Allerton Park Bird Club Podcast

Nate and Evan sit down with Sparky Stensaas, founder and director of Friends of Sax Zim Bog, to talk about the upcoming Tiny Bird Art Auction. The auction starts Thursday, January 25th and ends Sunday, January 28th. The auction can be found at https://saxzim.org/events/2023-tiny-bird-art/ Thank you for supporting the Friends of Sax Zim Bog

Today Evan and Nate sit down a go birding with Andrew Farnsworth. Andrew Farnsworth is currently a Senior Research Associate in the Center for Avian Population Studies at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Andrew began birding at age 5 and quickly developed his long-standing fascinations with bird migration. His current research efforts advance the use and application of rapidly expanding technologie...

This week with sit down with Colin Dobson to discuss birds, birdings and his new book Field Guide to Hotspots and Birds in Illinois An avid Illinois birder, Colin has seen over 385 species of birds over the past decade in IL. He has earned 6 Illinois Big Years. Colin recently authored a book about hotspots and birds in Illinois, Field Guide to Hotspots and Birds in Illinois and also co-authored a...

Nate & Evan are glad to be back in the studio!  In this episode they preview what is to come in 2024.  Every episode they will be discussing possible names for birds. They share their travels for 2023 and plans for 2024.  Join in as they prepare for the best year in birding podcast to come. 

Today, Evan and Nate go birding with Tyler Funk & Bob Dolgan. Birding patches, or hot spots, often have a specific area that has a name. Montrose has the Magic Hedge. Champaign/Urbana has the Magic Bridge. Out here in rural Illinois we have the Magic Stump. What is the magic stump? Is it actually magical? Do bird magically appear? Well, kind of..... Today with sit down with discoverer/founder/...

Migration, Migration, Migration!  Today Evan and Nate sit down with the Winter Finch Forecaster Tyler Hoar to discuss what birds might be visiting us this winter from the North. First, Evan discusses the results of the recent Illinois Big Sit competition. Who knew that a birding competition could be filled with so much friendly competition, rivalry, and a dramatic finish!  If you remember last yea...

Nate and Evan sit down with Annette Prince this week to discuss the Chicago Bird Collision Monitors (CBCM) and also the newly passed Bird Safe Buildings Act. Annette Prince has been involved with CBCM since 2003 and the director since 2005. She guides us through the history and mission of this great group. What does a normal morning look like walking around the downtown area searching for injured...

Today Nate and Evan sit down with Aerin Tedesco to talk everything BIG (in Evan's Monster Truck announcer voice). It's the beginning of migration, so we discuss early migrants at the top of the show. What are we seeing currently. First we discuss Aerin's county big year. Recently Aerin smashed the Champaign County big year record. Not only smashed it, but crushed it in 5 months. We...

Nate and Evan head back to the studio for the beginning of season 2 with a spring recap. Life has been busy for them lately, but they are happy to talk birds. Over the winter Nate played a very elaborate and lengthy prank on Evan. He goes over the harrowing details of this plot. Evan talks about his trip to Florida and all the amazing birds he saw.  Then they finish up with talking birds in Illino...

Today, Evan & Nate go birding with Erik Bruhnke Like most birders, Evan and Nate often times discuss what it would be like to not have professional jobs and be able to spend all of our time birding. We wanted to sit down with someone that has taken their passion for birding and made it his career. We first crossed path with Erik at the Sax Zim Bog trip when he was explaining ID tips for the Ho...

Today Nate and Evan go birding with Isoo O'Brien. We finally get a chance to sit down with Isoo O'Brien, an Evanston, Illinois native who recently set the Cook County Big Year record. If that wasn't impressive enough, Isoo is a high school senior. 2020 was not a normal year. Most people will probably never forget it. It was especially memorable for Isoo. In this episode, Isoo tells...

Today Evan & Nate go birding with Nikki Wayment from HawkWatch International. We begin by discussing birds we have both seen this week including the snow bunting Nate saw and the long eared owl that Evan saw. What is HawkWatch international? The mission of HawkWatch International is to conserve our environment through education, long-term monitoring, and scientific research on raptors as indic...

Today Nate & Evan go birding with David Yeany,  Avian Ecologist for the Pennsylvania Natural Heritage Program (PNHP) at the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy (WPC). David has been studying winter movements  of Evening Grosbeaks in the Allegheny National Forest (ANF) for the past few years. We discuss the 5 major questions in his study. why do evening grosbeaks keep returning to this area?  Do t...

Today, Evan and Nate are joined by Dr. Given Harper from Illinois Wesleyan University to discuss his current research on Red-tailed Hawks (RTHA). We first caught wind of Given when Piatt County residents began calling us telling us that a person is trapping Red-tailed Hawks in our area. We immediately knew we had to find out who this was.  After a series of fortunate events and family members, we...

Today, Nate and Evan have the honor of sitting down with former Piatt County resident and long time friend, Dr. Vince Slabe.  While they have many great memories from high school and college, during their adult lives they have all had found birds to be a common area of interest. Dr.  Slabe has done extensive research studying lead toxicity in raptors, specifically Golden Eagles. As residents of Il...

This week, Evan and Nate sit down and recap their 4 day birding trip to Sax Zim Bog in Minnesota. Evan & Nate met fellow birders and bird club members Aerin Tedesco and Scott Judd for the adventure of a lifetime.  What lifers did they see? What were some of the birding highs...and lows of the trip. One of the lows was the temperature, which was -33 on Sunday morning.   Did Evan manage to get s...

Today, Nate and Evan sit down with Sparky Stensaas, founder and director of Friends of Sax Zim Bog. Located outside of Duluth Minnesota, Sax Zim Bog is a dream destination for winter birders from all over the world. It just so happens that Evan & Nate are heading there next week to chase some lifers. They begin by talking about birds they are currently seeing in the respective areas. Sparky al...

Nate and Evan are joined by Zak Sutton again trying to stump the dynamic duo. Play along and see if you can ID the bird Zak is describing by the field marks.  Happy Listening and Happy Birding

Nate and Evan are joined again today by the founder of Finch Research Network, Matthew Young. Thanks to Matt's contractual agreement with the finches, we had a spectacular year in the lower 48 states viewing all sorts of finches.  Today Matt begins by giving us an update on the winter finches. Did anything happen that wasn't expected? Did anything not happen that was expected? He also ex...

Zak joins Evan and Nate to see if he can stump the dynamic duo in their quest to identify birds. Will Evan & Nate go 0-2? Will you, the listener, be able to figure out what bird Zak is watching? Play along in the birding exercise.  Happy listening and happy birding.

We know what you are thinking. What is a bird hunting group doing on a podcast about BIRDS?!? Well, Nate and Evan sit down with Jared Wiklund, public relations specialist with Pheasants Forever to answer that question. What is Pheasants forever? Some people may have the idea that it is just a bunch of rednecks with guns out shooting birds to the brink of extinction. This is far from the truth. Phe...

This week, Evan and Nate get a call from our birder in the field, Zak Sutton. In this short 5 minute exercise in birding, Zak describes the habitat, characteristics, general impression, size and shape of the bird. He takes questions about the bird and Nate and Evan try to figure out what bird Zak is looking at.  Can Evan or Nate figure out the identity of the bird? Can you? Happy Listening and Hap...

Nate and Evan sit down and chat with Chicago native Nathan Goldberg and discuss his recent record breaking 2020 Illinois Big Year. Also, Evan serenades Nathan with a bird love song that he wrote. First, Nate gives us a rundown on the recent Piatt County Christmas Bird Count, tally, and the Eurasian Tree Sparrow that was seen, including ID tips. Nathan talks about some of the birds his team recentl...

It's that time of year when rarities start showing up to odd areas and people lose their minds. It's during these times that birders and photographers make poor choices that often have negative consequences. The negative consequences affect the bird, the birders around them, and the birding community. So today Nate and Evan sit down with Greg Neise, member of the American Birding Associa...

Today, Nate and Evan reach out to Davin Lopez and Anne Lacy to talk Whoopers (Whooping Cranes). They probably don't use that term in the field, but Evan thought it was seemed appropriate so he went with it. Both Davin and Anne are involved with the reintroduction of Whooping Cranes (WHCR)  into the wild. In 1941 there were only 21 WHCR left in the entire world. Today there are about 850 Whoop...