BirdNote Presents

Latest Episodes:

Grouse: The Story of the Grieving Woman and the Sage-Grouse Oct 06, 2020

Show notes

The Greater Sage-Grouse appears in the the songs, stories and dances of many Indigenous Peoples of the West. In this episode of Grouse, Wilson Wewa, an elder of the Northern Paiute of the Warm Springs Reservation in Oregon, remembers the first time he encountered a sage-grouse lek as a child. He also shares an ancient story from the Wasco Nation about a grieving woman who finds solace among the sage hens. We are losing these birds, Wilson says, but they can still provide important lessons about hope and joy in a world that is short on both.

Grouse: Is What’s Good for the Herd Good for the Bird? Sep 29, 2020

Show notes

There are a lot of people who say cows are one of the biggest environmental problems in the west — and they’re making life harder for the Greater Sage-Grouse. But for many in sagebrush country, cows symbolize a way of life that is under attack. Merrill Beyeler, a rancher in Idaho who grazes his cows in sage-grouse country, is finding ways to make it work for the herd and the birds.

This episode contains brief, explicit language at 6:52.

Grouse: Fire and the Questions It Raises Sep 22, 2020

Show notes

Caleb McAdoo is a biologist with Nevada Fish and Game. He’s lived in sagebrush country his whole life — he loves this landscape — and now, he’s watching it disappear before his very eyes as cheatgrass and wildfire take over. In this episode of Grouse, join Ashley Ahearn for a trip to the vanishing sagebrush sea in Nevada — and find out what fire means for the Greater Sage-Grouse.

Grouse: In Search of the Bird, Through Time Sep 15, 2020

Show notes

Mike Schroeder has been studying sage-grouse in Washington state — where the population is declining — since the 1980s. Mike takes Grouse host Ashley Ahearn on a journey to find this troubled bird and explore some scientific and cultural lore surrounding it, from American Indians to Lewis and Clark to Roosevelt. Will they find any sage-grouse today? Why is this bird in so much trouble? Should anyone care?

Grouse: Stranger in a Strange Land Sep 15, 2020

Show notes

Grouse series host Ashley Ahearn burns out on the urban rat race, leaves her job at a top NPR member station, and moves to 20 acres of sagebrush in rural Washington state. She discovers the Greater Sage-Grouse, a bird that is native to the land where she now lives — and fits in a whole lot better than she does. What is a sage-grouse, and why does everyone get so worked up about this bird?

Introducing Grouse Aug 31, 2020

Show notes

The Greater Sage-Grouse has eclipsed the Spotted Owl as perhaps the most controversial North American bird in the 21st century. These strange, wonderful birds live exclusively in the sagebrush steppe of the intermountain west. But they are in decline and protecting them has sparked fights between stakeholders across the region. Host Ashley Ahearn is a newcomer to sagebrush country, and she uses her personal journey — as an outsider trying to understand rural life — to serve as the proxy for listeners. She went from filing news stories on deadline to herding cows on horseback — and she talks about it in the show, weaving together her flailing attempts to understand country life with her quest to understand what it is about the Greater Sage-Grouse that gets so many people riled up.

Grouse is an eight-part podcast series produced in partnership with BirdNote Presents and distributed in collaboration with Boise State Public Radio. The first two episodes premiere September 15th — subscribe today.

In the Clear: The Problem with Birds and Glass Feb 18, 2020

Show notes

Window strikes are among the most serious threats to birds in North America, killing an estimated 1 billion birds every year. In New York City, between 90,000 and 230,000 birds die annually from collisions with the city’s buildings, according to NYC Audubon. But recent legislation requiring bird-friendly glass on new construction offers a hopeful precedent.

BirdNote's Mark Bramhill visited the Big Apple to learn more about this complex problem — and how the community is responding. Join Mark as he connects with Project Safe Flight, a community science project, and Wild Bird Fund, the only wildlife rehab center in New York City.

Though tall buildings kill millions of birds, they're only half of the problem.

According to American Bird Conservancy, nearly 50 percent of bird collision mortality happens on home windows. Preventing window strikes is a shared responsibility in our communities. Fortunately, there are lots of ways to help, whether you're an architect or a homeowner. Together, we can #BringBirdsBack.

Three Ways to Make Your Home Safer for Birds:

1. Reduce lighting at night. Light pollution can disorient birds and draw them in to urban areas. Decreasing lighting overall — especially omnidirectional lighting — can greatly help birds.

2. Add bird-friendly window stickers. Simple, inexpensive, do-it-yourself products like Feather Friendly will help make your windows safer for birds. When you create a dense pattern on the outside of the window, birds will perceive a solid surface that they can't fly through. This treatment is especially important on windows that reflect green space or other desirable bird habitat.

3. Keep bird feeders close to windows. This may seem counterintuitive, but if bird feeders are within 3 feet of dangerous windows, birds can't pick up enough speed for collisions to be deadly. Keep this in mind when deciding where to place a bird feeder!

Rachel Carson and the Veery Jan 07, 2020

Show notes

Rachel Carson is known best for writing Silent Spring. It’s a condemnation of DDT and other toxic pesticides and how they hurt the environment. When the book was published in 1962, it was full of new information that shocked most Americans. Silent Spring led to a radical shift in national pesticide policies, and the book has been credited with sparking the modern environmental movement.

But before all that, Carson built a summer house. It was at the edge of a cliff on the coast of Maine, on a little island called Southport. And it was on that island that Carson met Dorothy Freeman.

This is the story of Carson and Freeman’s relationship. It grew from their shared love for the natural world — and one species of bird in particular: the Veery, a kind of thrush. Plain looking as it is, the Veery has a beautiful song. And that song matters to Rachel and Dorothy. It's an expression of the wonder they experience in nature — and in each other.

Wingspan Takes Flight Dec 04, 2019

Show notes

The board game Wingspan came out this year to a lot of buzz. The bird-themed game is fun, but it’s also having a surprising impact. It’s gotten board gamers hooked on birds — and birders hooked on board games!

Wingspan from Stonemaier Games

Buy Wingspan on Amazon

A Conversation with J. Drew Lanham Nov 19, 2019

Show notes

BirdNote host Ashley Ahearn recently sat down with Dr. J. Drew Lanham at the University of Washington College of the Environment Symposium on Nature and Health. The conversation wove through Dr. Lanham’s poetry, readings from his memoir, and his thoughts about faith, climate change, the loss of birds, and the ways we can work together to confront systemic racism.

“What I’ve learned from all the years of looking for birds in far-flung places and expecting the worst from people is that my assumptions, more times than not, are unfounded," says Dr. Lanham. "These nature-seeking souls are mostly kindred spirits, out to find not just birds, but solace. A catalogue of friends, most of them white, have inspired, guided and sometimes even nurtured my passion for birds and nature. As we gaze together, everything that’s different about us disappears into the plumage we see beyond our binoculars. There is power in the shared pursuit of feathered things.”

Dr. Lanham is a BirdNote board member and the recipient of Audubon's 2018 Dan W. Lufkin Prize for Environmental Leadership. He is also an Alumni Distinguished Professor of Wildlife Ecology, Master Teacher and Certified Wildlife Biologist at Clemson University.

Learn more about Dr. Lanham and his passion for conservation:

Interview: Why I'm a Birder

Video: Rules for the Black Birdwatcher

Q&A: The Story Behind Rules for the Black Birdwatcher

Video: Behind the Binoculars

Dr. Lanham's book, The Home Place