Nate Swick

@n8swick.bsky.social

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Birds, beers, basketball, soccer. Into birding before it was cool. Digital Comms, ABA. American Birding Podcast host. Author of bird books. Posts mine. he/him

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Thinking of that time 10 years ago when a Mink just stopped hunting crawdads and stared at me for like 1 minute (before returning to hunting crawdads).

Master of Puffins

#TheMetalDogArticleList #Guitar James Hetfield admits he's “obsessed” with bird watching guitar.com/news/music-n... #JamesHetfield #Metallica #BirdWatching #BirdFeeders

2024 ABA BOTY (Beer of the Year)

A *giant pane of north-facing glass* right along one of the busiest bird migration corridors on the continent is quite a decision. Do piles of dead migratory birds add to the game day experience?

BREAKING: The Bears plan for new stadium includes $4.6 billion price tag, with about half of it coming from the taxpayers. Big Chicago Tribune scoop www.chicagotribune.com/2024/04/23/s...

Taxpayers would pick up half the tab for Bears’ lakefront stadium, sources saywww.chicagotribune.com The team on Wednesday will unveil its proposal for building in an area just south of its current home in Soldier Field.

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I'd never thought of using Google Ngram as a tool to track changes in bird names over time - it's amazing to see once-common names replaced by "official" bird names, including some recent changes I wasn't aware of (Marsh Hawk ➡️ Northern Harrier; Louisiana Heron ➡️ Tricolored Heron) 🗃️🪶

An interesting thing about historic zoology collections is that they let you trace how things like names change over time. What used to be commonly called a Hedge Sparrow is now more commonly (and correctly) called a Dunnock.

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This episode made the rounds again & I had a number of folks reach out asking Qs - @n8swick.bsky.social can verify, but I think this episode was recorded sometime in late 2021 - before I really had any data. 3 years later I have a lot more to share. 🦉🧪 con'd

The American Robin is ubiquitous but there's a lot left to learn. Emily Williams, an avian ecologist at Georgetown University, is studying their migration ecology. What we don’t know about a bird everyone knows. www.aba.org/08-12-more-t...

08-12: More than a Lawn Thrush with Emily Williams - American Birding Associationwww.aba.org

I am working on a podcast idea called "Take it or Leave it" in which a small panel discusses the hottest birding takes and decides whether we take them or leave them. So what are your hottest or weirdest bird or birding takes? If I end up using them you will be credited (if you want).

Yes, Flaco was filled to the brim with rat poison and that's a problem for urban wildlife, but let's not lose focus that the primary cause of death was the unidentified vandal who destroyed his enclosure and the identified crowd of photographers who prevented his recapture.

Based on the commentary in the first 10 minutes of this Charlotte-Toronto game, MLS has clearly encouraged announcers to talk a lot about what a great job their scab referees are doing.

I wonder if it bothers the critics of the bird name changes to have absolute eraser-headed morons like this legislator in their camp.

that's...not how it works, Utah.

Politically correct bird names? That doesn’t fly with Utah Legislature.www.sltrib.com The American Ornithological Society has launched an effort to change the names of bird species that are named after people, the reason being that all the people are white men and some of them have rac...

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So I called an audible and instead of talking toxoplasmosis, I talk about puzzle-solving Johnny Rooks! Give a listen: www.aba.org/08-09-this-m... @ababirds.bsky.social @n8swick.bsky.social

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Preparing to record an episode of the @ababirds.bsky.social podcast tomorrow with @n8swick.bsky.social and my jaw is on the floor after reading the paper I am going to discuss. Polish thrushes, ticks, and toxoplasmosis - stay tuned!

In my opinion that was a good halftime show.

This film is great. I talked to the producer/director and that interview is on the American Birding Podcast tomorrow.

Shorebirds are the coolest birds ever (not biased!) and the focus of this Wednesday's episode of PBS Nature. In the process, you can learn more about the amazing research of Jenny Linscott, Lauren Puleo, Juan Navedo, Jan van Gils, Richard Fuller and more. Check it out! www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/...

Flyways ~ About | Nature | PBSwww.pbs.org Follow a conservation movement of bird-loving experts and citizen scientists as they mobilize to the challenge of understanding and saving shorebirds.

Hey bluesky please add video capabilities.

Find someone who loves you as much as Scott Bilas loves Kyle Filipowski.

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I had a fun conversation with @n8swick.bsky.social on the American Birding Podcast talking about eBird data and trends in bird populations. You can listen here: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/0...

🐦 North America has lost 3 billion birds in half a century. For my Climate Lab column, I made an app where you can see the population trend for almost any bird species in the United States. Play with it here: www.washingtonpost.com/climate-envi...

Analysis | Bird populations are declining. Some are in your neighborhood.www.washingtonpost.com North America has lost 3 billion birds in half a century. The world’s biggest bird database, eBird, shows how bird populations are doing in your town.

True Detective has always been pretty accurate with its background bird vocalizations, so it’s a little disappointing the new season takes place in the middle of winter in Alaska. Not a single bird sound in the entire season so far.

Masters of the Air is an absolute cavalcade of terrible southern and “New York” accents from young English, Irish, and Australian actors.

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Really fun talking with @jerutter.bsky.social , Stephanie, and @n8swick.bsky.social. And for reference, here's my version of Weird Duck Season

This Month in Birding is back in the new year, with a panel of old friends to talk bird and birding news of the month. This time around, Stephanie Bielke, Jordan Rutter, and Brodie Cass Talbott come by to talk Mallard quasi-domestication, smart binoculars and more! www.aba.org/this-month-i...

This Month in Birding - January 2024 - American Birding Associationwww.aba.org

Novelist Robert Cantwell was a frequent contributor to Sports Illustrated from the 50s through the 70s. He frequently wrote about birds and birding, including this epic 1978 piece about searching for Horned Guan in Mexico. Imagine, birding in Sports Illustrated.

“Heartbroken” isn’t a strong enough word.

The Glory of Sports Illustratedopen.substack.com At the moment, there’s confusion. Heartbreak and confusion. Sports Illustrated may live on. It may not. It may morph into something else. One hundred people are laid off. More than 100 people are la...

It frequently seems less like anyone wants to have a discussion about what and who English bird names are for and more like people just want to use the issue as a trojan horse to complain about larger cultural trends they don't like. This applies to both "sides" of this issue, for what it's worth.

It’s interesting to go back & read the NACC comments to the 1st longspur proposal because they specifically advocate for a new process to address eponymous names and now that the process that they asked for is here they seem to be mad mostly because it doesn't involve them.

Just received a bill for crossing the Sanibel Island, Florida, causeway in July 2021.

I have a hard time understanding why the CEO of National Audubon needs a "brand strategist".

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The Biden-Harris administration has been by far the best in terms of climate change, endangered species conservation, and science-based environmental management decisions. It’s not close. As a conservation policy scientist, I’d be strongly supporting them even if Trump wasn’t the alternative. 🧪🌎

The Biden Administration Has Reached Conservation Records in 2023www.americanprogress.org After three years in office, it is clear that the Biden administration is safeguarding public lands at a record rate; in the coming year, it must continue its conservation progress through community-l...

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Finally, someone (Jonathan Franzen) has said what needs to be said about cats. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

How the “No Kill” Movement Betrays Its Namewww.newyorker.com By keeping cats outdoors, trap-neuter-release policies have troubling consequences for city residents, local wildlife—and even the cats themselves.

I was really pleased by how this came out. Thanks to Irene, @stephencarrhampton.bsky.social and @alvarosadventures.bsky.social for a great discussion.

The recommendation by the AOS to change eponymous bird names is one of the bigger bird issues in recent memory. On the American Birding Pod, we brought together three members of that committee to discuss how that committee worked, and how they came to their decision. www.aba.org/inside-the-b...

Inside the Bird Name Committee - American Birding Associationwww.aba.org

First Bird of 2024 Eastern Bluebird

The arguments in this petition seem to be primarily “you can’t change history” (no one is changing history) and “don’t cancel Ted Parker” (no one is “canceling“ Ted Parker).

There’s been a bit of uproar among opponents to the recent bird name change effort resulting in an online petition. But a large proportion of the signees seem to be UK based birders whose birds are low priorities for changes and who have little “skin in the game” as it were.