.
Here's what happened with the owls:
We started the breeding season with 7 pairs at Shoreline Park. 2 of the owls were chicks from last year. Unusually, some pairs kept moving burrows.
To date, only 2 of the pairs had chicks this season. 1 pair had 2 chicks. The 2nd pair had 4 chicks. Of the 6 chicks, it is presumed that 4 chicks were predated upon. A Great Horned Owl and a Red Fox* were seen on the motion-capture cameras, so we suspect this may be why. Generalist species, like Crows, Ravens, and Raccoons, are increasing in population because of human activities. They are specifically attracted to our construction and trash.
*Invasive species, such as the Red Fox, don't just prey upon Burrowing Owls, but other vulnerable, protected, endemic species such as Ridgway's Rails and Snowy Plovers (ground-nesting birds from Pixar's short Piper). The US. Fish and Wildlife protect endangered species, so they eradicate invasive non-native species such as the Red Fox.
After, we suspect, Ravens preyed upon a male Owl out of one pair, a single Owl from Vista Slope came and paired with the widowed female.
For comparison, last year at this time Shoreline Park had 51 owls. This year there are only 11 (after some were killed).
As for other Burrowing Owl habitat locations:
At Alviso, an Opossum was caught on camera carrying a female Owl away in its mouth. Opossums tend to be scavengers, so we suspect something else preyed upon the Owl first.
At Moffet, there are 3 pairs, containing 2 of the chicks from last year at Shoreline.
At San Jose Airport, there were 2 pairs that both had chicks, which allowed the biologists to take 10 for the juvenile overwinter program (the relocation program).
In general, we've observed fewer birds in the Bay Area this breeding season. There are also usually many Canada Geese, but there have been far fewer at Shoreline and also in other parts of the Bay Area, like Bier Island/Greco Island, off of Redwood City (as reported by their biologist).
The hypothesis is that this is weather related. As we move into a drought, the entire ecosystem is stressed.
This is despite Phil continuing to supplement their diet with mice as part of the supplemental feeding study:
To gain context to both the juvenile overwinter program (the relocation program) and supplemental feeding study, please watch the orientation video.
However, on the saline island in the middle of Shoreline Lake, there were 15 Black Skimmer nests. This is because the birds that eat fish aren't affected by the drought.
If you haven't already considered reducing animals from your diet, please do. It is THE FASTEST action you can take with THE HIGHEST impact on reducing our collective greenhouse gas emissions to save both human and animal lives.
Thanks to the photographer Annette Herz who came out when Phil and I did our routine bug population count, you can now see more of OUR burrowing owls up close!
Phil's motion capture cameras double as perches.
You can see more of Annette's work on Flickr here.
If you scrolled down to see what activity your younger-than-12 child can do to help the owls, here is Suzanna, age 7, demonstrating! She really wanted to join her mother and older brother for the weeding, but, because she's still too young, she's started rock painting by following the Youtube video tutorial I created last year!
When I return in December for the next planting, I will organize a parade where everyone of all ages can join. We'll don burrowing owl facepaint and pull wagons with all the donation gifts we've created to raise awareness and more funds. Any rocks your children paint can be donated as donation gifts to raise money to purchase more plants for the next planting!
If you haven't already checked out the San Diego Burrowing Owl Cam, please do! You won't be disappointed (unless the zoo has removed the chicks, which they sometimes do, but then they return them again later, so just check back if you don't see them).
Here's a screenshot I snapped of when momma was feeding her babies and they were still pretty newly hatched:
You can see the mouse's tail clutched in her claw. Here she was ripping it up into bite sized pieces for her babies. It was really interesting to watch! They're growing up fast and they love looking at their reflections in the camera, so check them out before you miss them!
In my next update I will show you photos from the weeding as well as donor highlights! Coo coo!
Aisha with an π
Wednesay - June 23rd, 2021
Good morning!
I need 12 volunteers to weed Burrowing Owl Billows on
Wednesday, July 7th from 8am-10am.
Here's what's required:
Wearing sun protection (sun screen + hat) and close-toed shoes and pants that cover your legs (to avoid scratching yourself on the prickly weeds)
Bringing a water bottle (and eat a hearty breakfast for energy)
Be at least 12 years old, and accompanied by a guardian if under 18
Gloves will be provided, but I recommend you bring your own. The thicker the better because there are some really thorny weeds out there right now.
REPLY BACK to this email if you'd like to sign up. FORWARD this email on to friends/family/neighbors/and others you think would be interested in joining.
Also, check out the burrowing owl chicks at the San Diego Zoo for cuteness! They're growing up fast, so click this link to see their livestream before you miss them!
Most of the chicks at our habitat were killed by a GREAT HORNED OWL, invasive RED FOXES (that are being trapped and killed), and, potentially, RAVENS. I'll update you with more details in a later email.
I also completed Part 2 of What It's Like to Save the Burrowing Owl, which shows what it's like to volunteer at Burrowing Owl Billows, enhancing the owls' habitat. It includes the orientation, which you can skip using Youtube's chapters if you've already seen it.
Happy Hump Day!
Aisha with an π
Monday - May 24th, 2021
Happy Monday! π
I've received some SPECTACULAR donations lately, so the owls thank you VERY MUCH. I will be doing a special email to highlight these to show our appreciation, but FIRST:
After doing an interactive presentation over Zoom for the Girl Scouts, where I taught them about the burrowing owls through teaching them a song for us to sing together at the end, I condensed the lesson into a music video so that you may learn about the burrowing owls as well!
You can now also receive the badges they did for attending the presentation as donation gifts for $7+. They are glow-in-the-dark/UV-reactive, because... PERHAPS THE BURROWING OWL IS TOO??? I have not found any research, photographs, or images on the matter yet, but many owls (and birds in general) are.
Here's a northern saw-whet owl looking flabbergasted by his own UV-reactive plumage. Birds have the ability to see UV-reactive pigments under the light of the sun, but blacklights don't exist in nature, so this fella is probably just as blown away by his own appearance under blacklight as we are, if not more!
I wonder how else humans can uniquely provide positive, mind-boggling experiences for the animals. π€
Have a great week!
Aisha with an π
Monday - April 12th, 2021
Coo coo!
I'm proud to present to you this new video that gives full context on my project to save the burrowing owl amidst the City of Mountain View's projects to save the burrowing owl to help you better understand how donating and volunteering with us helps save the burrowing owl. Oh geez. That was a mouth full. Just--this answers a lot of your questions you've been throwing my way over the last 4 years, so here you go:
It's only 16 minutes. Here are the chapters:
00:00β Intro
00:13β Shoreline Parkβs History as a Landfill
01:25β The Protected Animal Species at Shoreline
03:23β Animal Rescues
03:46β The Shorebird Egret Rookery
03:59β Introduction to the Western Burrowing Owl
04:31β Their Rate of Decline and Why
06:29β Pictures of Burrowing Owl Chicks
06:56β The Burrowing Owl Banding Project
08:44β What Burrowing Owls Eat
09:04β The Supplemental Feeding Study
09:23β The Habitat Enhancement Project
10:19β Some of the Plants Weβre Planting
11:19β The Relocation Program
13:45β How to Suppress Non-Native Plants
14:25β What Volunteers Do at Plantings
14:44β Itβs Tough to Save Them
I'm still editing Part 2 of "What It's Like to Save the Burrowing Owl", which I've decided is a "vlogumentary." Here's Part 1, if you haven't seen it yet. Yes. It's 50 minutes, but, as I was editing it, I was imagining what a person 5-10 years from now would find interesting about it. That person would find the full 50 minutes fascinating, given what's coming for us. If you haven't heard, 2021 fire season is gonna be a hot one!
I'll also be putting together a longer "TED talk" that I'll be presenting to the Girl Scouts in May, which will include my story as well as the logistics of everything I've had to set up, manage, and maintain for my project to save the burrowing owl, which is supplementary to the City's work. Yeah. I'm gonna try to make project management using spreadsheets, emails, and bugs--literal bugs--interesting. Good luck to me!
Stay safe and stay tuned!
Aisha with an π
Friday - February 26th, 2021
I've got an urgent matter to draw your attention to regarding the burrowing owls!
Trump's administration tried to implement a rule late last year that would allow construction companies to "accidentally kill" burrowing owls protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Biden's administration has put this rule on hold to allow the public to comment on the rule until March 1st.
You have 3 days to comment left! Please say something. You can see what I've written here to understand the situation more fully (or scroll down to the end of this email), but even saying one line like, "I love the burrowing owls, so please do not allow this rule to go into effect because more will be killed if it is," makes a difference.
As for Burrowing Owl Billows, my sister and I just added 55 milkweeds because the monarch butterflies are going extinct, I scattered 1lb of California Poppies with Phil and Ryan, and my brother and I just spent 90 minutes weeding the area yesterday. Because of COVID restrictions, we've only been allowed 2 households to volunteer at the project site at a time, but I will let you know when restrictions lift so we can do more together at the site.
I have also updated the front page of savetheburrowingowl.org, updated/added the How Can You Help? pages, added The Sixth Planting to Stories of The Billows, and added a Donation Gifts page with new gifts!
The most impactful way you can help right now is by donating!
Be sure to check out the Donation Gifts page as 3 new rocks have already been gifted due to word-of-mouth since I finished it. They are one-of-a-kind, so donate and request your gift before it's gone!
Here's my comment on the rule that affects the burrowing owls:
Changing the regulations that implement the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) so they don't apply to the "unintentional" killing of migratory birds provides a way for construction companies to not just avoid responsibility for the decline of our birds, but to actively destroy them in favor of their own monetary profit. Construction companies have no motivation to observe moral obligations outside of government regulation. They would claim any loss of a protected bird as "accidental", and it would be difficult, if not impossible, to prove a case as "intentional", as the organizations who would try don't have comparable resources to these companies.
I attended a class 2 years ago about how to identify burrowing owl habitats and the only other people in attendance were construction site surveyors who were specifically hired by construction companies to abide by the MBTA, which motivated them to avoid or find other ways to deal with the land these birds inhabit. Without the protection of the MBTA as it was originally intended, these sorts of classes and these types of roles would cease to exist and there would be nothing protecting these birds from these companies. There are many species listed under the MBTA with several species on the verge of extirpation, including the burrowing owls.
The burrowing owls are currently protected by the MBTA. For the last 4 years I have been working on saving the burrowing owls in Silicon Valley, which is right along the Pacific Flyway, the migratory path for birds flying from Alaska, through Canada, to Patagonia. I've collected funds from Googlers, neighbors, and anyone else who'll donate to buy California native plants. I then organize volunteers to come plant these plants, under the city biologist's supervision, at the burrowing owls' breeding ground for both migratory and resident owls. More plants mean more food and shelter for the burrowing owls and the other birds. There are also 20 other species of birds protected by the MBTA in Shoreline Park who benefit from this habitat restoration project. Because this land is a closed landfill, we've constantly had issues with the irrigation system as the garbage compresses and breaks the pipes, so we've also had to water these plants by hand twice a week until they're mature enough to survive on their own, which takes about 2 years. Despite these odds, there was a record number of burrowing owl chicks 35 at this site last summer (2020). This site now has the highest number of burrowing owls out of all the burrowing owl sites in the Bay Area. When I started on this project, there were 0 burrowing owls present. It is possible to save this species, but we need to not only restore their habitat, but prevent what's left from being lost.
Why are the burrowing owls in decline? Primarily: HABITAT LOSS DUE TO LAND DEVELOPMENT. In the 1980s we had 500 adult burrowing owls at 250 locations in Santa Clara County. Last year (2020) we only had 33 adult burrowing owls at 4 locations. Two of these locations are airports, Moffett Federal Airfield and San Jose International Airport, which are not viable habitats because they don't want any animals on the runways out of fear of collision with aircrafts. The third location is in Alviso, San Jose, where the city council passed an ordinance 3 years ago that allows land development over most of that land, only protecting 200/500 acres for the burrowing owls. The last location, Mountain View's Shoreline Park, is the one I've been assisting with habitat restoration at, and it's a closed landfill. The burrowing owls have been reduced to living on our garbage, or, more specifically, 13 years of San Francisco's garbage from the 1970s/80s, because the construction of corporations is the highest priority and the proper disposal of garbage is the lowest.
We are currently losing species at a rate unknown since the dinosaurs, who went extinct 65 million years ago. Habitat destruction is the primary cause of this rapid dismantling of life on Earth. To assume that we as the human race are exempt from the reaction of nature as we upset the system through our singular definition of "progress" is delusional. We may be the most inventive, powerful, interesting animals on the planet, but we are still animals who ultimately depend on the land we inhabit. If we don't change directions from where we're headed to refocus our efforts on replenishing the natural habitats of our neighbors, we may go extinct as well, after we suffer unfathomable hardships as our own numbers decline. We need to block these changes to the MBTA regulations, and enforce the MBTA to the full extent that it was originally intended: to protect our dwindling bird populations, especially the burrowing owls.
If you're interested in learning more about my project to save the burrowing owls, visit savetheburrowingowl.org.
TGIF and have a great weekend!
Aisha with an π
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