Remember how I wrote that OnQ will feature Birding for Everyone this coming Monday? 

Well, I just found out Friday afternoon that I’ll be on that show – live! – to talk about birding and blogging.  So if you’re in the Pittsburgh area on Monday October 5 at 7:30pm, you can see me on WQED.

Unrelated to this but Very Cool:  Last night in the rain we watched hundreds and hundreds of chimney swifts circle and drop into the chimney of the Oliver Bathhouse on the South Side.  It was just like the Swifts movie.

29 September 2009

Last June I was privileged to go birding with John C. Robinson as he taught five children about birds.  The occasion for our outing was an OnQ segment about his book Birding For Everyone: Encouraging People of Color to Become Birdwatchers.

Some of you may know John – he grew up in Pittsburgh.  He’s an excellent birder, has a natural ear for bird song and can identify all our birds by sound.  He’s also a great teacher and it shows when he’s with kids.

John stands out in the birding community for another reason and it began to trouble him.  John is African-American and is usually the only person of color he encounters while birding.  Why are there so few minorities involved in birding?  Why hasn’t this changed in the last 40 years when African-American and Hispanic involvement in other areas has increased?  Even more troubling, in a few decades this gap will affect U.S. attitudes toward the environment.  Minorities are a growing percentage of the U.S. population and the greater the percentage of people who know nothing about birds, the less care will be shown to them.

A few years ago John decided to do something about this.  More people needed to understand this gap as a problem, more people needed to encourage minorities to go birding, and young birders, no matter what their background, needed mentors.  And so John wrote Birding For Everyone: Encouraging People of Color to Become Birdwatchers to urge us all to get involved.

Next week you can meet John Robinson and learn about his passion for birds and bird watching on OnQ, Monday October 5 at 7:30pm.  And you can buy his book here at ShopWQED.

(cover of Birding For Everyone: Encouraging People of Color to Become Birdwatchers, courtesy, John C. Robinson)

p.s. See John C. Robinson tell his story at here on YouTube.

In America, everyone owns some of the most beautiful land this country has to offer.  It’s ours to enjoy at any time, without fences, without No Trespassing signs.  That land is in our national parks whose story will air on PBS beginning this Sunday, September 27 at 8:00pm in Ken Burns’ The National Parks: America’s Best Idea.

Having just spent two weeks at Acadia National Park, I agree it’s one of America’s best.  I’m thankful that so much coastal property is open to everyone and that it retains its natural habitat and scenic beauty to this day. 

It might not have been that way.  Acadia was private land in 1901 when George B. Dorr and Charles W. Eliot were inspired to preserve it.  They and others formed the Hancock County Trustees of Public Reservations who assembled the land from private landholders big and small.  Soon it became clear that the only way to permanently protect the land was through national park status. George Dorr championed the cause and in 1916 presented 5,000 acres as a monument to the nation.  In 1919 it became our first national park east of the Mississippi.

Today Acadia covers 48,000 acres.  Though protected by law, the work is never done. If no one had followed in George Dorr’s footsteps Acadia would be in sad shape today, plagued by traffic jams, unusable trails and swaths of development on formerly scenic sites.  Fortunately, as Ken Burns points out, people are still “willing to devote themselves to save some precious portion of the land they love.”

Friends of Acadia (FOA) is one such group.  Formed in 1986 their mission today is to preserve, protect and promote stewardship of the park and its surrounding communities.  FOA has restored trails (shown here), worked with L.L. Bean to provide buses that reduce traffic congestion, provided education and stewardship programs and preserved land threatened by development.  My husband and I are so impressed by their work that we became Friends of Acadia members several years ago.

Throughout America people are devoting their time and energy to the national parks they love.  This land is your land, too.  Find out more on Sunday at 8:00pm.

(photo of Friends of Acadia trail crew building a bridge, courtesy Ian Marquis, Friends of Acadia)

Sorry for the late notice but I just found out that tomorrow is International Rock Flipping Day.

Founded in 2007 by Dave Bonta (from Plummer’s Hollow, Pennsylvania!), this will be the third year for people all over the world to take the time to flip a rock, record what they see and tell this year’s coordinator, Susanna Anderson the Wanderin’ Weeta blogger from British Columbia. 

I plan to participate but I can’t decide whether to flip a small rock in my city back yard (boring but quick) or go somewhere far away and turn over a big one (time consuming and potentially exciting).  My decision will be influenced by my earlier rock-flipping experience.

Years ago my husband and I took a 6-hour Reptiles and Amphibians class in which we watched a two-hour slideshow presentation, then went on an afternoon field trip.  The class was in the city, the field trip was in Elk County – timber rattlesnake country.  My husband has never been interested in nature classes but he did want to learn about snakes.

Before we began to flip rocks, Dr. Art Hulse explained it was very important to pull up the rock from its far edge so the rock shields your body from what’s underneath.  My husband is very near-sighted (he can’t drive or watch birds) so we were a team.  He pulled up the rock, I looked under it. 

On our first rock we found a ring-necked snake – harmless, kind of pretty and very stinky.  On our second rock we found something that was coiled in a circle and silently shaking its tail.  I called out, “It looks like a milk snake.”   Dr. Hulse said “Careful!  Hold on!” and came running with his snake handling stick.  He pinned the snake’s neck and held it up for all of us to see.  It was a baby timber rattlesnake, so young its rattler made no noise.  Half the class jumped back in fear.  The other half peered forward in fascination.

Since that day I have a motto for those who tell me they’re afraid of snakes, “If you don’t want to see snakes, don’t flip over rocks.”  I hope this doesn’t eliminate half of my reading audience from tomorrow’s activities. 

In any case, tomorrow’s the day.  The rules are simple.  Susanna describes them here.  Go flip a rock and send your findings to wanderinweeta@gmail.com

p.s. Remember!  Pull up the far edge of the rock and, please, carefully replace the rock without harming the creatures you found under it.

(International Rock Flipping Day logo via IRFD coordinator Susanna Anderson)

Today I have an excuse to write about the little girl in this picture.  She’s Rachel Carson, one of my heroes, pictured here with her brother and sister beside the Allegheny River, circa 1915.

Rachel Carson was born in Springdale and grew up with the Allegheny River as her playground.  She eventually studied marine biology and zoology and worked for the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service.  She also wrote many books, including The Sea Around Us, but her most famous book was Silent Spring in which she described the dangers of the indiscriminate use of pesticides and herbicides.  Birds prompted her to write the book, sparked by a letter from a friend who described birds dying on the spot after aerial pesticide spraying. 

When the book was published in 1962 Rachel Carson was attacked by the chemical industry and labeled as an emotional person who didn’t know what she was talking about.  Neither was true.  Silent Spring took the country by storm.  Ten years later Congress outlawed DDT making it possible for birds of prey – including the peregrine falcon – to make a comeback.  Thank you, Rachel Carson!

Besides the chance to talk about peregrines, my real excuse for writing about Rachel Carson is that she’s one of the many people featured in Rick Sebak’s new show — Right Beside The River – premiering this Thursday August 20 at 8:00pm on WQED.  It’s a whimsical look at the people, communities and activities that have sprung up along the rivers in our area.  You’ll like it.  Thursday, 8:00pm.

(photo courtesy of Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University)