03-18: Veery Meteorology with Christopher Heckscher

The American Birding Podcast

naswick

Science, Birding, Hobbies, Travel, Birdwatching, Leisure, Aba, Ornithology, Nature, Birds

4.7 • 632 Ratings

🗓️ 5 September 2019

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The 2019 Atlantic hurricane season is underway with a handful of storms already named. In the last couple decades human meteorologists have gotten pretty good at predicting the strength and track of tropical storms in the Atlantic basin, but still less good at predicting the severity of any individual season. But as it turns out, that's something Veerys, the ruddy Catharus thrush with the swirly song, are quite good at it. Dr. Christopher Heckscher of Delaware State University made the connection, and using the behavior of Veerys as a guide, beat most, all, meteorologists last year in accurately predicting the hurricane season in 2018. He joins host Nate Swick to talk about this amazing work, and the predictive powers of birds.

Also, some news on our upcoming live show at the Rio Grande Valley Bird Festival and some thoughts on what bird clubs can be in the 21st Century.

Thanks to Zeiss Sports Optics for sponsoring this episode of the American Birding Podcast!

Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode of the American Birding Podcast is brought to by Zeiss Sports Optics, a leading manufacturer
0:05.3	of high-quality birding optics and advocates for young birder programs, including the ABA's own
0:10.5	young birder camps. I can tell you from experience, you will never regret treating yourself
0:14.4	to a great pair of binoculars, and Zyce offers great quality at a price point that works for you.
0:19.3	Plus, you're helping to support amazing experiences for young birders.
0:22.6	That is a win-win.
0:24.3	For more information, visit your local Zeiss dealer or go online to zyce.com slash sports optics.
0:35.0	Hello and welcome to another episode of the American Burning Podcast from the American Burning Association.
0:40.0	I'm your host, Nate Swick. I have some exciting news to announce, especially if you are going to be at the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival in November.
0:49.1	That's in Harlanj and Texas. And that news is that we are going to be doing another live show, live recording of the
0:56.3	American Burning Podcast at the festival in the big auditorium. It will be Saturday night, November
1:01.8	9th. It'll be free. It'll be fun. I promise you. One of the advantages of having done a live
1:09.1	show in the past is that one i know that we can do it
1:12.2	until we know what works so with a little bit more time to plan we are going to make this
1:18.1	a little more ambitious a little hopefully you know a little more fun for those who will be there so
1:23.0	my idea is to do a birding game show it's something that the ABA has sort of done in the past.
1:29.8	I have a slightly different take on that. They don't have some fun puzzles and games and some
1:35.6	audience participation and for that audience participation. It would be super great if the audience
1:41.3	members who are participating were podcast listeners and fans. Obviously, we will take
1:46.6	any warm body who is up for it, but I would love it if y'all were podcast people. And please do
1:52.9	not be put off by the prospect of difficult questions and games. Think more, ask me another
1:58.8	than Jeopardy, if you're familiar with that NPR podcast quiz.
	...

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