Brian Lear on WNYC. Are you a hobbyist? Would you like to be? All through this membership drive,

we're going to look at some of the popular ways we spend our time honing new skills

and finding community virtually and in person among other people

as obsessed as we are with yarn, clay, paper, glass, or getting up early to sit and watch the birds.

That last one is today's hobby.

We're joined now by all of its senior producer,

Kate Hines, a dedicated birder.

She has worked as a producer on this show in the past and has been a

guest many times, wants to talk about docks, you may remember. We'll range a little

wider and talk about all of birding, how get started what you need and how to sound like you

know what you're doing at all.

Hi Kate.

Hey Brian.

How did you get into Birding?

Many many years ago I lived on a big plot of land in Vermont,

and one of my neighbors was a birder,

and we would stand outside and just talk

when the weather was nice, and she would pause every now

and then and say, oh, I hear a yellow-bellied sap sucker.

So she birded by ear and I was like, what?

You can tell what that is?

And she got me really intrigued.

...