Hey short waivers, this is Giselle Grayson, show editor.

And as you all know, our interviews are on the short side, and that does mean we have

to pick and choose what goes in each episode.

This summer, Ritu Jatterjee had a wonderful conversation with Deja Perkins, Berder, Bird

Researcher, and an organizer of Black Berders Week.

And she said some things that didn't make it into the episode, but I think about all

the time.

Deja mentioned she has three favorite birds, and you'll have to listen to the episode

to hear the first.

The other two are santaill cranes and piliated woodpeckers.

She told me she first heard the piliated woodpeckers call when she was working in rural

Minnesota.

She was relatively new to wilderness, and heard the distinctive call and thought it was

a hyena or something.

And her saying that, of course, sent me to the internet and made me realize that I was

hearing those woodpeckers in rural Virginia, where my family spent some time during the

pandemic.

And I even finally saw one a few months ago.

It was so majestic and so much bigger than the downies and the red bellies that I'd been

seeing at my feeder.

And I thought of Deja when I saw it.

The other thing we talked about were vultures.

...