10-18: Sharing Spark Birds with Jenn Lodi-Smith
5/7/202641 min
The concept of the "spark bird", the transformative moment with a particular species that turns you from a normal person into a real-deal birder, is one that many birders are familiar with. These personal testimonies frequently tell you as much about the birder as they do about the spark bird itself. The human element of a natural experience is what excites Dr Jenn Lodi-Smith, a professor of psychology at Canisius University and scholar in residence at the Roger Tory Peterson Institute, and it's what inspired her to create the Spark Bird Project, an online collection of spark birds and the birders they inspire.
Also, if you're going to be at the Biggest Week festibal next week, come say hi!
Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsNate Swick· Host0:00
[upbeat music] Hello, and welcome to the American Birding Podcast from the American Birding Association. I am Nate Swick. Next week is the biggest week in American birding in northern Ohio. I'll be there. Will you? Not that we need it around here, uh, spring is popping off where I live. In the last few days I've had first of year Blue Grosbeak, Yellow-throated Vireo, Bank Swallow, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, loads, loads of Summer Tanagers, among many, many others. And to be honest, I'm barely looking for them. I just happen to be in places adjacent to appropriate habitat, a power line cut here where a Prairie Warbler is singing, an open field where Grasshopper Sparrows are doing their thing. You know how it works. Migration in North America in April and May is easily one of the great nature phenomena on the planet. Right up there with the stuff that you see in nature docs from far-flung parts of the world. I would put spring migration in Eastern North America in particular up there with an Okavango Delta wet season or a Cock of the Rock lek or cetaceans in the Southern Ocean summer when it comes to dramatic nature doings. And it's, it's going on right in your backyard, unknown and unremarked upon by millions of normal people, but not you. You know what I'm talking about. Anyway, I'm looking forward to getting up