08-08: Still Birding to Change the World with Trish O'Kane

The American Birding Podcast

naswick

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

4.7 • 632 Ratings

🗓️ 22 February 2024

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Way back in 2019, we first spoke with Trish O’Kane about the Birding to Change the World program she had instituted at the University of Vermont, where she is a lecturer and environmental educator, because of an essay she had written for The New York Times. She's back 5 years later to talk about her new memoir, appropriately titled Birding to Change the World, which recounts her journey from nascent bird obsessive to activist to environmental educator through the effort to protect a much-loved urban park in Madison, Wisconsin.

Also, Emperor Penguin colonies are all accounted for in Antarctica, thanks to poop-tracking satellites.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Travel the world in search of stunning birds, breathtaking scenery, and fun camarader with the American Birding Association.
0:06.0	Whether you're a seasoned birder or a novice, the ABA Travel Program promises top-notch birding,
0:12.0	local expertise, cultural immersion, and a vibrant community of fellow birding enthusiasts.
0:18.0	Don't miss your chance to travel to Belize with the ABA in March
0:22.5	or to Hawaii in April and help us build a better future for birds, birders, and birding at the
0:28.2	same time. Visit ABA.org slash travel for more information and bookings.
0:42.0	Hello and welcome to the American Birding podcast from the American Birding Association.
0:43.8	I am Nate Swick.
0:50.6	All of the world's emperor penguin colonies are now, at long last, accounted for.
0:55.2	Perhaps you, like me when I discovered this news item, were not aware of the status of the breeding colonies of the world's largest penguin. Perhaps you get your emperor penguin
1:00.0	intelligence from Morgan Freeman or from tap dancing cartoon characters. No judgment here. If so,
1:06.4	it's a mysterious bird and not on many birders radar, not least of which, because they nest somewhat famously
1:12.6	on what is called fast ice, which is sea ice that attaches to the coastline. It's an ephemeral
1:18.7	phenomenon, all the more so in this age of climate change. But as it turns out, Emperor
1:24.8	Penguin colonies can be found all the way around the periphery of the Antarctic continent, more or less evenly distributed about every 250 kilometers.
1:35.8	But it's hard to monitor them as the species breeds during the Antarctic winter, not a pleasant time to be at the bottom of the world.
1:43.0	So researchers use satellite technology
1:45.4	zeroing in on the patches of guano left behind by the concentrated flock of nesting birds,
1:51.6	the stains of which can be seen from space, which is how they found four previously unknown
1:58.5	Emperor Penguin colonies. The research done by Dr. Peter Fretwell of the British Antarctic survey offers a lot of
2:05.4	insight into the population dynamics of this iconic bird, suggesting that emperor penguins
2:10.3	are a lot more flexible than previously thought.
	...

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