Today Evan and Nate sit down a go birding with Andrew Farnsworth. Andrew Farnsworth is currently a Senior Research Associate in the Center for Avian Population Studies at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Andrew began birding at age 5 and quickly developed his long-standing fascinations with bird migration. His current research efforts advance the use and application of rapidly expanding technologies to study bird movements across scales including weather surveillance radar, audio and video rec...
Nate & Evan are glad to be back in the studio! In this episode they preview what is to come in 2024. Every episode they will be discussing possible names for birds.They share their travels for 2023 and plans for 2024. Join in as they prepare for the best year in birding podcast to come.
Today Evan & Nate go birding with Nikki Wayment from HawkWatch International.We begin by discussing birds we have both seen this week including the snow bunting Nate saw and the long eared owl that Evan saw.What is HawkWatch international? The mission of HawkWatch International is to conserve our environment through education, long-term monitoring, and scientific research on raptors as indicators of ecosystem health. Nikki provides some great insight into what the organization does across...
Today Nate & Evan go birding with David Yeany, Avian Ecologist for the Pennsylvania Natural Heritage Program (PNHP) at the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy (WPC). David has been studying winter movements of Evening Grosbeaks in the Allegheny National Forest (ANF) for the past few years. We discuss the 5 major questions in his study.why do evening grosbeaks keep returning to this area? Do they have true site fidelity? Where do these irruptive populations return to nes...
Today, Evan and Nate are joined by Dr. Given Harper from Illinois Wesleyan University to discuss his current research on Red-tailed Hawks (RTHA). We first caught wind of Given when Piatt County residents began calling us telling us that a person is trapping Red-tailed Hawks in our area. We immediately knew we had to find out who this was. After a series of fortunate events and family members, we were able to track down Given for this interview.We being by discussing some of his research...
Today, Nate and Evan have the honor of sitting down with former Piatt County resident and long time friend, Dr. Vince Slabe. While they have many great memories from high school and college, during their adult lives they have all had found birds to be a common area of interest. Dr. Slabe has done extensive research studying lead toxicity in raptors, specifically Golden Eagles. As residents of Illinois, we often confuse immature Bald Eagles with Golden Eagles, which pass through oc...
This week, Evan and Nate sit down and recap their 4 day birding trip to Sax Zim Bog in Minnesota. Evan & Nate met fellow birders and bird club members Aerin Tedesco and Scott Judd for the adventure of a lifetime. What lifers did they see? What were some of the birding highs...and lows of the trip. One of the lows was the temperature, which was -33 on Sunday morning. Did Evan manage to get stuck again like he does on every trip? Hopefully you will enjoy this open discussion...
Today, Nate and Evan sit down with Sparky Stensaas, founder and director of Friends of Sax Zim Bog. Located outside of Duluth Minnesota, Sax Zim Bog is a dream destination for winter birders from all over the world. It just so happens that Evan & Nate are heading there next week to chase some lifers. They begin by talking about birds they are currently seeing in the respective areas. Sparky also gives some ID tips on the ravens, which are the predominant corvid species found in the bog th...
Nate and Evan are joined by Zak Sutton again trying to stump the dynamic duo. Play along and see if you can ID the bird Zak is describing by the field marks. Happy Listening and Happy Birding
Nate and Evan are joined again today by the founder of Finch Research Network, Matthew Young. Thanks to Matt's contractual agreement with the finches, we had a spectacular year in the lower 48 states viewing all sorts of finches. Today Matt begins by giving us an update on the winter finches. Did anything happen that wasn't expected? Did anything not happen that was expected? He also explains the extent of the the irruptive year. While these birds are not seen in Illinois, Matt talk...
We know what you are thinking. What is a bird hunting group doing on a podcast about BIRDS?!? Well, Nate and Evan sit down with Jared Wiklund, public relations specialist with Pheasants Forever to answer that question. What is Pheasants forever? Some people may have the idea that it is just a bunch of rednecks with guns out shooting birds to the brink of extinction. This is far from the truth. Pheasants Forever's mission is to conserve pheasants, quail, and other wildlife through habitat impr...
This week, Evan and Nate get a call from our birder in the field, Zak Sutton. In this short 5 minute exercise in birding, Zak describes the habitat, characteristics, general impression, size and shape of the bird. He takes questions about the bird and Nate and Evan try to figure out what bird Zak is looking at. Can Evan or Nate figure out the identity of the bird? Can you?Happy Listening and Happy Birding!
Nate and Evan sit down and chat with Chicago native Nathan Goldberg and discuss his recent record breaking 2020 Illinois Big Year. Also, Evan serenades Nathan with a bird love song that he wrote. First, Nate gives us a rundown on the recent Piatt County Christmas Bird Count, tally, and the Eurasian Tree Sparrow that was seen, including ID tips. Nathan talks about some of the birds his team recently saw on his Cook County Big Day competition with Isoo O'brien. What goes into planning a Big Yea...
It's that time of year when rarities start showing up to odd areas and people lose their minds. It's during these times that birders and photographers make poor choices that often have negative consequences. The negative consequences affect the bird, the birders around them, and the birding community. So today Nate and Evan sit down with Greg Neise, member of the American Birding Association Recording Standards and Ethics committee to talk about ethics and birding. First we discuss some ...
Today, Nate and Evan reach out to Davin Lopez and Anne Lacy to talk Whoopers (Whooping Cranes). They probably don't use that term in the field, but Evan thought it was seemed appropriate so he went with it. Both Davin and Anne are involved with the reintroduction of Whooping Cranes (WHCR) into the wild. In 1941 there were only 21 WHCR left in the entire world. Today there are about 850 Whooping Cranes in the world. Davin & Anne run us through how the situation got so dire in the 190...
Nate and Evan were both really excited for this interview. This week, they sit down via zoom to chat with Denver Holt, founder of the Owl Research Institute. This week Evan spotted a Rough-Legged Hawk in Piatt County and Denver gives some fabulous tips for ID'ing these birds. As year round residents in Montana, Denver sees these birds often.Denver begins by telling us how he got interested in birds and specifically owls. This interest pushed him to found the Owl Research Institute. In discuss...
Today's guest may be one of the last people to ever hear the call of an Ivory-Billed Woodpecker in the wild. We sit down with Dr. Bernard Master for our holiday special. Nate and Evan start by discussing birds they are seeing. On a recent trip, Evan encountered some swans a swimming. ID tips for the Tundra, Trumpeter and Mute swan we covered. Additionally birds like the Evening Grosbeak, Pine Siskin and American Goldfinch were covered.Our main discussion centered around Bernie discussing...
Today, Evan and Nate sit down with Matt Young, President and Founder of the Finch Research Network (FiRN), to talk finches. They begin by discussing birds they are currently seeing. This week Evan went twitching to find a Gyrfalcon and stumbled across a Great Black Backed Gull in Central Illinois. Nate went looking for the Ivory Billed Woodpecker and Roadrunners in Arkansas, but struck out on both.In our discussion, Matt gives us a brief overview of FiRN, its mission statement, and what the f...
Today, Nate and Evan have the privilege of sitting down with Tyler Hoar. Tyler is a freelance biologist and ecologist who recently took the reins of the Winter Finch Forecast. What an incredible first year to do the finch forecast! Tyler discusses his methodology for developing the forecast. We begin by talking about the the overall factors contributing to the finch migration this year. What ecological factors are driving the finches south? Then we get into specific species. What can we ...
Today, Nate & Evan sit down with Bryan Reiley, and avian ecologist from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Bryan sits down to discuss his research that involves CRP and CREP land in Illinois. His fascinating research involves counting the species at the sites, then using the samples to estimate population density within a given area. Give this episode a listen to learn more about this research that was conducted, and is still being conducted, throughout Illinois. Additio...