Always Be Birdin'

Welcome back to the Always Be Birdin' Podcast!

We're sliding into Season 3 with self proclaimed Cemetery Birder, Danielle Belleny, as we celebrate her new book, This Is A Book For People Who Love Birds. Recently published, This Is A Book For People Who Love Birds is a short but sweet introduction to the world of birds and birding. Intended for those who don't realize they love birds yet and those who have just begun their journey, Danielle does a brilliant job of taking big scientific and social ideas and packing them in a way that is easy to digest and super fun to read!

Join us as we discuss different aspects of the book and celebrate Danielle for this huge accomplishment.

Last week I had my first ever live recording and today I have the absolute honor to bring you an interview with National Geographic Explorer and Storyteller, MIT Fellow and scuba diver, Tara Roberts. We discuss her recently released podcast, Into the Depths, where we as the listeners get to follow Tara as she works with fellow Black divers through Diving with a Purpose as they search for and help document sunken ships that carried enslaved African and were a part of the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade. Tara talks with me about her experiences in making this podcast, what inspired her to learn how to dive and how that ultimately lead her down this deeply personal journey of identity through history and what it means to connect with our ancestors as well as descendants that are all around us today. This episode is personal to me as a mixed race Black woman in America. I was holding back tears for parts of this interview and am in awe of Tara's journey and her mission to bring the work of these Black scuba divers to the surface (no pun) and work to re-tell the stories of our ancestors and us as descendants.

Small grassroots organizations and individuals are the ones on the ground doing the hard work to create safe and educational spaces in nature for Black, Indigenous and people of color. What does it mean to have big dreams for our communities and NOT have to give them up because of barriers to funding? Philanthropy and distribution of money is gate kept by wealthy white people who are the ones to decide who is and isn't "worthy" of funding. The same money gets passed around at the top while those grassroots organizations are struggling to enact the change we need for our communities because we can't afford to put on the type of programming we want and that our communities deserve.

Today, I speak with Chandrika Francis who is the Founder and Facilitator of Oshun Swim School based in Seattle, WA, Lydia Parker who is a Co-Founder and Executive Director of Hunters of Color based in Portland, OR and Alex Troutman, Hunters of Color Mentee and Wildlife Biologist based in Austell, GA. We all do different work, but we are connected by our missions to create safe, healing and educational spaces for Black, Indigenous and people of color outside as well as the grant that is enabling us to aggressively pursue our dreams for a different future. We speak in depth and detail about the Liberated Paths Grantmaking Program through Justice Outside, why it is so important and how it is going to help us to lead our communities into collective liberation outside.

Wether you are a birder, hunter, grad student, biologist, nature lover or starting up your own small organization, this episode will help you understand the disparities of philanthropy and distribution of funding and teach you how it can and is being done differently.

In part 2 of this roundtable discussion, Candace, Daniela, Dexter, Angel, Jason and I dive deep into several important topics. We talk about why BIPOC only spaces are important for us to continue to breakdown historical narratives of cross cultural tension within BIPOC communities that is a design of white supremacy and Bird Joy can help break these cycles of in-culture discrimination. BIPOC peoples are of the land, of the water, of the trees and the animals and when we talk about reclaiming these spaces outside, it is more than just creating safe spaces, it is bringing us back to our ancestral rights to be with the land and however we choose to show up in it, white folk must be okay with it. It is no longer whiteness that dictates how this land is used and what it looks like. Shout out to our mentors of color who set us on our individual and collective paths to Occupy Birding and Normalize Bird Joy.

**Candace Williams is credited with the term "Occupy Birding" used at the end of this episode.

**Dexter Patterson is credited with the term "Bird Joy" which is used multiple times in this episode and the last one.

Meet five leaders in the community creating necessary spaces for BIPOC through organized outings. In this first part, we are introduced to each of them and hear their stories of what brought them to birding and eventually to starting BIPOC birding clubs or collectives. All of these people are wonderful and have a deep love of birding and brining that join into the BIPOC communities where they are from. In part 2 we talk a lot more deeply about the importance of BIPOC only spaces in birding.

03:37 Candace Williams of Chicago BIPOC Birding Network (unofficial) Chicago IL

07:43 Daniela Herrera of Chicago BIPOC Birding Network (unofficial) Chicago IL

14:07 Angel Ramirez of Oxnard Birder's Club, Oxnard CA

24:20 Dexter Patterson of BIPOC Birding Club of Wisconsin, Madison WI

38:46 Jason Hall of In Color Birding Club, Philadelphia PA

As bird lovers, one of the best and most memorable experiences we all hope to have is a close encounter with birds. Be it through meeting a falconer, visiting your local conservation organization or zoo or having a once in a lifetime moment out birding, seeing birds up close is nothing short of amazing. When we think about meeting a bird who is in captivity for educational purposes, what does it take for those birds to feel comfortable with the people that work with them and you as an audience member?

Today, I talk with Corina Newsome (@hood__naturalist), Ornithologist and Community Engagement Manager with Georgia Audubon, about the extremely exciting and interesting world of avian training for educational purposes. There is a lot to this profession and it is not an easy job. Corina and I discuss different training methods, bird language, species differences in captivity and why relationship and trust building is so important between bird and trainer.

We then Dig Into It and take all of these ideas around avian training and create a powerful metaphor for how white supremacy operates in institutional settings with Black, Brown and Indigenous people of color. We hone in on and dissect how important the intentionally slow, incremental steps (or approximations) towards re-building relationship and trust with the BIPOC community can be the radical behavioral shift white conservation organizations need to understand if they truly want to dismantle the pillars of oppression within their institutions.

It's been a while, but, we’re back with the first episode of the second year of the Always Be Birdin' podcast with a vengeance. In episodes past, I called attention to the National Audubon Society article in Politico where there was accusations of racism, sexism and retaliation within the organization and I asked why isn't anyone talking more about this seeing as National Audubon is considered THE go to for all things conservation and birds. This episode has been and remains to be my most downloaded episode, but what's changed? Since then, third party law firm, Morgan & Lewis put out their findings which called for a redistribution of power, the Union, Audubon for All, was birthed and the then Executive Director, David Yarnold, has left the organization. Other non-profit environmental organizations such as Defenders of Wildlife have followed suit and are also unionizing.

Today I bring back two of my favorite people and past guests, Rosie Sanchez of Defenders of Wildlife and Tykee James of National Audubon, to address the question... "why unionize?" Both Rosie and Tykee talk details of where both organizations are at (neither union has been voluntarily recognized) as well as highlight some of the ways you as listeners can help.

We also get deep in conversation around what it truly means when the people in power positions refuse to listen to their workers, how that is a direct reflection on society as a whole and why it’s important to dismantle white supremacy and fear for a better future for everyone.

This episode is a call back to the discussion Rosie and I had in episode 8 and the issues I bring up about National Audubon in episode 9.

Let’s kick off year 2 of the podcast with a hard hitting BANG!

It's the one year anniversary for the podcast and I just want to say THANK YOU! Thank you so much to all my followers, to everyone who has downloaded and supported me through this wild process. You are the reason I am here a year later and have the ability to continue for another year. It's been an amazing year filled with new friends and amazing opportunities and I can never say thank you enough. You are the reason I am here. THANK YOU. Stay tuned for year two of the Always Be Birdin' Podcast!

TW: Childhood Abuse, Mental Health

On this final day of Black Birders Week 2021, I bring an earlier recorded episode from back in February of this year with Nicole Jackson. Join us and get to know one of the co-organizers of Black Birders Week 2020 as we talk about how birding and being outside can help heal and bring tenderness to those parts of us that are suffering and hurting. Nicole tells us her story, how she started to get into birds and birding, we connect over birding in Ohio and all of the many hats she wears today. Nicole is an amazing human doing amazing things like the #BlackInNationalParks initiative that stemmed from her participation in Black Birders Week.

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Stay tuned to the end of the episode for a special announcement from Amplify the Future regarding their Black and Latinx Birders Scholarship application deadline!

On this 6th day of Black Birders Week 2021, @blackafinstem has asked us to bridge the gap between past, present and future of birding. For this idea in particular, I bring you Tykee James, co-organizer of the Freedom Birders project. This project is built on the blueprint of the Freedom Riders who were Civil Rights activists who rode on buses throughout the segregated south to protest the non-enforcement of desegregated public buses. Freedom Birders seeks to change the way we bird in America and is also inspired by Black Birders Week 2020 and the Black Lives Matter Movement. Join Tykee and I as we jump into the deep end and discuss the Freedom Birders project, where it came from, why it's necessary and what it could look like for the future of birding and racism in America.