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Birding and Conservation
726 Plays6 months ago
What is conservation in birding? How can you contribute to bird conservation locally? Join Dexter and Jason as they explore how to find bird joy while contributing to conservation. You don’t need to be a tenured PhD in Ornithology to contribute to conservation locally. There are several local opportunities to participate, such as those offered by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
Seek and join the conversations in your local municipalities, counties, and communities. Those likely lead to laws that impact habitat and access to green space. It’s a good way to stay engaged. Other initiatives like Homegrown National Park give you the pathway to contributing habitat for birds, bugs, plants, and other types of wildlife.
Whether it’s American Kestrel Banding, Monarch Butterfly plantings, Bluebird Box Monitoring, or monitoring the homies coming to your patch feeders, there are multitudes of opportunities out there to get involved.
Who knows where this might lead you? You could end up learning why Large Billed Terns are showing up in Florida or contributing data to Brown Booby migration patterns. You may even get lucky enough to count gulls in a trash dump one winter.
You don’t need to do it all. Stay within your means and understand that every little bit matters.
Be sure to follow our podcast on Instagram at @thebirdjoypod and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
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Transcript
Introduction to Birding and Conservation
00:00:00
Speaker
You mentioned going to a wildflower preserve. Yeah. And we took the club to this private place, right? This private nature preserve. And when people ask me where they go birding, a lot of these places are often conservancies. And that leads me into wanting to talk about birding and conservation today, because I think a lot of times people don't equate the two. But birding and conservation kind of go hand in hand, wouldn't you say? I would, I would. And a lot of people don't realize that it's easier than they think to contribute to.
Bird Joy Podcast Introduction
00:00:36
Speaker
So I'm hoping today we get a chance to talk about all those little ways that you can make something that you love doing, looking at birds, beneficial to their safety and their conservation and the the scientific community as a whole. very Lovely, lovely. So welcome to the Bird Joy podcast. I am Dexter Patterson. And I am Jason Hall. And this podcast is all for the bird nerds and the bird homies out there who want to find a little bird joy. Yes. Are you ready for some bird joy? Let's go. So here we are, brother, episode 10 of the Bird Joy podcast. And we are going to dive into the vital topic of bird conservation and birders and birders role.
00:01:20
Speaker
in these incredible efforts. And you know we've talked about citizen science a little bit already on this on this podcast. So people know that we do encourage people to get involved. And I think today we can encourage people on a deeper level to get involved or at least be aware of this idea of bird conservation and yeah how it's essential for maintaining biodiversity and the health of our ecosystem. So our little birds can survive and thrive. And we talked about that a little bit, talking about how birders can become allies for the birds, right? How we, we sometimes we think about birders and we talk about all allyship and and all those things in regards to a different level of that, but we can become allies of the bird. This to really just share our passion to protect birds and why that is important. Let's talk a little bit about that today. Yeah, man. And it's, it's, you know, thinking about it, you know, before we came on, it was, it was, you know, I think we mentioned to people probably a lot E-bird, right? and we And we talk about E-bird and, and.
Bird Conservation Efforts and eBird
00:02:25
Speaker
An eBird in itself is just a database, right? It's not a conservation organization necessarily, but the Cornell Lab for Ethology is, and a lot of the programs they put on. There's this base level of contributing your data points that help scientists all over the country, all over the region that you're in, all over the globe. But there's other more specific things they do, Great Backyard Bird Count, which we'll talk about, Global Big Day. And these are all really fun things, Project Feeder Watch, right? Like these are all really great things to do. And I really today want to empower people to do this locally. One of the first things I want people to let go of is this idea that bird conservation means
00:03:06
Speaker
You're hopping on a rickety airplane to fly into the rainforest to sit in the dark and wait for some bird that no one seen in 30 years. Is that awesome? Yes. Would I love to do that? Also, yes. yes right But we can't all be doing that all the time. And there's some very amazing people out there doing that kind of work. But also know that those people are also supported by us. logging the birds that are migrating through our area, right? Those same scientists are studying similar things. We're all connected in this. And um I was telling you earlier, I went to a walk today down in South Philly for Crohn's and Colitis Foundation.
00:03:43
Speaker
And I was thinking about our upcoming podcasts and I was thinking to myself, you know, we don't really bat an eye when we talk about things like fighting cancer, right? We know that there's doctors, we know that there's scientists working on medicine, right? We know that there's funders and donors, there's events, there's just regular people trying their best to contribute to that cause at different levels of the operation. Same thing with bird conservation. like There are very brilliant PhDs out there that are working on some really high level stuff. There's organizations like American Bird Conservancy, driving initiatives, and then there's also birders and ornithologists and people and contributing data, building bluebird boxes, planting natives. It's all connected the same way. So if you think about it like that, it's not something wholly foreign.
00:04:32
Speaker
to the way we think about other causes that we may engage with around our lives. So I wanted to make sure folks knew that first. Yeah, I think and it's kind of rooted in this idea of. When you, when you become a birder and we told, we said, we had a simple definition of birding. Are you paying attention? ah Great. You're paying attention. Now you can just say you're a birder. And now as you're bird watching and the more you do bird watching, you can't help but have like this deeper connection to nature.
00:05:05
Speaker
especially if you're living in the moment. We talked about all these things. These are the benefits of it. Now you're starting to connect at this deeper level and you may you may be asking yourself, what is next? And this is where I would say, i'm ah I want to encourage you to become more aware of those environmental issues that allow you to be birdwatching or may prohibit you someday from birdwatching.
Local Politics and Community Involvement in Conservation
00:05:28
Speaker
And I absolutely love that you said local because I think even We're not going to talk a lot of politics on this podcast, but I think this episode, there are some politics that need to be talked about. And then most of them happen, bro, on the local level, wherever you live, there's always some.
00:05:49
Speaker
DNR, right? that yeah We have the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. And there are always conversations happening with those organizations and the citizens. And those conversations constantly lead to conversations that may lead to laws someday. Bro, they're literally having conversations right now because they said that the Sandhill Crane has reached levels When we talk about conservation, that's one of the greatest conservation stories in the history was the revival of the Sandhill crane here in the state of Wisconsin, led by Aldo Leopold. And you think about that conservation story, and now they're having these conversations around, there are too many of them. And there are farmers who are saying, hey, they're destroying my crops. And Then there is research that's being done on behind the scenes to create things to protect the seeds that have avapill. And this is supposed to protect the seed without hurting the bird and in different things. So that's another conversation when we talk about environmental stewardship and and that's a different conversation, but those conversations are happening.
00:06:53
Speaker
And I think once you start to become aware and you get involved and and we're going to encourage people, whether you're getting started with burden or not to find that community and get involved, because that can, that's going to connect you with more people. That's going to connect you even deeper with nature and the birds in your community. So we are going to encourage you to pay attention. Are those conversations happening in your backyard? in your communities. There are times on a national level where there may be a vote right on on something that impacts funding across the nation. And also our conversation at a national level that we got to pay attention to as well. And I always love, I will see people in our community bro sharing, sign this now, do this now. like we are all I constantly see people, you mentioned Karina, she interviewed Christian at the at your gala for for Black Birders Week. And she was one person that I always saw like sharing some of these petitions and different things about how we can you're right how we can activate our our local legislators and senator and senators and different things on some of these these national issues.
00:07:59
Speaker
And i'm always seeing that type of stuff and i'm always inspired by that that's people that care and that's that that's due to that deep connection with with bird watching. Yeah and and and you'll find that there's a direct line between some of these large national organizations and and those bills that are going in front of congress you know the house and the senate. For vote and you know the last i'd say probably eight to ten years has been a number of them that have come up um and so if you're tapped into the american bird conservancy or the wilderness society or your local us fish and wildlife or um other things like that you may see them campaigning to say hey call your call your state rep call your call your senator because
00:08:43
Speaker
We need them to understand the importance of this vote. And those things are going to continue happening. right And so it it's ah it's a good way to stay engaged. right But we all know that you know politics are wild. But it's ah it's ah it's a good way for you to understand what decisions are being made on a federal level that will impact what you can do locally. Because a lot of those federal dollars are given out in grants to local organizations that you may be involved with. you know Like in color birding, we look at different grants that are coming in to do different things various bird alliance chapters across the country are looking for those things right so stay involved stay aware right get into the politics if you want to but at least be aware at least be educated on what's going on and it'll make then the work that you're doing on the ground in your local community whether it's you know just monitoring the birds your feeders or your the nest in your yard or advocating for the conservation of a green space in your patch, it's all connected. It feels good when you feel like you are advocating for something that you care about and and actually having an impact. you know I think that's where a lot of people, they assume, I'm not, what am I going to do to help these birds? you know I'm just little old Jason you know outside of Philly. and You don't realize that your voice matters. um
00:10:02
Speaker
Your data matters, your advocacy matters. And then for a lot of our black and brown communities, one of the things I think about a lot is a lot of these dollars going to conservation organizations outside of urban areas, making some great strides there. But how do we get those dollars in some part going into the urban areas to actually empower those communities to participate in conservation in ways that makes sense for them, ways that still benefits the birds, the mammals, the bugs, the native plants? Take some of those lessons and apply them right i think i might have mentioned this before like there's a bunch of. Empty lots around philly we got a bunch of row homes right in a lot of communities will turn them into small gardens or parks and stuff like that and being able to get dollars to flow into that to get those conservation.
00:10:49
Speaker
Keys available right even if it ah as simple as like we're gonna plant these native wildflowers for these native pollinators we don't do some milkweed in there we can get our monarchs right and once you get all that stuff going you may get some new birds right and um it's great because you think about this
Local Actions with National Impact
00:11:05
Speaker
there's a. Initiative out there called home grown national park where did the general idea is. If everybody just took half of the land that we have in the United States that we put grass on and turn it back into native habitat, we can create a massive national park, essentially. right Because we have all this fragmented habitat because we built all these cities and suburbs and stuff. And so imagine, you know I like to imagine,
00:11:32
Speaker
Monarch butterflies flying over philadelphia and having hundreds of different spots thousands of different spots they can go to the eggs right and and yes we still have buildings we still have roads right. It's it's fragmented but maybe still part of a connected passageway right time bird flyways right um but same thing from animals same thing for birds so. this This idea of conservation is one that is never going away. like I don't think this planet is ever going to be in a place where we don't have something that we need to pay attention to and conserve. So it's very exciting, too. Right. Because you like but just like you said at the beginning, we may have those folks that are like, yeah, I'm burning. I love it. But I want to do more. And so teasing your way into conservation gives you that thing that can anchor into your chest that you can hold on to and say, hey, I'm Jason.
00:12:24
Speaker
And I'm here fighting for the Eastern Bluebird, right? Bluebird boxes, I'm advocating, I'm doing whatever I'm doing. Yeah, it's very exciting. And I think folks should not be afraid of it. And hopefully we can provide some resources in the show notes and in this episode to get them going. Yeah. And I also want people to know that that little bit that you choose to do is enough. Yeah. Right. They'll all that's power comes in numbers. Little bit of everybody. Little blue box here. Bluebird box here. Next thing you know, we got a bunch of them. Now you got some people doing bald eagle nest monitoring. Now you got some people doing right. Helping plant pollinator milkweed and different things like that. You you can do a little bit and it's enough. Eventually, it'll probably lead you to something else. Be a part of those conversations because if you're not a part of those conversations, there are people on the other side of that issue that are having conversations. That's right.
00:13:21
Speaker
that are saying, guess what? Yep. We do want to hunt the sandhill crane or we want to hunt wolves in Wisconsin. We want to do this. We want to do like, it's always going to be some conversations happening in your local communities and what they're doing with water ah local watersheds. And, you know, maybe they're going to be tearing down some, some of this land near you because everything is expanding and developments are happening and oh it happens that they want to develop on a wetland. A lot of these conversations happen at the local level so I really really really really hope that they take that local message to heart.
00:13:58
Speaker
um And start to get involved. I know a lot of people may not know where to get involved. I would, you highlighted some of that. There are a lot of organizations and conservation projects and initiatives that are happening with organizations like bird alliances all over, you know, our local bird alliance also operates as a land trust. Yeah, which is very, very unique in a sense is that they're, yes, they're always going out and they're working to save birds and they're doing bird collision and they're doing, uh, Kestrel boxing, uh, monitoring and bird banding. And they'll, they do monarch tagging, which is really cool. yeah and you You mentioned monarchs, but there are organizations in your local community that are already baking in some of these, these, these conservation issues that impact birds that you could easily get involved with and they create events around a lot of these things and allow you to get involved. And I think that's a great way to start spending time and with birds, but also deepening that connection to nature. And man, I can't tell you, bro, how fun it is. I've taken my girls to do Kestrel nest box monitoring and banding. Oh, wow. You imagine, you know, you're taking the girls out and I'm taking my kids out and they're pulling out the babies. You ever seen those little fluff, baby kestrels? They look all grumpy. They look like Muppets, don't they? They do all of them. They look like Muppets. They look like Muppets, but like taking them there and they're like weighing them and they're just sitting there, you know, looking at you all grumpy, like grumpy kestrel chicks. Look at you.
00:15:34
Speaker
And you're just like, dude, i hey, hey, hey, hey, I'm trying to help you here, right? they they all They all look like Don King or Bernie Sanders waking up first thing in the morning, just hair all white and disheveled. They are so cute. Yeah, baby birds ah got to be some of the best ways to get connected with conservation because they just that you know it's this very clear representation of renewal in life and they're Just cute and fun. Yeah, I bet your girls love that man. Yeah, and it's so cool. and There's nothing like you know We talked about on on the show about that moment where you like have a stare down with an owl You'll never be the same. Yeah, bro. You release a kestrel. You also will never be the same
00:16:18
Speaker
And yes, it is the tiniest little falcon in North America, but they are, they are legit. We talk about hunters. They're as lethal and as efficient as any bird of prey. And you're watching them just hovering over a field. The next thing you know, that little sucker's like, boom. a and just hitting just hit anything below and go. those Those opportunities also are opportunities to go out and activate and do fun with your family. and and yeah You also meet people and that community aspect of it continues here even in the conservation aspect because typically when you're doing conservation, you meet other people that are doing conservation and you might find somebody that you you know like enjoy hanging out with.
Bird Banding and Backyard Feeders
00:17:03
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, and I wanna kinda get into that a little bit of like the fun of being involved in conservation, right? And some of the some of the things you can do, we mentioned bird banding, right? Look up in your local community. Are there any organizations doing bird banding? There probably are. Somewhere in your state, county, area of the state or part of the country, Bird banding, you got to get some serious training to be able to do that, and right? You have to think being an apprenticeship and you got to get some federal permits and stuff. Those are the people that are actually clipping the little bands on the birds and stuff like that, right? So you really want to make sure you're not trying to do that without any very serious training and all of the approved paperwork. All right.
00:17:42
Speaker
But they do allow people to come and observe and in some cases you can even hold the bird we sit and it's amazing how much information they get off these birds when they get there weighing them. um I know we went to one in the spring where they were checking the birds for brood patches to see if they were sitting on a nest right there we're checking the moat the moat limits on the wings and. All of these different things, right? And this data capture year after year after year it gives you a sense of how that population is doing in that region. And that's great to, to feel. And I, you know, what I say that it's because, um, the last one I went to, we call like, I don't know, six or seven gray catbirds in the, in the mismatch. And they were just feisty, you know, feisty little homies. Um, and you know, I've seen tons of catbirds, right? I love them. I laugh at them. I think they're pretty silly, but to hold one,
00:18:33
Speaker
to look at the moat limits to understand how they're aged um now every time i look at them i think something different right i have a better understanding of them and they're an indicator of how things are going in the environment they start to slip. you know I'm like, oh, well, what's happening? Are we running out of bugs? Is there a parasite? Is there a disease going around? And so you don't have to be a PhD in ornithology to be connected to that. And it's fun, right? So look up the local bird banding opportunities, even if it's just a demonstration for you to take your family and go watch or your bird club and go watch or yourself and go watch.
00:19:09
Speaker
A lot of people don't realize this, but there's a lot of ways having a bird feeder in your backyard can also be bird conservation. It's very simple to do for the most part, cost a little bit of coin, right? To get some good bird seed and a bird feeder. Um, there's programs like project feeder watch where you can log that data and people want to know, you know, how many golf inches are showing up at the ah thistle sock in your backyard? Um, pine Siskins, you know, like I love pine Siskins and I only get them every so often in the winter and they just, when they do come and they roll like 30 deep, my thistle feeder, they just, yeah, they just destroy it. Right. Um, but.
00:19:50
Speaker
I love being able to take that data and go put it somewhere and say hey pineskins are normally in my range in the winter so they're here you know maybe it's part of an eruption i'm contributing that data why did so many pineskins come down so far into pennsylvania that year when normally they don't come down that far what was going on with the cropping bugs up in. the boreal forest, being able to connect all that stuff, like the birds that are in your backyard are telling you something about other parts of the world. That's wild. That that blows my mind sometimes. I swear, I swear. And you always, I don't know about you, but some of the communities I'm in, whether it's Facebook groups or different things, you know, people will be like, where's my hummingbirds go? Yeah. Yeah. like You know, or where are my Oreos?
00:20:32
Speaker
Yeah. I'm not seeing as many this year. like yeah Every season, every year, I hear people saying this because it's real. yeah People get used to watching and they're like, um this year, I'm just not seeing as many. And it makes them wonder. This is why they do bird banding and different things like that. So they can they can they can track migration patterns and bird health and man, there are so many ways to get involved. And like you said, you don't have to be the expert. You can, yeah you can do the citizen science stuff and you can do a little bit here, a little bit there. Maybe you build on it, you get involved with a local bird alliance, you do some monitoring of some Eastern bluebird boxes. Maybe you have some bald eagle nest near and you can help with monitoring there. And maybe you do some Kestrel banding or some bird banding as a whole, or get to observe that taking place. But there are a lot of
00:21:26
Speaker
fun things that you can do to start getting involved with conservation when it comes to birding. Yeah. And you know, those questions that people put on their various Facebook groups or bird chats around not seeing the kind of birds that they're used to seeing. Most of the time when I see that you see people like poo poo them, right? They'll be like, Oh, I got, I got plenty of those birds at my feet. Or what are you talking about? Dot, to dot, dot, dot. Right. It's very like weird, egotistical bird flex. Yeah. Most people exist, unfortunately. Yeah, right. And like the wild part is like that's such a great opportunity to say to someone, oh, you know that's wild that you haven't seen it in your backyard. Which which part of the city are you in, right? You're right. And hey, you know look, check out this link. There's some eBird data here. And it does look like in the past few years, like there's been some dips in the population.
00:22:16
Speaker
Now that person has a connection to their backyard now represents a data point that they can observe and then they start asking themselves, well, why are the goldfinch populations going down? Do I need to plant more native plants? Do I need to put out some better seed? You know, do I need to advocate for these different habitats when I don't think goldfinches are. in trouble right now, you know, whatever it is, we sometimes miss those very obvious opportunities because maybe the person's not a super heavy birder or something. And you feel like you need to educate them that the golf inches are fine or the Orioles are fine rather than empowering them to keep paying attention to really what we should be doing in every situation, no matter the person or where they're from or their experience level.
00:23:00
Speaker
You know, I encourage folks to do that because the more you get involved in birding and some of the social media parts of it, you'll see those questions, right? And always have empathy and and ask, right? And say, you know, where you're from there are Throw out some links, empower people to keep paying attention. I love that because we should empower those people. They are paying attention. yeah They actually care. like They're like wondering, why? Where are my birds? What happens to them? Where's the homies? Yeah, where are the homies? You mentioned a bird feeder. That's a great thing. I know people ask this all the time. I know you probably get the same questions about attracting birds to your yard and bird feeders, and you've also
00:23:43
Speaker
already started talking about planting native species. yeah Um, that also supports birds and the bird feeders. So now you have natural food sources, plus the feeders, and maybe they have the little water thing that we talked about. what they up and off So these native plants, they also help the pollinators and if pollinators are doing good. Other plants around are doing good. Ultimately you're helping create like this thriving ecosystem in your own little yard. And that's powerful. yeah little bitty things that you do. And, um, you know, we mentioned bird banding a little bit, and I, I've mentioned this before my, the person that introduced me to bird banding, Bob, well, she passed away recently. The last time I was with Bob, bro, um, I was leaving and he gave me a pale purple cone flower.
00:24:32
Speaker
it sprouted this spring. I like going out and I'm like, there go Bob right there. You know, I love that. I miss him so much. And like, especially this time of year, I start thinking about better banding and all the memories and, but I'm going outside, bro. My pale purple cone flower is looking beautiful right next to my dog woods. So we start thinking about planning those native plants. They're beautiful, by the way. A lot of times these landscape companies, they go for the brightest or whatever. The most aesthetically pleasing. Once you start getting those native plants popping off and they look beautiful too. And people have these manicure yards. They don't have any nectar producing flowers. They don't have any of this stuff. And they're like, we're in the butterflies. I didn't have no hummingbirds. I didn't have anything. Well, you don't have anything. That's why. Yeah. Cause your yard is filled with stuff that's supposed to be in like Southeast China. That's why I don't got nothing. So, you know, you mentioned that right. And I want to put people onto another resource. Uh, the national wildlife Federation has a native plant finder and we'll put it in the show notes, but just
00:25:40
Speaker
Native Plant Finder, National Wildlife Federation, is it Federation or Foundation? Either way, they have one. You can look it up by your region and it tells you what to get it. It even gives you some links to go figure out where to get them. Also, your local extension office, right? These are usually associated with big universities and Eric can tell you things that are native to the region. You don't have to do it all in one shot. If you don't have a yard and you have a balcony, Hey, get yourself a little pot, a little bit of good soil. Get yourself going up there with something. Just a little pack of couple of little seeds that like you said before, like these small but consistent actions that we all can take. Like imagine like what is like 330 million people or something in the country. Imagine if half of us took.
00:26:29
Speaker
native wildlife conservation seriously. This place would be so different, right? And that doesn't mean half of us would have to have big yards or anything like that. It just means half of us would have to be taking action on a regular basis to conserve these things and help them along, particularly the birds. So you can do that, right? um You know, you mentioned, um ah you know, the bird banding and we talked about the feeders in the backyard.
Seasonal Conservation Activities
00:26:55
Speaker
um Those are both springtime and summertime activities. You know, those are, those are fun. You get out, birds are moving and chirping and making babies, you know, um, the wintertime stuff I also like too. So like last winter, I did my first Christmas bird count, right? Yeah. Which.
00:27:14
Speaker
In my region, i was I was fortunate enough to get added to a crew that was going to a trash dump to look for Gulls. because you choice god right i am you listen i'm listen um I was out there surrounded by some heavy hitters, man. Like some people that are just, you can't spell Gull without those people's names popping into your head. Ammar Ayash, who just wrote a book. George Armistead is a couple other people with us, my homie Jeff and my homie Angela. and like We spent a few hours just driving around in this trash dump, just looking at gulls. But the goal there was to figure out, like hey, you know we get a lot of gull species that come up the Atlantic Flyway, or they fuss around on the Delaware River and the coastline, they come over to these trash dumps, right?
00:28:05
Speaker
How many are there? What are they looking? We have any hybrids. That's an extreme of a Christmas bird count. There were other parts of our group that were birding and the non-dump part of that county. Right. And they were, you know, in the parks and the lakes and the rivers. And it's done very specifically to catch the numbers at that time of year. Right. And for those kinds of bird species, you're not usually in heavy migration. You probably like for us here, like you and me, we have some finches that come down. That's a great thing because of the community around it. The birds are awesome. Birds are always going to be awesome. But when you're with like-minded folks and you can feel like you're learning a little bit, you're contributing a little bit, that's amazing. They also have the great backyard bird count, which is in February. And I remember for mine that weekend, it was like snowing.
00:28:52
Speaker
So I was, I think I made a real where I was like sitting inside counting birds with like some Eggo waffles and a coffee. And I was just chilling. I was chilling so hard. I was just like, yeah, I'll count these little finchy finches out here. You know, I got a couple of Robins hopping around trying to get through the snow. But it was great to feel like I was contributing to something that weekend, right? That was maybe bigger than just, than just my own enjoyment. So, you know, I encourage folks to look at some of these in August, August, at least for those of us in some parts of the region, that's a lot of shorebird migration.
00:29:26
Speaker
in late summer, you get these mud flats that form and you get a lot of shorebirds that show up there and a lot of them will have a lot, but some of them will have rings on their legs, right? Little tags. And you can actually take pictures and plug those numbers in somewhere and they can tell you where that bird was banded and where it was born and where it's from and how old it is. That's awesome to me. That's so fun. It's like this massive Where's Waldo puzzle that is just moving around the planet the whole time. and like You never know. like I just saw an update yesterday of these ah large build turns or something in Florida that are showing up again. and In my head, I'm like, where are they from? What is going on in Florida? right like
00:30:09
Speaker
those people probably losing their mind. And like, we always see the rare bird alerts in like Texas and Florida and the Southeast. Brown booby in New Jersey right now. Bro, I got the alert a couple of days ago, right? Like homies flying up the river and I was like, oh, I got to work. He's still around. I know. They're taking people out on the boat to go see it. Boobies don't care about people. They don't. They don't. They just, yeah. They got that name because the sailors back in the day thought they were dumb. They thought they were dumb boobies because they would just sit on the boats and just stare at people. They were dumb. Oh, I didn't know that. So that's actually how they got their names. But when you look at them, they don't look super intelligent. He's right about that.
00:30:56
Speaker
And I love, I love seeing the videos of the, um, the blue footed boobies when they're doing their courting display and they like stomp their feet around. I have to share it on our social somewhere and they throw their head back and they do these little dances together and they look so absurd, man. Yeah. This is, this is where conservation minded birding sometimes can lead you. It's like exploring these new things so that the next time you hear about a rare bird from somewhere, it's not just. a potential tick on your list it is oh man i wonder where that bird is from why is it coming here does it does not have food where it's from did it get thrown around from some storm is that storm may be something that's not normal due to climate change what can i do you know like we talked about the flamingos i don't know that that storm was necessarily due to climate change or anything but it was a pretty strong storm
00:31:47
Speaker
And then homies got tossed all over the eastern United
Flamingos in Wisconsin: Adaptability Debate
00:31:51
Speaker
States. Right. I think you guys had the furthest north ones. Right. So that's that's crazy. I remember I had a lot of conversations with people around like, well, what do we do? Do we do we take them back to Florida? Do we do this? And I remember, um, One of the local birdlies around here, Debbie Beer, she, you know, she mentioned to me, she was like, you know, look, those populations in Mexico are pretty stable and pretty healthy. That's where the conversation kind of begins and ends is like, I really can't do anything outside of a really crazy circumstance. We got to let nature take its course. I don't know how I feel about that answer all the time. Just getting that information. Cause like in my head.
00:32:25
Speaker
I just assume flamingos. I mean, they're big, they're pink. I don't see them often. they They must be endangered, right? But they're not necessarily in their home region. You know, there's thousands of them down there. A lot of people were freaking out about the Wisconsin birds because it was fall. Yeah. Yeah. And they're like, you know, these birds, it's getting cold at night. And then they don't realize that sometimes in the mountain regions that some of these birds live in, it gets cold, too. Yeah, I didn't know that. They're smart. These birds are smart. They're not going to hang out if the water is freezing. They're not going to hang out, right? Like they, they get it. Like they're, they're smart enough to say, okay, I gotta at least fly somewhere else. This is not it. Homies ain't here. I should not be here. Right? Like they they they do get it. But I love you talking about the Christmas bird count. We mentioned we bird 12 months a year. And I tell you what, that's one of my favorite events in the winter.
00:33:19
Speaker
We're out and we, we partner with the local bird Alliance on our event every year. And it's so cool because half of what we bird is in a neighborhood as well. Walking through the neighborhood in the city and we're seeing people with bird feeders and we're seeing the impact that bird feeders can have, especially in the winter, man, you might even get some red poles, homie. No. The red poles come through in Wisconsin in the winter, maybe a hoary red pole every once in a while. long man not i out to about to put those together and know Those common red poles though coming through in the winter, bro. So cool. But that's one of my favorite events because
00:33:56
Speaker
We talked about winter blues and we get outside and our, our club knows we, we, we stress to people dress for it. We're going to be walking. Could be a little slippery. Could we're in Wisconsin, right? There's going to be snow everywhere. It is the Christmas bird count. We do it. It's a three hour event and people don't realize that they just spent three hours in the winter in the outdoors. Doing citizen science, bonding with the community. And later that day, the Bird Alliance does a great job of gathering everybody together. And we have like chili and hot cocoa. The balance of like, go do the work. And now let's come back together and celebrate. To the victor go the spoils. It's just like, you're looking around and you're hearing with this group saw this and we haven't had this bird. We haven't had this bird on our bird count in five years. Stuff like that happens. in there. It's like all geeking out over this. Like let's go that in December. Like people are freaking out. There is a really good, fun community element going out, obviously with the club. I love one thing too, which is really cool is the area we've been assigned. We've done it for three years now. So now we know the area too. Those repeat visits are really cool. And I remember one time we're walking through this area and it's called the Stark weather Creek area. And it's right on the edge of a golf course. And we're walking through it in the winter and I'm like, I gotta come back here in the spring. I was like, look, I've never birded back here. Look at all these trees. There's a stream running through it. I started just seeing warblers flitting around and like some nerdy stuff, but trust me, like I was like. You were in your Snow White bag, just feeling it. I swear to you, the next spring, guess what shows up? Prairie Warbler shows up in that same exact spot where the stream is, just hanging out in those trees that I was envisioning all these freaking warblers.
00:35:54
Speaker
love And it's just putting on a show. It's singing away. And it's just this bird was not afraid of people for nothing. It was basically landing on people's feet. It was so weird. wow It was just flitting around and singing and singing, literally for like two weeks. Wow. And now that spot has come that spot has become a regular spot for me. It's it's in my patch, which is really cool. Just kind of one of those things where I'm walking by in the winter and I was like, I wonder what you look like in the spring, homie. Yeah. come check right I love that. And you know, the wild part is like, if you're logging data there, like you're, you're providing that 12 month data for that spot.
Winter Survival Tactics of Birds
00:36:33
Speaker
Like something kept that Prairie Warbler there for that many weeks. It wasn't the people. Right. Unless, unless somebody was showing up and dropping caterpillars out of their pocket, like Shawshank Redemption. You know, sliding them out as they walked. ah That is amazing because it's, it's, it's the experience of the individual. It's the data. It's the connection with the bird. It's the amount of joy it brings. Right. And how many people walked away from that experience saying, Hey, we have to make sure that we are preserving these kinds of habitats in this community.
00:37:03
Speaker
They also get to know, too, you mentioned this before, where you'll go to an area with your club and you can you can say, hey, you know what? We saw X amount of species here last time. We do the same thing. Yeah. Christmas bird count. You got people like, how many do we have last year again? Right. And now they're like, we got to be 21. Yeah. We got to be like middle of winter. That is also a conversation that people love having the fact that they cannot believe how many birds live in Wisconsin during the winter. Yeah. Yeah. Same thing. Same thing. blown Like they cannot 20 plus species are living here around me right now, even in the city. Yeah. And they're just
00:37:45
Speaker
It's just exploding. They literally had no clue and it just changes the way they view birds. You know, the first time they see ah a black cat chickadee sitting in a polar vortex sitting on ah on a branch, all like it ain't nothing all puffed up, looking irritated, but still just dealing with it. You know what I'm saying? They all puffed up with their little face and you look at them like. that's the vision That's the original puffy jacket. Yeah, that's right. That's right. That's the original pla the original starter jacket. Yeah. And and ah you know, these birds are just be so impressed with how they survive through some of these really tough spots of winter for those of us that live in places that have a tough winter. These um adaptations that the birds have developed, right? Like in some cases they um
00:38:30
Speaker
they will move the blood from their feet to the rest of their body they will slow their heart rate down to conserve energy cuz you know we get these polar vortexes that come through and i am i'm like i'm not going outside you know now look out the window and like you said the chicken just sitting like a g. on the branch, just like, what's what? I'm good out here, homie. Throw a couple of seeds out, I'll be all right. And so people being able to connect with that and know that feeding the birds in my backyard is helping them get through this winter. The native plant seeds that I leave, so when you plant native plants, leave them out there after they've finished. Let those seeds from the plant just hang out. I promise you, if they're natives, the birds will find them and sex will come find them.
00:39:16
Speaker
All these little things that you can do in the wintertime to kind of connect with the birds. I love winter because of the woodpeckers because you can see them all because there's no leaves on the trees. Right. So like I love going on a nice winter walk where the sun is out and you just get, you know, sometimes you get like that massive, piliated woodpecker come through and just give that call that echoes throughout a forest that has no leaves. So it just carries you and people, their minds are blown owls. Owls, people don't think about
Urban Bird Conservation
00:39:45
Speaker
that. Great time to see owls is the winter. yeah the winter right what you you You mentioned that people are always surprised by how many birds are in the city. right One other organization I want to call out for folks is called the Urban Bird Foundation, and they do work all across the country. right and They have a bunch of great stuff on their website around the fact that these cities we live in are still habitats.
00:40:05
Speaker
They're not, you know, they're not separate from we are a part of nature, like we are. So they're doing these studies. You can see a lot of stuff on there around them trying to protect burrowing owls in the south. Other stuff. They have a Midwest version. They have a East coast one. They have a West coast one groups like that, that are in the city. Like, for example, in Philly, we have bird safe Philly, which is a group that goes and monitors window strikes. They are, they are pushing the lights out Philly programs in the spring and the fall. I'm trying to figure out how to get in color burning with them right so we can go out at four five in the morning with them one day and and and collect specimens advocate and whatever we need to do it's a good way for our group that is mostly burning for enjoyment.
00:40:46
Speaker
to find a way to connect. And those situations are really important. Like we did our our first one ever was doing a beach cleanup at Sandy Hook for piping plovers. And it was amazing, but it was also sad in some ways where you see how much plastic and yeah mostly Dunkin Donuts straws and bottle caps, right? you know But you yeah where was ah there was a recliner out there, right? but yeah It's like, what's going on? you know And this is a place where piping plovers are nesting every year. And so being able to get people to do that. And you mentioned, I love, you mentioned in the doing something and it's sitting down with the chili and the coffee and like community, right? That's what puts the bow on it, yeah right? That's what makes it stick in people's brain is the smiles in the community. i'm a part Exactly. After they did that work. So like, I remember we did that.
00:41:34
Speaker
I went and picked up some really good pizza from some local joint that was up there in New Jersey. And we all liked, we were like chilling. Like we were in high school, we were like sitting on the back of the car, eating pizza with no plates, you know, just talking about what we did. And then after that, we did a little birding on the beach after that, right? Like after we cleaned up the beach, that makes a difference. And a lot of those folks. where folks that showed up to other events that we do to help with conservation because it meant that much to encourage you if you're looking for organizations to be a part of. And you're trying to figure out whether they're right for you or not there's a lot of things to consider but one of the things i would ask them is you know what do you guys do for conservation like i'm gonna be involved in around here so that is not just a.
00:42:19
Speaker
extractive activity of you just going and seeing the birds and marking your list like you're actually contributing something back to overall scientific community in the overall birding i love it get involved in local conservation efforts your participation can make a big difference it really did it really does make a big difference. I want to thank everybody for listening to today's episode. Remember to subscribe, share the podcast, spread the word about this bird joy that we're trying to share. Spread the word about bird conservation. You know, spread the word about bird conservation. Yeah, it's plenty out there. I really appreciate y'all being with us on this episode. And I encourage you just get on the old Google machine, type bird conservation near me. I promise you some stuff will pop up. Don't be afraid to shoot them emails out, ask them questions. You want more recommendations, shoot us a message on Instagram. And we will we will definitely try to help you out. Right. But I'm really excited for our community to Getting your bag, getting your bag. That's right. That's right.
00:43:23
Speaker
Check out BIPOCBerttyClub.org. If you want to see what we got going on this summer, get involved. Yeah, same here. If you're in or around or visiting the Philly area, InkolorBerting.org, we'll get some hot summer birding going in the next couple months here. So come through. I like it, man. I like the summer birding. Get out there. Go find them families. I just saw a trumpeter swan family. I saw that. That was a cute little family. Tis the season, you know go get you some go get you some bird families, you know, that's right That's right, brother man. This was fun. Yeah, I was brother. All right, man. Until next time next time. See you peace