09-03: Take It or Leave It - Mentorship, Rarity Reports, and Cameras for Beginners

The American Birding Podcast

naswick

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

4.7 • 632 Ratings

🗓️ 16 January 2025

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

It's cold outside and that calls for some hot birding takes. We've collected some for another edition of Take It or Leave It, the discussion panel for the most opinionated birders. This time we welcome Chris Sloan and Martha Harbison to talk about mentorship in the internet age, whether birders underappreciate Canada, and what would it take to get back to the old rarity phone trees.

Also, the ABA is not the only organization with a Bird of the Year in 2025. Let's celebrate some more!

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to the American Birding Podcast from the American Birding Association.
0:09.4	I am your host, Nate Swick.
0:11.6	You all know that the ABA's 2025 bird of the year is common loon.
0:16.5	Hail, Kolo, Gavia, Amher, Diver, the Great North, etc.
0:21.0	But the bird of the year designation is hardly an ABA only celebration.
0:25.4	Many of our fellow bird and birding organizations do some version of bird of the year.
0:30.7	And perhaps now is a time to celebrate all incoming birds of the year in addition to the common loon.
0:36.9	Last fall in New Zealand, a public poll was held to determine the bird of the year in addition to the common loon. Last fall in New Zealand, a public poll was held to determine the bird of the year for
0:41.7	2024, but because that bird will hold that honor through most of 2025, I think it's
0:46.1	appropriate to include here.
0:47.9	It is yellow-eyed penguin.
0:50.1	This is actually the second time yellow-eyed penguin has won the competition, which seems a little weird to me.
0:55.3	I don't know how that's allowed.
0:56.2	But it came on top in the competition in 2019 as well.
0:59.8	But at the time, there were allegations of Russian interference in that election, which funnily turned out to just be a bunch of Russian ornithologists.
1:08.7	Anyway, Forest and Bird, which is the organization that hosts
1:11.8	that contest, hopes that the attention paid to this bird this year will help encourage marine
1:17.3	protected areas because with a bird like this, you can't just protect its onshore nesting sites.
1:23.4	Birdlife South Africa has named the Red Belt-Ecker. It's bird of the year for 2025,
1:29.5	a fascinating bird with a famous close relationship with large herbivores, a complex social
1:35.0	breeding strategy, and a conservation angle that encourages local farmers to use more nature-friendly
1:40.2	alternatives to parasite management, tick dips for cattle and whatnot.
	...

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