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Welcome to Season 2 of the Bird Joy Podcast
672 Plays2 months ago
We are back!!! It’s been too long homies. We have missed you!
On this episode, Jason and Dexter get back in the saddle and catch up on what’s been going on in the bird world. This includes visiting the International Crane Foundation with the homies to see birds like the endangered Whooping Crane and the incredibly beautiful Blue Crane. It also included doing some conservation work with Bird Safe Philly and advocating for bird safe windows/glass. Most notably however is the discussion on how homies in Philly and Madison got to witness this seasons SWIFTNADO action! So much joy and wonder watching Chimney Swifts go “nite-nite” for the evening while preparing to migrate south for the winter.
Dexter and Jason wrap up by discussing some upcoming trips with their bird clubs and the migrants they are still looking forward to this fall including Golden Eagles and sparrows. They discuss their excitement on the number of guests for next season including a special guest for Episode 2!
Be sure to follow our podcast on Instagram at @thebirdjoypod and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
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Transcript
Celebration and Reflection
00:00:00
Speaker
What's good, bro? We are back at it. You know, we were getting a lot of messages. People are worried like like the bird joy podcast was not coming back, but we are back. We are. We are back rested, rejuvenated. ready to have some more bird joy with the homies out there you know it's been a nice beautiful summer and man we are so happy to have all of our bird homies with us you know looking for that bird joy we have a lovely lovely autumn and winter upcoming and so we hope to be right there with you Yeah, I figured, you know, we let everybody know we were going to take summer off like the later end of summer, beginning to fall off so we can recharge the batteries and really kind of set ourselves up and and plan what we thought season two should look like based off the feedback from the homies. and we We got 12 episodes in. We did all we did a whole episode. We did a whole season of the Birdjoy podcast. and And I still I say this still today, bro. And i I still can't believe we did it. Like, I still can't believe we did it. Like, I knew we could do it. And I knew it
Season Two Aspirations
00:01:05
Speaker
would be successful. But I still cannot believe that we actually did it in a whole season.
00:01:11
Speaker
I know, I know we're just talking about podcasts that try to get started and don't quite get off the ground. And it's great that we were able to do that. In large part to you, homie, all that editing and setting everything up, you know, um you know, I think this has been great. And I.
00:01:27
Speaker
It makes me even more excited for season two, you know, like, cause we, we got kind of the hang of it. I think we have some amazing audience members out there, some bird nerd homies that, uh, are going to continue to contribute to the conversation as we go. And, you know, the bird is going to be there. You know, the birds are plentiful.
00:01:44
Speaker
Showing up all over the place smooth build on these are group build on these out and what the midwest somewhere and i'm like what is going on what is happening here season season you know so yes really excited to be back here as the leaves are changing color we're gonna have some different stuff this season that we did last season is gonna be pretty exciting.
00:02:04
Speaker
We laid the foundation in season one for what we hope to just be an incredible season two as we we shift a little bit, right? The vision and the mission of the podcast, that's not changing, right? Like our goal ultimately is to center joy, to center the bird joy about what we talk about. But we are shifting in a sense is we really wanna elevate more voices in the birding community and especially voices in the burning community that we find and so you know extremely influential, people that have inspired us, people that are working to inspire people all over the globe. So to be able to bring them here and center their voices for our audience, I'm really excited about that and taking that direction.
00:02:53
Speaker
for season two and bringing on more guests, man, i' and talking to more people and bringing out the bird joy and the stories from those folks, man. I think that's what people should expect from season two, don't you think? Yeah, for sure. I mean, although I love hearing your voice every episode, Dexter, we got to get some other homies in here, right? Like this is as much as we enjoy hanging out with each other. There's so many other voices and stories that not only we want you to hear, but we want to hear.
00:03:20
Speaker
Right. Like we, you know, it it just, it really will illuminate. I think the fact that this community is big and it's growing and it's full of new birders, it's full of birders that are interested in allyship for those new birders stories. Um, and really, uh, we talked about this, I was listening to some of the old episodes, right. And we talked about the fact that there's this through line of joy for the most experienced birder and the brand new birder. Right. And like, they're both feeding off that through line. It may be doing different activities. One may be.
00:03:50
Speaker
you know, chasing some vagrant bird that showed up from, you know, Russia, uh, in their state. And another person may be going out to their local park and trying to find their first warbler, right? want to Connect those stories. And that's, and that's really the cool part. Cause it's really a never ending pool of amazing people, amazing birders, amazing humans. And we don't have to limit ourselves. We really don't. You know and it's kinda like walking into a candy store with eight million flavors you know so i'm excited for man i'm excited for i've been thinking about it all summer how's your how's your summer going man you get some good birding and like what was it like you know i was hot out here in pennsylvania so you know i'm gonna complain about that but like how is yours.
00:04:30
Speaker
No, it was it was it was hot here too. it was It was kind of uncharacteristically hot for a long time here. But the summer was good. You you mentioned people going out and seeing their first warblers. and like I found joy. and like I was watching a lot of, whether it's our members from the club or some of the homies from from the socials, like paying attention to these first these first memories and these lifers. and people experiencing some of these what a lot of maybe more season birders and people that have been doing this thing like you and I for many years where maybe we fall into this that's mundane right that oh you know same old saying but like you and I we've got to break that habit of like yeah Oh no, it's not the same old saying. This is still remarkably cool, ah but a lot of other people just like, oh, it's justice. Oh, it's just that. But like, I find myself just being super excited watching all these people get their summer, their first warblers, getting some of their first lifers and and those type of things.
International Crane Foundation Visit
00:05:34
Speaker
But I will say in the summer for me, some of the things that I've really looked forward to are we typically every summer,
00:05:42
Speaker
as a club will visit the International Crane Foundation, which is really cool because it's located not even 30 minutes away from Madison and Baraboo, Wisconsin. And you can actually go to the International Crane Foundation and see all the crane species of the world in one place.
00:05:59
Speaker
Wow. So we've been going there for a couple years for this annual trip. And we typically, we usually do it in the middle, like late fall. We decided it to do it like really early fall, late summer this this year. And the weather was absolutely perfect.
00:06:15
Speaker
I would say for me, visiting that and like literally seeing all these amazing crane species, like I said, every every crane species you can see in one place, right? And Wisconsin of all places. So shout out to the International Crane Foundation.
00:06:31
Speaker
Yeah, I was gonna say, what's your favorite one, though? Like, i like, you know you need to tell me so I can Google. Yeah, I would say it's hard, right? Like, people, it's like when people, bro, people are asking me all the time, what's your favorite bird? And I'm like, well, picking a favorite bird is like picking a favorite kid and I have four.
00:06:47
Speaker
Picking a favorite crane is like picking a favorite kid. They're like, all these species are amazing. But if I had to pick one, I would have to say the blue crane, which is an absolutely just amazing crane that will like blow people's mind when you see the blue crane. um It's typically a crane that you'll find in South Africa is its native range. But whoa, when you talk about just a cool bird.
00:07:15
Speaker
This thing looks insane, bro. It looks like a crane combined with a peacock. it they are we inable Yeah. I can't wait to show people this on the, on the old socials, but it's, it's really got like a blue, gray color, kind of like a blue, gray, not catcher. Um, that it with a wine very good at yeah. Like a really short bill too. Like not even, yeah, they are so unique looking. Yeah. But these tail plumes though, that is fire.
00:07:43
Speaker
Look at that. They're pretty ridiculous. um So yeah, I encourage people. If you're in Wisconsin and South Africa, I mean, like we need to go, right?
00:07:57
Speaker
Yeah, it's pretty wild to to be able to just say, hey, this is the only place in the world that has all 15 species of cranes in one place. That's amazing. Yeah, it's incredible. The work that they do all over the globe. I think that is also really cool. Like we've had this conversation before where no matter where people are and there's different birds right but like the joy is the same right there seeing different birds and they're getting excited for the birds that we see we're getting excited for the birds we see in our regions and then when i look at what they're doing with the cranes are working with people in asia and india and africa and all these different continents where all these birds live.
00:08:40
Speaker
but that joy that commonality that that cranes bring us together bird joy brings us together i found myself just like really relishing in that and realizing like that common thread is the birds no matter what the species it don't matter that common thread is is the birds and the bird joy.
00:08:58
Speaker
Wow. That's one of my favorite memories from the summer. Oh, that's beautiful, man. That's beautiful. And it's got to be cool because people can go and they can get a glimpse of other parts of the world through these birds that come from those places. Right. And it's it's I love it. Right. It's like, what about you, man? I know you've been busy. You know, obviously we we stay in contact and we're texting and we're checking in on it. Like you've been busy this summer, man.
Summer Birding Experiences
00:09:21
Speaker
You know, we've been trying to do some stuff, man. Some big trips, you know, we've had some summer birding trips, uh, that have been amazing. You know, we kind of play that by ear. We've been kind of in a little bit of a, I call it a drought out here. Our normal mud flats and stuff weren't necessarily great. Uh, they kind of dried up, uh, really, really bad in some spots. Uh, but we did have a couple of parks and refuges that tried to manage it to, uh, you know, keep the birds good, but.
00:09:46
Speaker
I did a lot of burning by myself obviously within color burning we had a ton of events some of our most memorable we brought nicole jackson over to celebrate black international parks week at the yeah the end of august so she came out to hang out with us at valley forge national historical park.
00:10:02
Speaker
That was great. It took a trolley ride around and kind of learned about what it means to have access to that space. And we were welcomed by the Valley Forge Park Alliance. So that was awesome. I wasn't able to be there because I was in California for my dad's birthday, but we did some more conservation work. So I don't know if you guys have a thing out there around bird collisions in the cities at night. So, you know, it's like myself, Billy.
00:10:25
Speaker
Is a big thing. yeah and We have an organization called bird safe Philly that they go monitor every morning at five 30, you know, for two and a half hours and it's some, some mornings there's no birds. Some mornings there's a lot and it's really sad, but what they do is collect the data.
00:10:39
Speaker
And then they provide that data to the institutions that have the big windows with the lights on and they say, Hey homie, like maybe cut them suckers off during migration season. So we did that. Um, and you know, it was an absolutely fantastic summer in terms of birding. I also had a lot of new people that came to bird. So just yesterday I was at a place called Stenton museum, which is a, the oldest historic house, I think in Philadelphia.
00:11:03
Speaker
um Once inhabited by a slaver and that person's enslaved peoples and I was able to be preserved over time, but it's like this little secret garden pocket in the middle of like North Philly. And I got there and we're like walking around and it's, you know, it was like 20 people and a half of them were brand new birders, right? And they, I don't know what it is, like which bird is going to cause people to freak out the most, but the yellow belly sapsucker got them.
00:11:29
Speaker
It got it flew in and it hit this tree and it, you know, it's, it's, you know, kind of pecking on the tree and, you know, making its way around and people, you know, they get that first view with the binoculars and they're freaking out. And then as they kind of panned out with their own vision, they realized the whole tree, big, big, like it was an ash tree covered in those horizontal lines from the holes, from the yellow bellies, sapsucker looking for sap and bugs, right?
00:11:55
Speaker
And you know people were just blown away. because people There were some people that worked there that they were like, I've never even noticed that. They saw their first brown thrasher, Eastern Towie. And so i put I think I put a video on Instagram story of just, I took a video of people just oohing and on. you know and And you talked about birds where you know people are like, oh, it's just this or it's just that. It's not just anything. When you watch people react to it, um there was a young lady there named Phoebe.
00:12:21
Speaker
And she didn't realize there was something called an Eastern Phoebe. So when I was like, hey, look above the head, that's awesome you see that bird up there, you know, shaking his tail feather. And she turned her mom and her brother, which is tickled by that. Like I thought that was the coolest thing. And I was like, wait till you see like the black Phoebe out West and like all these other ones. Like, you know, so like that, that kind of stuff is what keeps me going through that. I didn't chase any, uh, really like, you know, long birds where I'm like going to try to find some weird vagrant. I got a homie out here though, Jason Pihan.
00:12:49
Speaker
his yard, Dexter, his yard. It's a normal suburban yard, but he plants a lot of natives. In the spring home, he had a Townsend's warbler in his trees. And then we get a text a couple of weeks ago. Hey, I have a blackthroated gray warbler in my tree.
00:13:05
Speaker
Right. And I'm like, dude, what is going on? And you're like, it's not like it's literally, it's it's not like a big palatial estate. It's a beautiful suburban neighborhood and his yard is immaculate with all these kind of natives and water features. so and we ought there probably help to brand roll over and It was like 44 minutes on a Thursday afternoon or something. And the homies just sitting in the cedar tree, just putzing around, you know, like, I guess nothing like it, like, like it's not a big deal.
00:13:33
Speaker
And that was the only kind of big chase. I think I did this summer for a bird. We had a Kirtland's warbler out West, but I, you know, I wasn't about to hit that five hour drive for a Kirtland's warbler. Like I, Kirtland's warbler for me is something that I wanted to come to me in kind of my own way. You know what I mean? Like.
00:13:49
Speaker
Yeah, you know, and even if that means I take a trip to either its breeding grounds or its wintering grounds in the islands, right. And I see it there, but there's some birds. I was talking to ah one of our good friends, k Christian Cooper, about this when he was down here a few weeks ago that, you know.
00:14:04
Speaker
Some birds I don't want to chase because I want my first sighting of that bird to be i guess a little bit more natural. where Either I find it or it's found by a friend in that moment by chance. right have I'm surrounded by amazing birders out here so it wouldn't be surprising to be with one of them. He's one of those.
00:14:22
Speaker
You know, there's just something like that, but like, it was a, it was a good summer, man, full of community, full of some fun birds, you know? Um, but once we hit that humidity in August, I was out.
Swift Night Out Event
00:14:32
Speaker
I was like, I'm ready for the leaves to change color. I don't, you know, yeah some about that fall birding that late, that late summer, another event that, that we had late summer that I really get into and is the, our, our swift night out events.
00:14:47
Speaker
So every year we do, we do a swift night out event where we team up with the local feminist bird club chapter. We team up with the Southern Wisconsin bird Alliance, save our songbirds, another nonprofit. But this year we did, we did a swift night out week.
00:15:04
Speaker
oh are We had our main big event where all of us kind of meet up on one day, but we were going out every day for a week and we were scouting all these various chimneys throughout the throughout the city. Shout out to our planning committee, our Madison coordinator, Sean Radcliffe, co-founder Jeff Galligan, Verena from the Southern Wisconsin Bird Alliance, Kaitlyn from the Feminist Bird Club. We put together just this. It's like it's literally, it feels like it's a concert.
00:15:33
Speaker
you know like the swifts are like this it's like swifties like real life swifties you know cause we like pulling up deep You're talking to hundreds of people. We tell people to bring their lawn chairs, bring a meal, or bring your blankets. I mean, when I talk about community just sprawled out. So you got you got all the BIPOC folks, all the other organizations, we all there together. I'm talking to hundreds of people sprawled out in this huge soccer field. And there's like, what's so cool is the chimney is right. Like it's this old middle school and it's one it's Cherokee middle school, my old middle school, which was kind of cool to go back.
00:16:09
Speaker
to my old school with this different view. you know like When I went to school here, I wasn't paying attention to whether or not Chimney Swift lived in our big old chimney at the school. You know what I mean? Many of us won't. So here I am back, returning back to this place. And I was just so jacked up because, like like I said, we had been scouting. So we knew there were a lot of Chimney Swifts there. We knew that they were about to put on a show. And for so many people, it was the first time. My mom got to make it for the first time. My sister came for the first time. My nephew came for the first time. This is some of those firsts I was talking about this summer where I was seeing people experiencing birds and bird joy in a way. right and in some These are people I love to death. My sister, my nephew, they finally make it out and they make it to the swift night out. That was the first event in the summer and the first event that they've been able to attend.
00:17:01
Speaker
And I was like, oh, any of the events we do, I'm so happy that you're attending this one, because this is about to be crazy. And I was like, just watch. I was like, it's like a real life fireworks show, but it's birds, you know what I mean? Like the grand finale. We got the swift NATO going and stuff. And like that night, bro, they start coming in. And like you see like 10, 20, 30, and then like you start hearing them and they're kind of swooping in a little more and more and more. And next thing you know, hundred and people are like whoa what is going on right and they keep coming and they keep coming and they keep coming you know they look like flying cigars as they're flying through the air and so cool and before you know it they're just kind of circling in the field right as they're oh wow out, you know, they're getting their last bugs for the night and like, all of a sudden they keep coming. They keep coming. The noise is getting more and more. Bro, by the end of the night, over 1300 Swift's show up, right? And they create that Swift nado and they start going into the chimney. And like every year I always go to, I've told you, it feels like it's the grand finale. And I'm like, go, go, go, go.
00:18:12
Speaker
Imagine hundreds of people doing the same thing because like I'm jacked up. We're just nerding out and everybody's cheering them on. It was so cool. The kids start picking a Swift and they're like, that one's mine. No, no, that one's mine. That one's mine. and They're trying to like track their Swift to see if it goes in the chimney. Bro, it was so cool. It was so fun. And I remember just all those amazing conversations that I was having with people that had never seen a swift, let alone see 1,300 of them come into groups that night. But then to be able to have that conversation with them and tell them how they never land, right? like they don't They're on the wing all day hunting for food. And they don't stop until they go inside that little chimney and do their little... Their little Spiderman impersonation? Yes, right on that. out just having those conversations like that that meant the world right like it was just so fun we're handing out free butterfly milkweed oh nice stuff like that so like we just had this amazing time with the chimney swift ah the working group here in madison that does all this amazing group to to not only find potential chimneys that, you know, you can talk to owners about if they're not using them or anything and make them aware of the opportunity that, hey, you this could be a home for some amazing birds if you wanted to eat. So they're doing that kind of, they're doing that type of work. Also trying to preserve snags. You know, I say this a lot of times in some of my, you ready, let's go videos. Those snags in your yards are potential homes.
00:19:49
Speaker
yeah And a lot of people just don't think about them like that. So yeah on on the soapbox right now, preserve the snags if you can, like I understand might not look super pretty, but if you have them and it's not a risk to your home or anything like that, leave them up, you know, let nature take its course.
00:20:07
Speaker
And I find that people see snags differently once they see how they're used. Like they may think, oh man, that's an eyesore. That tree that came down, you know, during the hurricane a couple of years ago, it's hollow on the inside and it's about half as tall and it's just lost all the bark. And they might think it looked ugly until they see a woodpecker and some babies come out of that jar. When they see chimney sniffs go down, the swifts go down and then they're like, oh, oh wow, this is like this is important. this is not you know My yard doesn't need to be manicured for humans. It needs to be maintained for nature.
00:20:38
Speaker
yes and that's in there's no better way i think you know know There's no better way to do that than being able to expose them to the fact that not only do these swifts before humans came along, that's that's what they used. right They used the snags that were hollowed out.
00:20:52
Speaker
And so our chimneys can serve the same purpose, right? And so since we're occupying the same space, why not? You know, if we can do it safely and provide some safe habitat for the homies on their way down. And it's wild to me that they fly all day and then they got like 50 people in Madison, Wisconsin rooting for them to go to bed. Like this is literally at what you guys are doing.
00:21:11
Speaker
that was like roll It was like 200 or some 300 people. oh yeah i wish nu that like I'm sure people was driving by like, what is going on? yeah like Why are all these people living here just staring at this chimney?
00:21:26
Speaker
You know like I could just imagine what people driving by are thinking if they're driving by when everybody's doing like the Arsenio Hall joint We were just going crazy We had people from the neighborhood actually coming over this year actually really they were like what's happening and There's one woman asked me. She was like, what's going on here? She's like, I literally live down the street. And then that led to her asking me, do you think I could see them coming out of the chimney in the morning? And I was like, you know what? I've never done that. I was like, I've never done that. Did you tell her to go check it out? Check it out and report back. I said, you should try it. I said, you should try it. And let me know. Because usually, I just, you know, I've never thought about seeing them come out in the morning if it's the same as coming home at night. I have no clue. I thought about it. I said, I don't know. But it'd be pretty cool to see. There's some early risers to just be like, I'm out of here. And a couple more, like, is it like kind of more staged? You know, it'd be kind of cool to see. Yeah, it would be really cool. I wonder if they like come out and circle around to make sure they got everybody before they roll, you know, the same way they do when they go in. You know, I wonder. But that's another reason to get out there and see what's what. That's absolutely beautiful, man. We did that in Philly. It wasn't in color birding. It was a couple of our other homies at Philly Queer Birders and Feminist Bird Club Philly, and I think an organization called Bird Philly. And they had a, it was either old school or a church downtown, right? And they did the same thing. They figured out where they were going to be.
00:22:59
Speaker
And I saw a video and it would look like a protest. It was a bunch of bird homies just lining this historic Philly street, staring up at this chimney and people would cheer in. They were oozing. ah You know, I wasn't able to be there, but like, that's one of those pivotal moments for people that helps them connect to the nature around them.
Urban Conservation and Birding
00:23:15
Speaker
Right. And the perseverance of these birds that you can say, man, they can fly all day and eat.
00:23:22
Speaker
They have that kind of stamina. But darn it, if they don't need us to keep a clean chimney for them so they can have somewhere to rest the next day, like that's our opportunity to contribute, right? And it makes me feel so good that there's people out there, both in Philly and Madison, that are paying attention to that. And there's tons more groups over the country, I know. Even the the West Coast homies with the, are they Vox's Swifts or Vogue's Swifts? I don't know how they say it, VAUX. I remember seeing a story a couple of years ago that this lady didn't know You know that swisher migrating or whatever and she she came downstairs one day and she had like tens of thousands of swifts in her living room that like came down her. chi
00:24:01
Speaker
And I don't know if she just didn't have a chimney film or what, but like, i'm I'm gonna have to find it and put it in the show notes, but it was just, it was just wild to think about, right? Like you come downstairs and all these birds in your house, but that was, that was that family's notification of their role, their potential role in this. So, you know, yeah, Swift's are awesome, man. s Swift's are awesome. i You know, we're getting ready to do a trip to, um we're going to meet up with the formerly DC Audubon, now DC Bird Alliance. We're going to meet up with them down in Cape Henlop and Delaware next weekend. And, um you know, it'll be our first trip there. collaboration. We're talking about that at season one. Yeah, our homie Tykey used to be involved with them and now we're working with Maria and and we went up to New York and met homies um up there. and Now we're going down to to Delaware to meet the homies from DC and it's going to be really beautiful. we're gonna
00:24:46
Speaker
The birds that come down through Cape May, yeah when they come across the bay from New Jersey and to Delaware, Cape Henlopen is where they they hit. It'll have probably some migrating birds that are resting after they come over the water, maybe. Here's a big hawk watch there, and then we're going to take a little boat ride. So I'm looking forward to people seeing their first northern gannet, maybe a brown booby or two. Oh, that's a bird. i would I would love to see one just just if you come out here. not bro Yeah, if you come out here, let me know because they're like little. They're not little. They're big they're like missiles. Yes, they're like they're like heat seeking missiles and they don't slow down before they hit the water. It's crazy like how an osprey will like kick the legs forward or an eagle will slow down and hover and I grab stuff.
00:25:28
Speaker
This thing is like head first heat seeking missile. And if you ever YouTube the videos of them and like 50 to a hundred of them are diving down on the same school of fish and they all hit the water at the same time. That's nuts. How do they avoid each other?
00:25:41
Speaker
I don't know, man, but the people that do the videos from underwater, when you see them coming in, like like they like those birds are gangster and they hang out. like They shouldn't even be on the water. They shouldn't be in the water. It's wild. because i don't miss Man, these schools of fish, they stand no chance between the whales, the dolphin species we have out here and these Northern gannets and gulls, these schools of fish and zero chance. So yeah, so hopefully folks get to see some of that.
00:26:07
Speaker
But yeah, after that, we're kind of looking, you know, looking into finishing up migration season, you know, catching any late migrants. I would love to see a golden Eagle. come through Philadelphia. They come through the, out in Allegheny, they, Allegheny County, I think they come through down a mountain ridge out there, which is further west from me, but in like November, you know, which would be pretty cold. yeah It's kind of what I'm, kind of what I'm looking forward to is like just slowing down a little bit with some of these big migration pieces and then be able to hit, you know, my favorite weird duck season and goal season. I'm ready to go, man. I'm ready to ID some goals. I might drive up somewhere further north near the Great Lakes to see some goals that I wouldn't normally see. Yeah. You mentioned fall migration kind of wrapping up the warbler migration, like the the mass warbler migration that's been over for a little
Winter Birding and Challenges
00:26:54
Speaker
bit. We still got like some butter butts chilling and some palm warblers and, you know, some, some of the, some of the warbler species hanging around, but then we have just like mass amounts of Kinglets. So the Ruby crown Kinglets and stuff coming through. So we're seeing a lot of them right now. They're trying to see them at least. Yeah. Trying to see them. and they're they're really flat where It's you know, it's little brown bird season. So yeah the leaves are starting to turn a little bit. So their plumage is matching in with the low leaves. They're still hard to see because everything hasn't started falling quite yet.
00:27:28
Speaker
So we are seeing that, that start to happen. I started seeing some rafts of coots rolling through. So that's letting me know that something that was waterfowl about to start rolling through. I started seeing a coots coming in bigger numbers. I'm like, okay, we're duck season now over the next few months, the next month and a half or so should be good for us. Probably get some looms. Um, like you said, the goals start coming through. But yeah, really looking forward for that. I know this time of year too is is hard for for some folks too because yeah they go through that, you know, we're talking about some of the first, they go through that first spring where they're seeing all these colorful birds, you know, the warblers and everything. And then just a couple months later, they come back and they all look different. yeah That's got to be frustrating for people.
00:28:14
Speaker
is it is certainly is it certainly is and i you know i have to warn people if we're at ah at an outing where where we do have all warblers and their fall plumage like relax deep breath i tell you sometimes just identify one right just work on one there'll be probably a large number of fall plumage common yellow throats where we are.
00:28:32
Speaker
and we'll get a lot of palm warblers coming back through. I tell them it's just another puzzle, right? It's just another, you do what you can, right? You take a couple pictures, you got to go home and ID them, right? And we had ah a, ah one of my great friends, Louisa, we had a little sit where we hang out with Philly queer birders and famous bird club Philly and center online accessible birding folks and PA disability pride. And she had a picture of this video, right? right and i you know she's showing me on the back of her camera and i was like i don't know maybe it's a red eye video is kinda stuck in between some stuff and she comes in posted online and one of our board members jeff kenny was like yo yeah that's that's a filly video which is probably the most rare video that we get around here um so she was geeking out right cuz she you know she's she's just out there taking pictures learning in the fall right it's not you know a perfect situation the birds and like the thicket.
00:29:23
Speaker
And, you know, the fact that she got that at an event where we wanted people just to chill and let the birds come to us at this arboretum here named Morris Arboretum was really great. So, you know, that stuff can continue in the winter. You just have to find ways for people to to access it. Right. And realize, yeah, you may not have a lot of songbirds, but got a better chance to see a pileated woodpecker. You can see some weird buffalo head, right. And see like, you know, the universe's version of a beanie baby on water. Right. um you know like you know you can You can go see these things. You you can see some really cool rafters, but it's cold. I look forward to try and give people some ideas as we get through this season to around ways to really enjoy um the upcoming, yeah know the rest of the fall and into winter. like It does not need to be boring. There's so much fun stuff out there. and Eventually, we'll get to an episode on goals, but we got to find the right guests.
00:30:12
Speaker
Yes. It'll be an episode about, I'm already naming it. It's going to be called Goldjoy, right? Co-op, Mirjoy. It's going to be Goldjoy because I consider myself a novice at GullID. I love talking with people who are just so much more experienced with it because they do make it sound fun because for them, it is a big puzzle. We're going to do a lot of that this season. We're going to do a lot of- Enthusiastic novice at GullID. That's kind Yes. of part of what we want to do this season. We want to talk about the science of migration and be able to look at some bird migration patterns and talk to guests that can explain migration research and go a little bit deeper for our audience. We want to talk about advanced bird identification techniques.
00:31:01
Speaker
you know how How can you ID these little LBBs, the little brown birds and the gulls that come through? yeah So bringing on guest experts on bird calls and songs and technology that can help enhance and and all that good stuff. So another another plug on what people can expect this season is more on stuff like that and bringing on folks that can offer a different perspective than either you and I can on on the subject.
00:31:28
Speaker
Yeah. Cause we're going to bring the joy. We're going to bring the enthusiasm and there are, like we said at the beginning, there's a ton of experts out there that can talk to us about urban birding. They can talk to us about travel for birding, photography, videography, climate change, right? and burn Climate change. There's some really, really awesome homies that we know doing some research that can come speak to that. And so, you know, you ask yourself, as you're talking about maybe some of these things from a conservation perspective, how do you find joy?
00:31:56
Speaker
and studying the effect of climate change on birds, right? It can probably be a pretty tough thing to see. And so I would love to hear. from those those scientists, those researchers, those bird nerd homies that are out there actually collecting that data and observing this stuff, like how do they keep their chin up, right? What can we be doing to help, right? And so really looking forward to all of those voices, because like you said, it all leads back to the joy, right? And that's going to be the sustaining factor of this community, I think, and and hopefully the sustaining factor that that helps the birds in the long
Sparrow Season Excitement
00:32:27
Speaker
run. Yes, sir. Also, you know what time it is, what season it is right now.
00:32:32
Speaker
It's sparrows. It is. It is. The sparrows starting to roll through, so I don't know about you. We've been getting the white-throated sparrows, the white-crowned sparrows. We've had some Nelsons rolling through, some Lincolns. This is your number one. This is your number one sparrow. Oh, Lincolns is thanks to you. I don't know. You know, it's hard to pick one.
00:32:55
Speaker
But I love the White Crown Sparrows, especially ah those. They just look incredible. I'm a hair taste too man they're huge, yeah huge fan of the Fox Sparrow as well. Chunky. yeah but just love man I love Sparrows. I love Sparrow season. they' just yeah They're so fun. They're so fun.
00:33:14
Speaker
They are. They are. And that, you know, the more you look at them, the more you get to kind of understand how different they actually are. Right. You think it's just a little brown joint on them, but you as you look closely, you're like, Oh man, the actual difference between a white crown sparrow and a white-throated sparrow is pretty stark. A lot lot of people confuse those, you know, and then like a Nelson's sparrow and a salt marsh sparrow. The Lincoln sparrow, I love because I like to imagine somebody drew those little pinstripes on the front of them with the Little charcoal pencil. I know they're little, right? They're little too. So like some of them are big. I mean, even like the little clay colored sparrows, also a little small. That's my number one, bro. That's my number one. Yeah. know one of those So we have, I always tell people, if you have a community garden around you,
00:34:01
Speaker
Go to that local community gardens and the sparrows will be there in just numbers. They love community gardens. So I, this in late, you know, early fall, like this is like the perfect time to go to your local community gardens. You're still seeing all those beautiful flowers. You're seeing all these things that are still blooming. It is just gorgeous and the birds love it.
00:34:26
Speaker
They do. they do our being one like they and And people don't realize this
Promoting Natural Habitats
00:34:31
Speaker
all the time. We were at the Stenton Museum yesterday here in Philadelphia, and they you know they had a lot of their leaves that had fallen, and they had just strewn them about their garden. It's almost like a mulch. And people were so blown away that there was you know just tons of white-throated sparrows in there. And then they saw the eastern towies kicking up leaves.
00:34:49
Speaker
Right. And I was like, I guarantee you is going to be some Fox barrels in here in the fall. And the groundskeeper there is maintaining that space to try and make it a little haven within the city for these sparrows, these birds, these woodpeckers. And they're doing a great job. Cause I was like, I trust me, you wouldn't have Eastern toys here in your garden in the middle of North Philly. Had you not put those leaves down like that. That's another one similar to the snags. Leave those leaves. I mean, strong from the the fireflies, to butterflies, to all larvae, everybody that needs to leave leave something on the leaves. Need the leaves. So the leaves the leave literally lead to life.
00:35:28
Speaker
So please leave the leaves too. That's awesome, man. Another soapbox issue. We got time. You know, we got time. This is just season two. We got to pace ourselves. We got time today. We got time today. This is episode one of season two of the Birdjoy podcast. We are back, folks. I know. Maybe I got that noise in my repertoire when I edit it later. We'll see.
00:35:54
Speaker
ah kind of like the you one hey do it here do it again
00:36:02
Speaker
I don't do it better than some of our other friends, but you know yeah but it is it's exciting, man. This has been fun to to to to kick off the new season, man. I can't wait for the rest of the episodes and for the homies to you know to kind of get re-engaged with them a little bit. I apologize for folks. so They haven't got enough bird joy on social media, but we're coming. We're coming. We're there. We're coming. Be there soon. We got some big guests you know starting even next week. You see what we got for you next week. But yeah, we we we got some of the homies coming through. We're super excited. It feels good to be back. Yes, sir. it feels I love it. Well, folks, I want to thank you all for joining us today on the first episode of season two of the Birdjoy podcast. We hope you enjoyed exploring the world of birding with us today. Shout out to my BIPOC flock and all my folks from the BIPOC Birding Club. of wisconsin We are going to be busy this fall and winter. So make sure you go to clypocbirdingclub.org to see what we got going on. Yes, yes. Shout out to all the homies here in Philly with In Color Birding Club and all of our affiliate organizations, InColorBirding.org. And, you know, we'll see you homies next time with some guests and some more bird joy. Yes, yes, yes. Please share, subscribe, and shout out the podcast to all your fellow birders and your friends. Help us spread a little bit of bird joy. All right, brother. Peace. All right. See you next week.