15 Bird Conservation
About this episode
Bird conservation is full of people who care deeply and keep showing up. Grant Williams from the Bird Emergency podcast shares threatened birds, conservation stories and the joy of being a bird nerd.
Episode illustration: Long-billed Corella
Resources
Meet the guest
Grant Williams is the host of the Bird Emergency podcast. All his life he has been intensely interested in the birds around him. Studying horticulture and accounting seemed a perfect entry to the world of podcasting. His podcast and live streams feature researchers, conservationists and other bird-loving advocates. Grant gets to meet some of the heroes of bird conservation, while having fun learning about some of the most vulnerable threatened bird in the world. He continues to be an advocate for the birds under pressure from habitat reduction, pollution, pesticides, poaching, trafficking, smuggling and the loss of biodiversity due to climate change.
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Kirsty: This episode was recorded on Bunurong Boonwurrung Country. I pay my respects to Elders past and present. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have been stewards of the land, sea and sky over 60,000 years. I would like to thank them for their continued contribution to science, to conservation and to education.
Kirsty: Welcome to Weekend Birder. I'm your fellow bird nerd, Kirsty Costa and I'm thrilled to introduce to you another bird nerd, Grant Williams. Grant is the host of a podcast called 'The Bird Emergency', which is one of my favorite conservation podcasts. He shares the amazing work that people are doing to protect the rare and endangered birds of the world. Here is how Grant discovered his love of birds.
Grant: I grew up in what was the country when I was a kid. It's now it's basically a suburb of Frankston, but it was in the on the western port side of the Mornington Peninsula. And looking out my bedroom window as a kid, I would see lots of birds and I would watch them and that was kind of the start. But my family was a political and conservation kind of family. I had one uncle working for the Gould League of Birdlovers and developing sort of the educational materials there. I had one uncle who was director of the Somers Camp, and there one of the kids I went to school with, his dad ran the collection of all the stuffed birds and all the flotsam and jetsam that they collected off the beach. So I used to be able to go in and have a look at all of all of that stuff. And another one of my uncles was a real greenie. He was involved in setting up one of the protection organisations and planning advisory bodies for Westernport, and he was also a former president of the ACF. So protecting the environment, birds, animals, possums, all that, everything was sort of part of my childhood growing up and I was lucky that I lived in a place where I could go for a walk after school down on the beach and I could see oystercatchers and I could see that there were more than one type of seagull. I could see hawks, I could see lots of birds but I also sort of that turned me into a bit of a bird Nazi. When I grew up I hated sparrows, I hated starlings, I hated miners because I knew what they were pushing out. So I had an understanding of invasive species right back then. But I just loved watching what birds do and I guess recognizing that they all had different places within the environment that we lived in where they where they would hang out. Why did I get interested in it? Because birds are cool.
Kirsty: Grant had another significant influence on his childhood - two family owned properties located near Healesville in Victoria.
Grant: We had this sort of hub where we would go for school holidays and whatnot, where a bunch of us kids (and there were a fair few of us) were into motorbike riding, a couple got into target shooting and the girls were horseriding with the neighbours and stuff like that. And me and me would get my backpack, a tent, a bird book and my binoculars and just head out into the state forest and I'd disappear for four or five days. So I guess it was really, really immersive. But that whole time of appreciating birds, I was also hearing all the conservation messages and the and the threats, you know, and we're going back to the seventies. This was been pumped into my head. I just loved being out in the Australian bush too. It's a pretty amazing. I mark one of the milestones of my life of a period when I was getting acquainted again with rural Australia and in that time I was in a place called Jambin. As I was leaving a property and I was opening the gate about to drive through, I looked up to a dead tree near the gate and there was a Grey Falcon there. One of the greatest experiences of of my life, just checking me out, just watching me drive through, I shut the gate. It was in the days before you could take photos with your mobile phone or anything like that. And I just sat there and I watched it until it nicked off about ten minutes later. And that's a roadmark, not a turning point so much but that's one of the significant events in my life.
Kirsty: In later years, Grant would go on to study and work in both horticulture and accounting. Grant's intense interest in birds never left him though, and this drove him to create a podcast called The Bird Emergency.
Grant: I'd really lost touch with birds closely. I was seeing them when I drove places and everywhere, and I had sort of had this realisation that I didn't need a car really for most of the trips that I could do. I could do all this stuff without being distant from the environment. And when I was looking around, I was noticing that places where those pesky invasive birds (sparrows and whatnot) were actually becoming less common. Instead of seeing flocks of 40 of them, I was seeing groups of 12... 10.... and I wasn't seeing as many of the common native birds around. And I just thought, "That's weird". And it didn't take long to to find out with an Internet search that birds are disappearing everywhere from all habitats from cities (urban environments). And then when I looked at how many birds had moved from endangered to the critical list of birds that I had known about, I just thought this is an emergency! I mean, probably a little bit before everyone jumped on the whole climate emergency thing and biodiversity crisis, it was really something that hit me and I thought, "Well, I know about the birds. I'm just going to go and talk to people who can tell me what they are doing and the projects that they are getting involved in". And that's one of the joys of being aware, is that you get to connect with other people who are aware and then you get to hear the stories. And of course, we all love birds, we're all bird nerds. So just a really good way to raise awareness. But also it's hard work being a podcaster in that it's not financially rewarding or anything like that. You have to love doing it. I just get to connect with people who love birds too.
Kirsty: Grant uses his knowledge of horticulture to also develop his knowledge of birds and their habitats. He regularly shares his tips about bird-friendly gardens and plants on his podcast.
Grant: Birds have relationships with plants. A really good one is if you're in south-east Tasmania or on some of those islands (like Bruny Island), if you're in a forest of Manna Gum, you're highly likely to be able to see a 40 Spotted Pardalote out because there's a really close association between that tree and that bird because that bird eats the lerps. And it actually farms and defends infestations of lerp. How I use it now is I guess I'm always just promoting what people can do to make a difference to their patch to assist birds and wildlife. And you don't want to be too doctrinaire about it. I mean you want people to, if they can, promote the planting of indigenous plants that give the birds that were original inhabitants here a chance to stay established or to perhaps re-establish. But you've also got to understand that people have got design thoughts when it comes to their own places, their own gardens, their own houses, and there's also a suburban aesthetic as well that you've got to try and fit in with your neighbourhood. So what I try and do now is help people make choices of what to buy and what to use, what will survive, what's long living, and what function those plants play for the animals and for the birds, not just what their design function is - whether they're colourful, whether they flower in Spring, whether they smell nice. All that kind of stuff. Often you'll pick up a book and it'll recommend a whole lot of plants but they're no longer grown. They're not in the trade anymore. And having come out of the trade, both in the retail and wholesale side, there's no point recommending plants that people can't find because they're going to go to their nursery and the person who serves them is there to sell something. And if they don't have what the person asks for, they're just going to sell them what they have. What I try and do is let people know what the good plants that are available and where are they going to go. Let's be honest, they go into Bunnings, right? And Bunnings has got a very small list of plants that it sells. So you can send them there or you can give them an alternative, an indigenous nursery or a native nursery (a specialist nursery) and say, "Take a drive up to the hills". Or there's a really good one in Durell that does mail order or whatever. So I try and give people resources and recommendations that are that are useful and that aren't going to be invasive species later on.
Kirsty: After many birdwatching experiences and talking to Bird Emergency guests, Grant has changed the way that he sees non-native and invasive species of birds. An invasive species is an introduced plant or animal that becomes overpopulated and ends up harming its new environment.
Grant: Sometimes you can be, like I certainly was as a kid, I was on team native. Native birds are good! Other birds are bad! Get rid of them! But now we've got native birds that are becoming significant problems in places where they never used to be. When I was a kid, you did not see flocks of Rainbow Lorikeets all over the suburbs of Melbourne - just wasn't a thing. Now they're everywhere. Rainbow Lorikeets need hollows and so do Red-rumped Parrots, so did Musk Lorikeets, so do rosellas, so do Owlet-nightjars. All these other birds have been displaced because a bird that we know and love (beautiful in its photography because of its amazing beauty) is a 'bully boy'. It is an invasive species. Noisy Miner - same kind of situation. You could probably extend the argument that some of the wattle birds are becoming invasive species and displacing other honeyeaters. And the reason for that, I'm not quite so sure, other than the fact that they are pugnacious and that they are more confident. But it's a long time since I've seen a White-naped Honeyeater in the places that I hang out in Melbourne. But I know when I was a kid they were they were around. I don't know if they're not around anymore, but they're certainly not as visible as they were to me. We haven't even started on starlings, Indian Miners (Common Miners), sparrows and pigeons. I can remember being about fourteen and driving from eastern Victoria back into Melbourne. I actually saw some Long-billed Corellas in Pakenham. That was the first time I had ever seen them east of Geelong back when I was a kid. They were only found in sort of the dry country. They were in very definitely an inland bird and they were limited. And now they're everywhere around here, so they've been displaced from where they used to live, but now they're competing with the bigger birds for hollows. It's complex.
Kirsty: ‘Complex' is a great word to explain bird conservation. You can listen to previous episodes of this podcast to hear about how different people are working together to wade through this complexity and ensure that birds are thriving in the wild. It is the simple pleasure of noticing birds, especially in his local area, that has Grant hooked on birdwatching.
Grant: I love watching what birds do. A lot of people are quite competitive about birdwatching and getting the numbers, ticking off the lists and all that kind of stuff. I'm still interested in that. I like to go to a habitat. I like to go to the Mallee or go to an eastern Victorian forest and try and see as many birds as I can that I know should be there. So I'm into that. But I get far more satisfaction from just plunking myself somewhere and watching what a bird or a bunch of birds do what they do together. I love watching Common Blackbirds. The male Blackbirds at the moment are all having their competitions over territory and bashing each other up. And I love the magpie, the little magpie that is learning how to sing. I love finding a bird when it's calling and you can't see it. And I don't like going chasing around to disturb it and find it. But I like to sit somewhere and hope that it will come to me. And that often happens. I just love watching what birds do. I guess if lizards did more stuff more quickly, if they were more outgoing, I might love watching lizards too. But birds give us something that we can kind of relate to what they're doing. You can anthropomorphize about what they're doing in a way that we can't do with insects. Because I'm a plant nerd as well, I love watching what they do in regard to the plants around them, how they use plants, how plants use them, you know, all those relationships between them. So that's why I like it. And it's really relaxing, too. If dogs are the best people, well, birds are the best animals. If dogs are the best people, birds are the best animals.
Kirsty: As well as developing his knowledge and skills through his own experience, Grant has also talked to many different scientists and bird nerds. Here are some of his favorite tools.
Grant: I currently have the 'Field Guide to Australian Birds', by Ralph Slater and Pat Slater, and I like that because it's small and it's lightweight. Easy to take around. ‘The Australian Bird Guide’ is sort of the standard for Australia, but they've just put a concise edition out which is easy to lug around. Not quite so heavy. I have on my phone the Morecombe app for Australian Birds and it's really handy because it's got the calls in it. So if you hear something you're not familiar with... because of your knowledge of birds and where it might be coming from, it's in a thicket. If it's in a thicket, it's not going to be a raptor, right? (Well, it could be a Goshawk. Could be a tall thicket). So that I really like. But otherwise I reckon your best tool as a birdwatcher is to be open to be surprised. You're more likely now to see birds in places where they might not be marked down on the distribution map because birds have been displaced everywhere where the patterns are changing, feeding opportunities are changing, the threats are increasing in all the other places. So adaptable birds are moving around. It's not really a tool, but I think your attitude has to be that you have to be prepared to be surprised. Don't be doctrinaire about stuff.
Grant: I guess the other thing, apart from having binoculars or a camera, if you prefer, is take an attitude with you where you are not really not disturbing birds from going about their normal behavior. It's very stressful. Just imagine and I say this in relation to call back and things like that. If you're playing sounds of a bird hoping to lure them in, what you are doing is playing a territorial call or something like that, or a distress call or a contact call. Now just imagine if someone comes to your house and bashes on your front door incessantly for three or 4 hours because they want your attention. That's what you're doing. I don't say, “Don’t do that please. Just be nice”.
Grant: Also when you're out there and you're meeting other bird nerds, listen from them and enjoy them because it's really wonderful to share the stories and the knowledge. And I've always got a sort of purpose in all of this, which is about hanging on to what we've got and hopefully growing it and assisting people in their understanding of birds and the habitats and the environment and the fragility of them that some of them are barely hanging on, just hanging on by a thread. That's important because I always say to everything that we every choice we make is political. And if you can change one person's mind or alter one person in the way they behave and the actions that they'll take to help us preserve what we've got, one person at a time that's significant. Just get out there, enjoy it and do your bit. I would say it's really, really good if you listen to the Bird Emergency because you're going to hear a whole lot of really smart people talking about what they do to assist. We've talked to people who are involved in photography and product development that assists in preserving birds and then developing educational programs in the Philippines and ranger programs where prisoners are converted into conservation activists and protectors of birds. So there are many, many ways that people can make a difference, make a difference, but have fun and just enjoy birds. Because remember, every bird is the best bird.
Kirsty: Grant has been hosting the Bird Emergency for a few years now and there are lots of great episodes for you to catch up on. You also might find some Weekend Birder guests hanging out there. One of my favorite episodes was a discussion about bird names and whether they are still appropriate in today's world. A fascinating and very important topic. I'd also like to give a personal thanks to Grant for his support of Weekend Birder. Together we are stronger. Links to the Bird Emergency and the books that Grant mentioned can be found on the show notes or on our website. So you could pop over there now and enjoy listening to another podcast.
