Birdpunk
April 30, 2019 1:27 PM Subscribe
Creative people at the intersection of punk, birding, and deep ecology. The founder of BirdPhilly is one among many who apply the DIY ethic to serious birding: “You could start a band, put out a fanzine, or teach yourself about birds with your friends."
Put a bird with a gear on it!
posted by Fizz at 1:32 PM on April 30, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by Fizz at 1:32 PM on April 30, 2019 [2 favorites]
I could use a birding pal to help me with Warblers. Even with photos, it is tough figuring them out. Birding makes me focus in a way that nothing else does. And it makes me have patience - not good at that one in the rest of my life.
posted by narancia at 2:30 PM on April 30, 2019 [5 favorites]
posted by narancia at 2:30 PM on April 30, 2019 [5 favorites]
I'm more of a plant person; I like them because they don't flee and they allow close inspection. It's interesting to me that birders outnumber "planters" by a ratio of thousand (millions?) to one.
posted by Agave at 2:34 PM on April 30, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by Agave at 2:34 PM on April 30, 2019 [2 favorites]
Oh yeah those Warblers are really hard to get a clear identity on, that's why Peterson calls them "confusing". I'd like to take the time to try get some better recordings of their singing, which is sometimes amazing.
posted by ovvl at 2:49 PM on April 30, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by ovvl at 2:49 PM on April 30, 2019 [1 favorite]
I literally kind of did this this past weekend. I walked through a local park with a friend who's starting a Twitch livestream and we talked about and identified cool birds, plants, Shakespeare quotes on plaques, plaques on benches, etc. that we saw. Between the two of us, we're pretty punk/emo, with Chucks and Gazelles and black skinny jeans and stuff like skull scarves and hoodies, but we were doing the entirely geeky, once-uncool thing of being open to experiences around us and marveling at how great it all was, complimenting people's shoes and outfits, etc. rather than making fun of it. It felt really cool after all.
posted by limeonaire at 2:56 PM on April 30, 2019 [4 favorites]
posted by limeonaire at 2:56 PM on April 30, 2019 [4 favorites]
This also reminds me of the New Sincerity, and dank memes, somehow. Postmodern life is weird.
posted by limeonaire at 3:03 PM on April 30, 2019
posted by limeonaire at 3:03 PM on April 30, 2019
I could use a birding pal to help me with Warblers. Even with photos, it is tough figuring them out.
Back when I lived on the Texas Gulf coast, and could pop down to High Island or Galveston or Freeport in an hour or two during spring migration, what helped me was playing close attention to the bar charts. Knowing what you could expect to see arrive that particular week made it easy to study up on just a few birds of interest. Instead of trying to learn 50+ warblers, you study 7 or 8 per week. Plus I lived there a while and did it most years. These days, ebird makes it easy.
posted by Bee'sWing at 3:06 PM on April 30, 2019 [4 favorites]
Back when I lived on the Texas Gulf coast, and could pop down to High Island or Galveston or Freeport in an hour or two during spring migration, what helped me was playing close attention to the bar charts. Knowing what you could expect to see arrive that particular week made it easy to study up on just a few birds of interest. Instead of trying to learn 50+ warblers, you study 7 or 8 per week. Plus I lived there a while and did it most years. These days, ebird makes it easy.
posted by Bee'sWing at 3:06 PM on April 30, 2019 [4 favorites]
Xeno-Canto is a great resource for learning calls; many thousands of field recordings to choose from... Also, if you're in NorthAm, there are two petersen guides to bird song now (eastern and western editions), filled with spectrograms and an amazing 40-ish page 'phonology' of birdsong.
posted by kaibutsu at 3:21 PM on April 30, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by kaibutsu at 3:21 PM on April 30, 2019 [3 favorites]
If you're in Philly & at all into birds you must go to the Militia Hill Hawk Watch at Fort Washington State Park. They've built out an impressive platform to give birders the best possible views. I'm not even much of a birder & I've seen several types of raptors there.
posted by scalefree at 3:55 PM on April 30, 2019
posted by scalefree at 3:55 PM on April 30, 2019
I could use a birding pal to help me with Warblers. Even with photos, it is tough figuring them out.
Yeah, warblers are tough. The birders I knew who were best at identifying warblers depended on song identification as much as visual ID.
Birding was required in my high school biology class. I am forever indebted to public schooling for that little quirk.
posted by Thorzdad at 4:30 PM on April 30, 2019 [2 favorites]
Yeah, warblers are tough. The birders I knew who were best at identifying warblers depended on song identification as much as visual ID.
Birding was required in my high school biology class. I am forever indebted to public schooling for that little quirk.
posted by Thorzdad at 4:30 PM on April 30, 2019 [2 favorites]
I spend a fair amount of time helping other people learn to identify birds (I'm not an world class birder by any means, but I know enough to help). Going out with other birders is simply the best possible thing you can do if you want to learn to identify birds. It's how I got to where I am, and how I expect to get better in the future. Nobody needs to be an expert, shared knowledge and additional pairs of eyes are powerful and helpful things.
And there are lots of other things to see besides birds! Plants, other animals, weird abandoned farm and industrial equipment, and lots of other evidence of human activity, they're all out there waiting to be seen. I think of it as a form of meditation that works for me.
Germaine to the article, birders have always been DIY. Birders were one of the main forces behind early conservation programs, and have continued to provide both data and the political impetus that helps support conservation. The Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 was one of the first environmental laws on the books, and is there because birders cared.
posted by mollweide at 4:33 PM on April 30, 2019 [4 favorites]
And there are lots of other things to see besides birds! Plants, other animals, weird abandoned farm and industrial equipment, and lots of other evidence of human activity, they're all out there waiting to be seen. I think of it as a form of meditation that works for me.
Germaine to the article, birders have always been DIY. Birders were one of the main forces behind early conservation programs, and have continued to provide both data and the political impetus that helps support conservation. The Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 was one of the first environmental laws on the books, and is there because birders cared.
posted by mollweide at 4:33 PM on April 30, 2019 [4 favorites]
I see that the Heinz Refuge at Tinicum is mentioned in the FPP and I highly recommend it, especially at this time of year, when warblers abound. Great waterfowl variety too.
posted by Sheydem-tants at 4:37 PM on April 30, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by Sheydem-tants at 4:37 PM on April 30, 2019 [2 favorites]
Does anybody know if that Punk Rock Big Year documentary was ever finished? I was able to find the original Indiegogo page and a trailer for it on YouTube, but no mention of it anywhere or links to stream/buy the DVD as far as I can find. I'd love to watch it and really hope this isn't a case of crowdfunded project that never completed.
posted by forbiddencabinet at 4:38 PM on April 30, 2019
posted by forbiddencabinet at 4:38 PM on April 30, 2019
There's got to be a punk birder song about the injustices suffered by food service workers. "Peter Peter Peter- who cooks for you? Peter Peter Peter WHO COOKS FOR YOU ALL!?!"
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 8:46 PM on April 30, 2019 [5 favorites]
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 8:46 PM on April 30, 2019 [5 favorites]
I finally found my people.
posted by Young Kullervo at 8:30 AM on May 1, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by Young Kullervo at 8:30 AM on May 1, 2019 [1 favorite]
I could have sworn there was a Far Side about punk pigeons, but it turns out to have been porcupines.
There's also a Dead Milkmen song about right wing pigeons from outer space, which I had somehow combined with "Punk Rock Girl" which isn't even on the same album.
Carry on.
posted by aspersioncast at 9:07 AM on May 1, 2019
There's also a Dead Milkmen song about right wing pigeons from outer space, which I had somehow combined with "Punk Rock Girl" which isn't even on the same album.
Carry on.
posted by aspersioncast at 9:07 AM on May 1, 2019
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posted by Bee'sWing at 1:31 PM on April 30, 2019 [7 favorites]