Listen and learn
The American Birding Association’s podcast makes for interesting and informative listening even to British birders.
DURING the two lockdowns that we’ve experienced in England, podcasts became a fixture of my life. I’d never really listened to them previously but on my daily walks I started plugging in my headphones and queuing up something to tune into.
I’ve been widening my listening interests ever since and one podcast I came across recently was American Birding Podcast by the American Birding Association (ABA).
Hosted by Nate Swick, the ABA’s Digital Communications Manager, there are new episodes every other Thursday. These bring together special guests as well as other ABA staff members, and cover a wide range of topics, including books, ‘slow birding’, urban wildlife and much more. A monthly fixture is the rare bird round-up.
The first episode I tuned into discussed, among other things, the American Ornithological Society’s decision to accept the new name of Thick-billed Longspur for the bird previously known as McCown’s Longspur. All guests were very much in favour of the change. More lighthearted was a section on mispronouncing bird names, with each guest admitting to their most embarrassing mispronunciations – easy to do if you’ve only ever seen it written down.
It is very much based on North American birds, but many of the themes are of interest and relevant to birders everywhere. One recent episode featured Steve Maguire, a life-long birder and a high school science teacher, on how he has brought ornithology to the classroom. Steve is clearly enthusiastic about both birds and teaching and makes for a fascinating interviewee.
The topic is certainly something that birders and schools in the UK could consider. Making ornithology a part of science class would be an excellent means of instilling a love and understanding of the natural world in school kids, and hopefully training the next generation of conservationists.
Episodes last between about half an hour to an hour, so it’s not a huge investment of time. The podcast will be of interest to any birder enthusiastic about North American birds, but there’s also plenty here for anyone with a more general love of birding. Rebecca Armstrong