This conversation had me hooked! I totally get what you mean about being able to go on forever! I wish you had, tbh lol.
It’s wild to be reminded that in the 1960s, Canada Geese and Bald Eagles were considered rare in Ohio! Conservation can feel hopeless sometimes, but stories like that are such fantastic reminders of what’s possible.
Also: weirdo birds are so underrated! I love anything that makes a bird recognizable as an individual. I’ll definitely be watching for Canada Goose eyebrows and spectacles now! This reminds me of the Spotted × Eastern Towhee at Beechwood too, I was on a mission to find him every time I visited last winter, haha.
And thank you to SK for their advocacy around cowbirds! People so often try to project human morality onto animals and forget they’re just trying to survive in their own way. I truly love House Sparrows as well. Honestly, I think they’re smarter than us, and we kind of resent them for it. Like… they won because humans are stupid and shortsighted. Moral of the story: birds know better than we do
Let's hear it for the underdogs! I love the way SK Winnicki has spent their life studying, loving, and standing up for the birds others find weird, questionable, disruptive. What a brilliant conversation that even a non-birder can get behind. Universal themes make all the difference, I tell you.
This conversation had me hooked! I totally get what you mean about being able to go on forever! I wish you had, tbh lol.
It’s wild to be reminded that in the 1960s, Canada Geese and Bald Eagles were considered rare in Ohio! Conservation can feel hopeless sometimes, but stories like that are such fantastic reminders of what’s possible.
Also: weirdo birds are so underrated! I love anything that makes a bird recognizable as an individual. I’ll definitely be watching for Canada Goose eyebrows and spectacles now! This reminds me of the Spotted × Eastern Towhee at Beechwood too, I was on a mission to find him every time I visited last winter, haha.
And thank you to SK for their advocacy around cowbirds! People so often try to project human morality onto animals and forget they’re just trying to survive in their own way. I truly love House Sparrows as well. Honestly, I think they’re smarter than us, and we kind of resent them for it. Like… they won because humans are stupid and shortsighted. Moral of the story: birds know better than we do
I’m trying to keep these things around one hour, but we’re talking about BIRDS. Do you know how hard it is to shut up about birds? Of course you do!!!
The interview I recorded last week could have absolutely gone on all day.
I so need to see the bespectacled Canada Geese. That’s a must.
Let's hear it for the underdogs! I love the way SK Winnicki has spent their life studying, loving, and standing up for the birds others find weird, questionable, disruptive. What a brilliant conversation that even a non-birder can get behind. Universal themes make all the difference, I tell you.
Canada Geese, cowbirds, House Sparrows... SK loves them all. A real warrior for the despised.
And who can't love someone who's a warrior for birds who are unfairly unloved?