#birdnote

For more information about the From Love to Action campaign, episode transcript and other resources from this episode, visit BirdNote.org.

It’s that lovely time of year when our more outgoing bird friends return to their urban refuges. At our house we have juncos on the patio, a charming pair of wrens setting up in our birdhouse for the very first time, and a passel of starlings busily excavating the insulation from inside our roof for what is certainly not the first time (I’ll be sending them our winter heating bills). Website | Prints

LISTEN HERE: BirdNote

In the Seattle radio market, BirdNote is an institution. Begun as a partnership between the Seattle Audubon society and local NPR affiliate KPLU (now KNKX), the two-minute show segments have an estimated audience of 1.3 million on public radio stations in the U.S., Canada, and the Philippines, and is now also available from Sasquatch Books in handy book form with gorgeous illustrations by Emily Poole.

This episode’s guest may be too young to remember the 90’s children’s show, Gullah Gullah Island, but he’s certainly influencing the next generation the same! Isaiah Scott, a rising Gen-Z bird-influencer and ornithologist, reconnects with Tenijah to dish all about his journey into birding while young, Black and curious. He also shares how his Gullah Geechee heritage continues to inspire his work, including a forthcoming field guide that seeks to preserve his ancestral connection to birds. There’s definitely “lots to see and to do there”– press play and take the journey with us!

Here’s a phalarope, spinning in the water in an effort to stir up dinner. Website | Prints

Here’s another fall friend from BirdNote- a white crowned sparrow hop-kicks leaves aside to get at the bugs underneath. Website | Prints

"In the early 1800s, the Passenger Pigeon was one of the most abundant bird species in North America — possibly the world. But by 1910, the last surviving representative of the species was a bird called Martha at the Cincinnati Zoo. Despite attempts to revive the species through captive breeding programs, Martha outlived several unsuccessful suitors before succumbing to old age on September 1, 1914. Though today is a somber anniversary in the history of conservation, there’s no better time than now to take action to protect birds." — BirdNote.org