Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Birding-related Podcasts

I used to always be on top of new technologies, but these days I always feel a step behind. Although I've had an iPod for 2 years, I've only recently started listening to podcasts. There are many birding-related podcasts which might interest you:

Ray Brown's Talkin' Birds - A 30-minute Sunday morning radio broadcast out of Massachusetts, Ray discusses feeding, finding, and identifying birds. He also has a weekly "featured feathered friend" which is a description of a bird along with interesting facts. Finally, he has a "mystery bird" contest each week with a prize that usually consists of Droll Yankee feeders. You can obviously only win the prize if you listen to the live show. There are over 100 episodes of this show for your listening pleasure. Some more advanced birders might find this show more geared towards beginners.

This Birding Life (Birdwatcher's Digest) - Hosted by the beloved and hilarious Bill Thompson III, this program covers a wide range of topics. Although it only has 9 episodes so far, Bill has discussed birding technology, he's interviewed Kenn Kaufman and Scott Weidensaul, has had live book readings by their authors, and has even had a show live from Tikal. My only complaint is that there are not shows more often. Show lengths are varied.

BEEKS (A Birding Geek's Radio Delight) - Hosted in Vermont, BEEKS is an eclectic and fun show discussing local birds, interviewing people from the birding community, and featuring some fun games for listeners. I haven't listened to this one as much as the two above, but it's a lot of fun. Show times are a bit longer than the others - close to an hour.

BirdNote - Short two-minute snippets on birds updated almost daily. I like this one for it's brevity and the amount you can learn in just two minutes.

On the Wing - I haven't personally listened to this one yet, but it seems pretty popular. This is the "audio magazine for birds and birding." It's updated monthly with several segments at a time. Each month totals about 30 minutes.

I'm sure there are other bird-related podcasts and probably a plethora of other nature-related ones. You don't necessarily need an iPod to listen to them. iTunes makes it easy to download and listen to them right on your PC. Enjoy!

6 comments:

Unknown said...

How do you know that gulls don't taste good?

Patrick B. said...

Andrea, I don't know for sure, it was more of a joke. Traditionally, fish-eating birds are not good. I know someone who ate a merganser and said it was awful. I figure if they were really tasty, then people might be hunting them.

Unknown said...

Thank you, Patrick, I thought so too... If they were tasty, the French would have found out before anyone else and put them on their menu long ago, I'm very sure of that;)
(Thanks for making me look up "merganser", it looks pretty with a hood..)

Larry said...

That's a useful set of links.-Thanks!

Bill of the Birds said...

Hey PB:

Thanks for the 'holla' in 10,000 birds about "This Birding Life!"

One of my main goals is to make more podcasts and to post them more frequently. It's strictly a matter of finding the time to produce them--no shortage of good content!

Muchas gracias!

BOTB

Patrick B. said...

No problem BT3. I know you're a busy man and I look forward to all the future podcasts.