29 June 04
More Thoughts on Field Notes
Thanks to those who have been encouraging us to keep better field notes. In the week or so I’ve been tallying corvids from my bike I’ve been noticing much more than what I’m supposed to be counting: the direction of the flying cattle egrets; whether the Swainson’s hawk I see (there’s almost always one) is north or south of the creek (there are two pairs); whether the magpies are out and about or hidden in the thick of the walnut trees.
Dave of Via Negativa says that his mother, after thirty years of notes from an acre at the top of a hill, has made many unique observations of birds and mammals. I’m sure this is true. Observation of behavior seems to be a dying art among the biological sciences, supplanted by the much more prestigious genomics… I’m happy to buck the trend in however tiny a way.
Kitten footnote: Babette went to her new home yesterday; I had no idea it would be this wrenching. And then there were three.
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You’re doing a fine and noble thing here, you know.
Of these instances, the one that stands out is the multi-million dollar study funded by the CDC and undertaken by some 80 scientist to find out why some people died in the heat wave in Chicago in 1995, while others, of similar age didn’t. The study found out that those who died ran out of water and had no airconditioning. Duh!
In contrast, a sociology student, familiar with the neighborhoods in question, looked at the context—the neighborhoods—ather than the isolated individuals, and found that those who died lived in neighborhoods in which they afraid to go out, while those who survived, lived in vibrant communities where they could leave their apartments and get water and hang out in air-conditioned places…..
So yes, field notes, obeservation—and attention to the context makes all the difference!