Afgespeeld

  • Marking World Migratory Bird Day (October 10th), today meet Heidi Trudell, an architectural consultant, from Michigan in the USA. Heidi advises the building industry and homeowners about the changes they can make to reduce the incidence of deaths and serious injuries to birds by colliding with glass and reflective surfaces. It is estimated that up to a billion birds worldwide meet their end this way annually. It is avoidable, and Heidi is working hard to greatly reduce this number.

    Heidi qualifies as a Bird Nerd, and answers the usual Bird Emergency questions, to place herself on our spectrum.

    Follow Heidi on Twitter or check out her website - www.justsavebirds.com

    The collection work that Heidi does is unpaid, and she supports other volunteers, so please consider supporting her via her Patreon - https://https://www.patreon.com/justsavebirds

    Twitter - twitter.com/justsavebirds

    Just Save Birds - facebook.com/groups/justsavebirds

    Dead Birds 4 Science! - facebook.com/groups/deadbirds

    Instagram - instagram.com/justsavebirds

    International Faceook groups of relevance:

    Proyecto Aves y Ventanas - https://www.facebook.com/groups/289187377950892/

    S Korea, Reports on Bird-Glass Collisions - https://www.facebook.com/groups/307904289925035/

    I don’t have translations for either of these groups:

    https://www.facebook.com/groups/308545713368523/?ref=share

    https://www.facebook.com/groups/445639272561545/?ref=share

    The dead birds that are collected (and fill up Heidi's freezer!) do make a contribution to our knowledge;

    Collection - https://abcbirds.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Window_Collision_Bibliography-February-2017.pdf

    A study by Heidi -

    Hager et al, from Illinois

    https://www.muhlenberg.edu/media/contentassets/images/academics/biology/biology/faculty/klem/aco/documents/HageretalBirdWindowMortWJO2008.pdf

    Urban Bird Summit 2017 -https://web2.uwindsor.ca/softs/conferences/2017/softs2017-Preliminary-Assessment-of-Bird-Strikes-at-Windows.pdf

    Currently trying to get some eyes and subscribers on The Bird Emergency on YouTube, so I can put a bit more effort into the video side of things, so if you would like more visual content, please subscribe, and I will watch with interest if that's what you want!
  • Meet the Far Eastern Curlew, perilously close to disappearing, subject of this Episode of The Bird Emergency.

    Every year as the days begin to get shorter in the marshes of the Arctic, the entire population of Eastern Curlews leave their breeding grounds in northern hemisphere and embark on a 10,000km journey to the coast of Australia, potentially calamitous for a bird that cannot swim! If the trip becomes too arduous and a bird is exhausted, drops into the sea below, further reducing the limited population.

    The Far Eastern Curlew has undertaken this back-and-forth for tens of thousands of years, following the invisible flyways along the coasts of Australasia, the Indo-Pacific, east Asia to the Arctic Circle, in what is one of the most taxing migrations of any bird. Harry Saddler was so fascinated by this migration, the effort it places on the birds and how people view the birds as they pass through so many human territories. His discoveries about the places and the challenges the Eastern Curlew overcomes, prompted Harry, an award-winning writer from Melbourne, to share his knowledge about this migration with the world.


    Sometimes a book is a total surprise & this little tome by Harry Saddler sure is.


    How can an unknown & unnoticed bird be the subject of a real page-turner? Because this bird has an amazing story!

    Good Reading magazine said in a review, ‘It might be surprising that Saddler can wrangle a whole book centred on just one, relatively little-known species of bird, but there is no shortage of material."


    Enjoy this conversation about an exceptional bird, & it's perpetual journey between Australia and the Arctic, as much as I did! Such a great story, told by a master storyteller.

    Check out the book here at Affirm Press, or ask your local bookshop to get it for you (if they don't already have it!).

    Harry is active on Twitter, and shares a lot about the birds he sees around his home and workplace, described as only an award-winner author can. I recommend following him @mondaystory

    You can watch many of the past conversations, and see the upsoming interviews live at thebirdemergency.com/live

    Subscribe to on The Bird Emergency on YouTube

    Follow The Bird Emergency on Twitter @birdemergency or Instagram @thebirdemergency

    If you enjoy the show, how about share with your friends or colleagues? https://followthepodcast.com/birdemergency

    Or you can review us at https://lovethepodcast.com/birdemergency

    And if you want to support what Grant is doing with the show, why not buy him a coffee? (It's currently a flat soy with no sweeteners.) https://www.buymeacoffee.com/birdemergency

  • It's a special episode! Assoc. Prof. Dr. Peter Burnett from the Australian National University tells me about the calamitous failures of the administration of Australia's environment laws, as reported by the Australian National Audit Office, in this report from the Auditor-General, "Referrals, Assessments and Approvals of Controlled Actions under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999"

    After 20 years working in government managing and reviewing environment policy, this report shocked him. It's no wonder our threatened species have fared so badly over the last decade.

    Pay special attention to Peter's comments about the major tool of the department in this policy area, offsets!

    Read Peter's article from The Conversation here.

    Honour Roll - You have to give credit where credit is due! It's NSW environment minister, Matt Kean, who purchased Narriearra station in the state’s far north-west, for a new national park. As mentioned in The Guardian, "The area includes wetlands listed as nationally significant and is home to at least 27 threatened species, including almost 90% of the endangered grey grasswren’s habitat and breeding areas." Hooray!

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jun/27/nsw-makes-record-land-purchase-for-new-national-park

    You can watch many of the past conversations, and see the upsoming interviews live at thebirdemergency.com/live

    Subscribe to on The Bird Emergency on YouTube

    Follow The Bird Emergency on Twitter @birdemergency or Instagram @thebirdemergency

    If you enjoy the show, how about share with your friends or colleagues? https://followthepodcast.com/birdemergency

    Or you can review us at https://lovethepodcast.com/birdemergency

    And if you want to support what Grant is doing with the show, why not buy him a coffee? (It's currently a flat soy with no sweeteners.) https://www.buymeacoffee.com/birdemergency

  • Meet Dr. Catherine Young, who describes herself as a "actual living scientist", a birder, traveller, bird guide & general nature enthusiast.

    We discuss the Forty-spotted Pardalote, one of the subjects of the Difficult Birds Research Group, which is based at Australian National University, and Cat's work with the group, while being based in Tasmania.

    We talk about all of Cat's previous bird and animal adventures around the world, including working with mongooses!

    Of course, we get to know where she fits as a bird nerd, and she answers the usual Bird Emergency questions!

    You can follow Cat on Twitter @CatMYoung

    Check out the Difficult Birds Research Group here.

    You can watch many of the past conversations, and see the upsoming interviews live at thebirdemergency.com/live

    Subscribe to on The Bird Emergency on YouTube

    Follow The Bird Emergency on Twitter @birdemergency or Instagram @thebirdemergency

    If you enjoy the show, how about share with your friends or colleagues? https://followthepodcast.com/birdemergency

    Or you can review us at https://lovethepodcast.com/birdemergency

    And if you want to support what Grant is doing with the show, why not buy him a coffee? (It's currently a flat soy with no sweeteners.) https://www.buymeacoffee.com/birdemergency