Birds & Bytes milestone - 25 Episodes!
Like almost all birding clubs prior to March 2020, everything COS did was in-person—field trips, programs at the Peggy Notebaert Museum, Birds and Beers. All our board meetings were in-person at someone’s home or in a room at the Old Town School of Folk Music. We did not have a Zoom account. Most of us had never used it.
As the seriousness of the COVID-19 pandemic became clear, we cancelled all events for the month of March. We didn’t want to leave our members and community with nothing, so we came up with the idea of hosting Birds and Beers on a virtual platform. We named it Birds & Bytes. We guessed inviting everyone to gather virtually to just chat wouldn’t work very well, especially without knowing how many people would come. So, we called on Josh Engel, a well-known Chicago birder who had recently launched his own international birding tour company, Red Hill Birding. We planned a set of interview questions so he could share his experiences birding abroad and give structure to the event. Attendees could chime in to ask questions or comment in the chat box. We held a dry run, so we could all practice using Zoom—which sounds preposterous now.
To keep with the spirit of Birds and Beers and “drinking at the same place,” we connected with Eris Brewing and Cider House and encouraged everyone to pick up some to-go cans for the night. It was also a way to support a local business that likely faced a rough few weeks ahead.
And so the first Birds & Bytes took place on March 26, 2020 with bird chat, community, and beers. Little did we know how long all of this was going to go on. Month after month, we canceled our in-person events, and more Birds & Bytes were planned. Eventually we accepted that this was how the Chicago Ornithological Society was going to operate for the foreseeable future. There wouldn’t be in-person programs or field trips. Birds & Bytes was no longer a temporary fix.
Yet out of this awkward, sad, and distressing situation, our community grew. Attendance for Birds & Bytes started to outstrip any in-person event we ever had. Beyond friends and acquaintances in the Chicago birding community, we saw a big increase in attendees from outside the Chicago area—even other states. Although we missed being in-person, we found that the virtual world untied our hands in many ways, and we could engage a much broader audience. Without the administrative burdens and expense that in-person events had, the virtual forum allowed us to schedule a larger variety of topics with many more guests throughout the year, with much less planning. And people loved it.
Throughout the three years of Birds & Bytes, we’ve learned a lot. We’ve gotten to know our birding colleagues, like Woody Goss and Greg Niese. We’ve learned about big data and bird migration with Mikko Jimenez. The Galbatrosses gave us new perspective on female birds, and we discussed how to be a more inclusive and diverse birding community with The Feminist Bird Club and Audubon Great Lakes. From penguins to nighthawks, the “notorious” cowbird to parakeets, radar and spectrograms, gardening for birds, and of course, our beloved Chicago Plovers—it’s been an enriching ride. We’re mostly back in-person, but Birds & Bytes is here to stay.
Join us December 7 for our 25th episode “Rescue, Rehab, Release” featuring the Chicago Bird Collision Monitors and learn how this all-volunteer organization cares for birds injured in window collisions and gives them a second chance in life.
Below is a summary of all of our Birds & Bytes to-date, most of which can be watched on our YouTube channel.
25. Rescue, Rehab, Release: Volunteers with the Chicago Bird Collision Monitors; Annette Prince (CBCM), Citlally Fabela (CBCM volunteer), Justin Sharp (Willowbrook), Stephanie Scurtu (Willowbrook volunteer) tell of their stories of rescue, rehab, and release of birds injured in window collisions in Chicago.
24. Penguins Ahoy: Dr. John Bates of the Field Museum presents his epic trip to find penguins and gather information on their rapidly changing populations.
23. The Magic Stump: Writer and filmmaker Bob Dolgan shares his account of the mysterious Magic Stump in a field in central Illinois that consistently attracts rare and unusual birds.
22. A Conversation with Walter Marcisz: Collecting unique data directly responsible for saving numerous natural areas, Walter’s history as a birder, conservationist, and mentor spans decades.
21. A conversation with Judy Pollock: The cofounder of Bird Conservation Network, promoter of Lights Out Chicago, and President of CAS discusses her conservation efforts.
20. Birding with the Elements: Ethan Gyllenhaal and Nathan Goldberg and tales of poor-weather birding, tips and rewards.
19. A conversation with Woody Goss: Birder, musician, and composer Woody shares his experiences of chasing and his passionate interest in the local land, birds, and people of Chicago, particularly the grasslands and dunes. He is trying to do more work to make these pursuits more available to those without similar opportunities.
18. Christmas Bird Count, A History: Geoffrey LeBaron, the CBC director for NAS, guides us through the origins, evolution, uses and conservation implications of the 120-Year history of the count.
17. The Carolina Parakeet: Dr. Kevin Burgio discussion of the history, biology, and extinction of the once commonly seen native parrot in Chicago.
16. Big Data and Bird Migration: Mikko Jimenez talks about the Migratory Bird Initiative and BirdCast—two exciting projects that typify how we can use different types of tracking and remote sensing data to inform migratory bird conservation efforts.
15. The Notorious Cowbird: Sarah Winnicki walks through the biology of cowbirds, paying close attention to the ways they interact with their host species, how these interactions affect the growth of cowbirds and hosts, and the current state of cowbird biology research.
14. Building a Bird Safe City: After years of advocacy, policy work, and partner building, we finally passed a Bird Friendly Buildings ordinance in late 2020. So what now? How do we take policy and action and build that bird safe city we’ve envisioned for so long? Carl Giometti, Claire Halpin, and Chris Michalek host.
13. Birds in the Garden: (not recorded) Pam Karlson is a career artist and certified professional gardener/garden designer; illustrating how it’s possible to attract over 100 bird species. Tips include landscape enhancements, practices and plant selection, with an emphasis on natives and nativars. Chicagoland’s importance along the migratory route, bird species diversity, habitat, diet/foraging, nesting, supplemental support, and citizen science are also be discussed.
12. A Conversation with Greg Neise: Local birding legend, Greg Neise, Joins us as we talk about everything from breaking Illinois birding records, to being a young birder before it was cool, to how the internet changed birding, and so much more.
11. Migration in the Windy City: Longtime Chicago birder and Senior Conservation Ecologist at the Field Museum, Doug Stotz, discusses the ins and outs of migration, and how better understanding of migration patterns can make you a better birder.
10. Hawkwatching Illinois with Adam Sell: Hawkwatching is a unique brand of bird watching that can be tremendously rewarding or equally frustrating. But how does one “hawkwatch?” Why hawkwatch? What do you need to get started and where do you go?
9. Nighthawks: Dr. Gretchen Newberry details birding tips for finding this elusive bird, tells stories from the field, and notes the challenges nighthawks face including prairie, riparian, and urban habitat loss; urban predators; and climate change.
8. Beginning Birding Chicago Style: Join Chicago birdwatcher and photographer, Scott Judd, for all the information you need to start finding and identifying birds right here in our beautiful urban paradise.
7. Birding and Radar: Geoff Williamson explains how radar can detect birds, how scientists are using it, how birders can use it during migration to help determine ‘good’ birding days, where to find radar forecasts, and how to interpret the patterns displayed.
6. Identifying Female Birds with the Galbatrosses: Members of the Galbatrosses are Brooke Bateman, Stephanie Beilke, Martha Harbison, Purbita Saha and Joanna Wu. The Galbatrosses, a group of scientists, birders, writers, and conservationists, discuss what’s so special about female birds, unique ID tips they have learned from their research, and how you can help contribute to the Galbatross Project, a crowd-sourcing data project to create an encyclopedia of sorts for female birds of North America.
5. Learning Bird Songs with Spectrograms: Tom Stephenson has been birding since he was a kid under the tutelage of Dr. Arthur Allen of Cornell University. We discuss useful approaches to learning bird songs using spectrograms and objective terms, which can really help you hear more accurately. We’ll then apply these techniques to a few confusing vocalizations to show how spectrograms are a powerful way of studying and separating similar-sounding songs.
4. Conversation with Dr. John Bates and Dr. Shannon Hackett: Co-curators of Birds at the Field Museum of Natural History, John Bates and Shannon Hackett have been studying and asking tough questions about birds for most of their lives. From revolutionizing our understanding of how birds are related to one another to describing new species to science, they've done it all. If you've ever wondered how we can use DNA to answer questions about birds, what incredible far-flung and remote locations they've been to in order to study and collect birds, or why your field guide is organized the way it is, this is the talk for you!
3. Plover Watch: Sarah Saunders of the National Audubon Society gives us a broad overview of the status of Piping Plovers. Following with be a panel facilitated by former COS president Carl Giometti featuring Sarah, Brad Semel of Illinois Dept. of Natural Resources, Tamima Itani of Illinois Ornithological Society, and Bob Dolgan of Turnstone Impact and the Chicago Ornithological Society. The topic is Plover Watch 2020. After the unexpected but successful year for Piping Plovers in Chicago, what does year two hold? What can we expect and how are plans shaping up?
2. Inclusivity in Birding with Feminist Bird Club, NAS, AGL: This week’s topic is Inclusivity in Birding, featuring presenters from the Feminist Bird Club, National Audubon Society, and Audubon Great Lakes. Facilitated by Stephanie Beilke of Audubon Great Lakes and Chicago Ornithological Society, Edward Warden of Chicago Ornithological Society, and Kristin Murphy of Audubon Great Lakes.
1. Conversation with Josh Engel of Red Hill Birding: Josh shares his adventures as an international birding tour guide.