Birds
One Cute Chick
An Audubon biologist and kids of all ages use art and multimedia to raise awareness about the adorable western snowy plover.
By Brenda Timm
At Los Angeles Audubon, Stacey Vigallon plays many key roles: director of interpretation, manager of the Baldwin Hills Greenhouse Program, and project biologist. But her real passion is art. Vigallon illustrated for us the behavior and challenges facing western snowy plovers on Los Angeles County beaches. A scientific illustrator by trade, Vigallon artfully explains the “snowies’ ” food source, their nesting habitat, and the birds’ strategies for survival. She also names the surreal filmmaker David Lynch, creator of the famed TV show Twin Peaks and such movies as Blue Velvet, as the celebrity she dreams of taking on a snowy plover bird walk.
In the year ahead, Vigallon will be putting her passion for art and nature into play as a TogetherGreen fellow. For her fellowship project, she will engage elementary and high school students in coastal sage scrub and sandy beach habitat conservation through hands-on restoration work and art illustration. A natural educator, Vigallon takes a holistic approach to teaching and encourages all of her students to tackle conservation and ecology concepts by using both sides of their brain. “You don’t see the words ‘snowy plover’ on California Standards Tests, but in only a short time Stacey’s afterschool program helped students master the standards magnificently,” said Leo Politi Elementary School principal, Brad Rumble. This past year the number of students scoring proficient soared from 9 percent to 49 percent, a jump he attributes to Vigallon’s involvement. “Stacey’s work on this one bird created a much greater awareness and interest in the scientific world.”
Los Angeles Audubon teamed up with the Dorsey High School Film Production Program to create this public service announcement about the western snowy plover in Los Angeles County, California.
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