Your Bird Story

Are you the bird swiftie? Can you tell the different swifts apart? Do you know the connection between hummingbirds and swifts? Have you watched swifts come home to roost? Can you hold your house together with your saliva?

Longtime friend and supporter of the pod, and conservationist, Loyan Beausoleil joins Your Bird Story to talk about Chimney and Vaux's Swifts.

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Creator and Host: Georgia Silvera Seamans

Producer and Editor: Pod for the People

Vocalizations: 

Chimney Swift https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/57780721

https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/107413

Crested Treeswift

https://xeno-canto.org/439763

Vaux’s Swift

https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/72057131

SamSam Graves is a NYC-based artist, zine maker, and birder. In our conversation we touched on these aspects of her life. SamSam spoke passionately about Piping Plover (Charadrius melodus) conservation.

You might be surprised to learn that Piping Plovers nest annually on Rockaway Beach in NYC!! However, subspecies C. m. melodus are listed an endangered species in New York State and classified as threatened by the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service.

SamSam also shares her stance on birding ethics and a fascination with mousebirds.

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Information about New York City’s Piping Plovers is available at NYC Plover Project, NYC.gov, NYC Parks, NYS DEC, and U.S. FWS.

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Creator and Host: Georgia Silvera Seamans

Producer and Editor: Pod for the People

Vocalizations: 

Piping Plover call: https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/27747281

Northern Cardinal: https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/225370771

Piping Plover song: https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/64002271

Speckled Mousebird https://ebird.org/species/spemou2

A conversation with Eric Archer about the film he and his collaborator Jesse Brown are making about John Burroughs, "the literary naturalist," and the ecology of the Hudson Valley. Birds included!

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Information about The Burroughs Rambles film can be found ⁠here⁠.

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Creator and Host: Georgia Silvera Seamans

Producer and Editor: Pod for the People

Vocalizations:

This month's guest, Jeffrey Train, and a group of Hoboken residents are doing great work for birds. ⁠Our Tern⁠ advocated for the Common Tern to be designed the city's official bird. The City Council of Hoboken settled on "honorary bird" on July 10, 2024.

In this conversation, Jeffrey, also known as Mr. Train on social media, talks about his entry into birding, his birder/birding typology, turns the table on Georgia (the host), and previews his hopes for the bird scene in Hoboken.

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Follow Jeffrey on Instagram @mrtrain_. Our Tern is @ourternhoboken.

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Creator and Host: Georgia Silvera Seamans

Producer and Editor: Pod for the People

Vocalizations:

This joyful and introspective episode with Tammah Watts is the capstone to Season 4! Watching birds from her home helped her deal with the emotional wearing of a physical disability. She guides us through her discovery of birds in her yard and writing her book, Keep Looking Up: Your Guide to the Powerful Healing of Birdwatching. You can engage with birds where you are--your yard, your neighborhood, and if you are fortunate, in far flung places. For the Black community, Watts also talks about the importance of taking up space in nature to redress "ancestral and historical" trauma in the outdoors.

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Learn more about Tammah Watts. Follow her on Instagram @tammahwatts.

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Season 4 of Your Bird Story is made possible in part by a Voice for Nature Foundation grant.

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Creator and Host: Georgia Silvera Seamans

Producer and Editor: Pod for the People

Vocalizations:

Pamela Lowell is a passionate spokesperson for Osprey and bird conservation writ large. She gorgeously captures the lives and habitats of Pandion haliaetus in watercolor which illustrate her new book, My Summer with Ospreys. Throughout Lowell's book, and our conversation, you experience her warmth and caring approach to healing both birds and people. Also, Pamela Lowell is very funny!

Learn more about Pamela Lowell at her website: https://www.pamelalowell.com.

Season 4 of Your Bird Story aka CHIRP is funded with a Voice for Nature Foundation grant.

Creator and Host: Georgia Silvera Seamans

Producer and Editor: Pod for the People

Vocalizations:

https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/200948 (Bald Eagle), https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/100770 (Belted Kingfisher), https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/135383 (Great Blue Heron), https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/105731 (Osprey, display), https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/217862641 (Osprey), https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/255296771 (juvenile Osprey)

Kellie Quiñones is a Brooklyn born Afro-Boricua woman now living in Queens. She has a special place in Georgia's heart, welcoming her into the NYC bird world. Listen to this lively and laugh out loud conversation about birding from home, favorite bird memories, community, and more.

Season 4 of Your Bird Story aka CHIRP is funded with a  grant.

Creator and Host: Georgia Silvera Seamans

Producer and Editor: Pod for the People

American Crow https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/135405

Bald Eagle https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/92022701

American Woodcock https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/62745

Black-crowned Night Heron https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/134129

"I can't think about plants without thinking about birds and I can't think about birds without thinking about plants," says Natasza Fontaine in our conversation about her life as an avian ecologist, natural science illustrator, bioacoustician, and a birder. Fontaine is a founding member of Black Botanists Week. She was selected as the Bird of the Year Artist 2024 by the American Birding Association. Fontaine illustrated the Golden-Winged Warbler for the ABA Birding magazine. Listen to her story and hear her recordings of one of her favorite birds, the Caspian Tern.

Read about Fontaine and the Golden-winged Warbler at ⁠https://www.aba.org/2024-bird-of-the-year-artist-natasza-fontaine/⁠.

Season 4 of Your Bird Story aka CHIRP is funded with a  grant.

Creator and Host: Georgia Silvera Seamans

Producer and Editor: Pod for the People

Caspian Term vocalizations: Natasza Fontaine

Golden-winged Warbler: https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/157972131

Birds sing to "defend and impress" (All About Birds). Bird songs are good for soul, though this depends on the person listening, the species of bird, and the type of sound they are making (Dr. Eleanor Ratcliffe via Natural History Museum UK). New Yorker Elijah Shiffer composes jazz pieces to celebrate the birds he observes in the city. Shiffer is a saxophonist, a composer, a music critic, and a bird guide. Excerpts from several of the songs on Shiffer's new album, City Of Birds, Volume I, are included in this episode.

You can find Elijah Schiffer online at https://www.elijahshiffer.com/ and @elijahshiffer.

Season 4 of Your Bird Story aka CHIRP is funded with a ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Voice for Nature Foundation⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ grant.

Creator and Host: Georgia Silvera Seamans

Producer and Editor: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Pod to the People⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Music courtesy of Elijah Shiffer.

One way to communicate the violence of window strikes is through art. Emmett White entered Wunderkammer 2023, a taxidermy competition, with a sculpture of seven pigeons colliding with windows. In this episode, we talk with Emmett about the piece, his other less woeful taxidermy projects, and a healthy dose of live birds.

You can follow Emmett White on Instagram:

Season 4 of Your Bird Story aka CHIRP is funded with a ⁠⁠⁠⁠Voice for Nature Foundation⁠⁠⁠⁠ grant.

Creator and Host: Georgia Silvera Seamans

Producer and Editor: ⁠⁠⁠⁠Pod to the People⁠⁠⁠⁠

Bird vocalizations: Xeno-Canto (1, 2) and Pixabay.