Guys: With Bryan Quinby - Guys: Episode 87 - Bird Guys with Joe Pera
Episode Date: October 1, 2024Keep it down, I'm looking at birds, I mean, they all look the same but I am sure they are different. We had America's nicest man, Joe Pera on to talk about America's nicest guys Bird Guys. Is it woke ...to rename birds? Is America ok with titties? What sorts of birds do you have on your lifer list? Where are you ranked in your very populus city. Here are Joe's dates Peras Tour and of course he has two great tv shows on Max See Guys Live in October bit.ly/top3weekend on 10/11 and 10/12 we will be performing at the Biltmore Cabaret in Vancouver. Come hang out with, Chris an I and the Blocked Party guys!!! There is much more Chris at twitter.com/thecjs and of course https://www.patreon.com/notevenashow And for more Guys content, streams and SHOCKTOBER: a deep dive into shock jocks you can click patreon.com/guyspodcast twitter.com/murderxbryan and  https://bsky.app/profile/murderxbryan.bsky.social Guys is on Instagram! https://www.instagram.com/guys.pod Guys has a Post Office Box now! PO Box 10769 Columbus Ohio 43201
Transcript
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Hello to everyone and also single guys. Chris here from the guys podcast with a very rare
guys podcast ad and it's for our own Patreon. This week, Brian revealed his nickname throughout
his life and many of you know what it is, but some of you don't and that's because
you're not on the Patreon. And we record these main episodes a little bit in advance. So
sometimes it can take a few weeks before you're fully caught up. We've also got shocktober
Starting this week and all of the old archives of all of the old shows. I'm sorry
The holy boys with Tom Sexton brace and Brian with guys favorite guest brace Belden
It's really worth it. We don't push it very often but get over there five bucks a month We've got another tier popping up soon for $8, and it's a lot of
fun.
And you see that?
That's how you do an intro.
No fucking flubs.
Enjoy the show. Welcome to guys a podcast about guys.
I am Brian.
I'm here with a guy that I'm being nice on this episode.
A real nice bird man.
Chris.
Hi Chris.
Nice bird man.
A real ornithologist.
Okay.
Cause I was going to say, I feel like he could be nice, but also, you know bird man a real ornithologist Okay, cuz I was gonna say I feel like you could be nice but also you know display a bit of creativity as well
I don't have to just call me a bird
Nope, not doing that and for our guests. We have the very extremely funny Joe para. Hey, Joe
Oh, thanks for having me guys. It's gonna be fun because we have some bird guys to talk about.
I like to ask this up top.
It's sort of I'm becoming more professional as a podcast host and stuff is I'll try to
ask you.
What is your, do you like birds Joe?
Do you hate birds?
Do you find yourself ever looking at birds?
I like birds. I got a couple books on them for a project,
but I didn't remember too many of the names.
I just, it's hard, it's hard.
I feel like it's a nice thing,
but maybe something I will get into further later on in life.
Right now I'm just too busy going to
motocross events on the weekends. That's so different from Bird's Jump.
It feels like an older person thing though.
It sort of famously is.
It feels like a retirement thing.
It's something where you have a lot of time to travel around and stuff.
I would not say that to people in the birding community. I I read somewhere is the biggest hobby in the United States right now.
It's it looks like that.
It's really like the people seemed younger than I expected.
There's still very many 70 year olds doing it.
It's not. But there is young people coming into the birding arena now.
It is becoming a younger person.
Listen, I like birds.
I love wildlife watching.
I'm sort of obsessed with it.
I could see myself becoming a birder pretty early, within the next five to 10 years.
Can I say that?
I just want to say real quick, there is a controversy going on in the community
about wokeness and burden like you would think that that would be the place that would be
saved from people yelling about woke but guess what there is a controversy in the birdie
figure out what it would be even I'm trying to like even imagine what they could be saying
is woke
so
Eponymous bird names are being changed
So what that means is like the Cooper's Hawk is named after a guy named Cooper or something
I didn't look up his name. They're gonna change that to better describe the Hawk
You know, so they'll be like, oh.
That seems smart though.
That just seems like it's sort of a better way.
That doesn't really seem like it's woke.
I mean, if they were,
they're just changing it to a better description.
But I would say that all three of us on this call
are probably considered pretty woke.
So I don't think anybody on this call
is gonna be able to say it's not woke we're not going to have the argument about.
You have no glasses on you.
Well, what is what is what did Cooper do?
I see. It's not it's not always what they did.
So we're not tearing down the Confederate monuments of the birdie.
Well, sometimes we are because Joe, let me tell you, of the birding names. Sometimes we are.
Because, Joe, let me tell you, back when birding started,
it was a lot different.
They would shoot and kill the birds.
And then they would be like, check out this bird.
I think that's no.
That was what birdwatching was.
A guy would shoot and kill a bird and he'd bring it to a scientist.
And the scientists would be like, oh, that's a.
And then name it after they usually the guy that shot the bird.
That was, that's, yeah, that's the whole dilemma about the, the natural history museum in New
York. It's like, it's very cool to see all those animals stuff, but it's also such a
waste.
Yeah, they're all stuffed. It's it was a funny way to approach nature. I guess very sad but also it's like
Shoot this thing stuff and then bring it back
This is no the celebration of life is not really a celebration of life
Yeah, I would just picturing like because some of them are literally named after the science
that scientists that named it.
But the other ones are named after a fucking guy that shot a bird.
They were like, oh, this guy, he shot the first one of these.
This is the new one.
I can help you out, though. Get started.
The process of eliminating them entirely. Let's name the bird after him
Get ready to say goodbye to this from NPR
Get ready to say goodbye to a lot of familiar bird names like Anna's hummingbird gambles quail
Lewis's woodpecker be wicks ran and bullocks oriel and more
That's because the American Ornithological Society has vowed to change the English names of all bird species currently named after people along with any other birds names deemed
offensive or exclusionary
So it seems like a good thing, but that's the woke part is the is the changing names that feel
Exclusionary or whatever right we're supposed to be exclusionary
it's for it seems like it's more about like people placing ownership on the
birds as opposed to like approaching them you know that's it seems like it
makes sense what they're doing yeah it says the move has come as part of this
is where the the people get mad though the move has come as part of this is where the the the people get mad though
The move comes as a part of a broader effort to diversify birding and make it more welcoming to people of all races and backgrounds
Pretty woke that's pretty woke
Yeah, no, no, I understand what they're saying
No, so that's what they're upset with is that birding used to be I mean I do think of birding as an old white man's game
Definitely like I guess maybe just from that movie with Steve Martin that I saw though used to be I mean I do think of burning as an old white man's game definitely
like I guess maybe just from that movie with Steve Martin that I saw though
because I think that's really the only real example of burning I can think of
but yeah I mean listen I think burning is something everyone can appreciate I
don't think you know I really don't think there's any reason why it shouldn't
be diversified yeah here's a hint at how good birding people are.
I'm going to read you this paragraph that you will never read in any other article
on any other website ever.
I've been seeing some of these birds and using these names every year for the last
60 years, says Ken Kaufman, a prominent author of Field Guides.
He says he initially opposed the idea of changing so many names but has come around
Evolved his views on it and you're not supposed to do that. No, no
I guess it would be a pain if you're like a 70 year old burger and you gotta learn new names for everything
Yeah
Well Joe and a lot of them do a thing called the lifer list and they have a list
That of all the birds they've seen in their life
Right and a lot of them and they're changing the names of 70 to 80 birds
So a lot of them are like I'm gonna have to go to my life or list and write the new name
My piece of paper.
And it's a lot of data entry that I'm going to have to do.
And it's just sort of, you know, I mean, that's easily
40 to 45 minutes worth of paperwork.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Cross them out one by one and rewrite them in red pen next.
That's all.
Well, now we're going to go to Reddit,
where they were having a conversation about
this.
Yeah.
Live Departure 5186 says, just when I have most of the birds on my life list, is it not
enough that everyone gets a trophy and no one knows our history and hatred is the rule
of the day?
Rude people everywhere.
It's unbelievable that kids want everything for free and don't want to work.
Now their feelings get hurt because of a bird's common name
Thanks for nothing. What a waste. Okay, so not all the bird people are nice and cool then right now
This person seems pretty annoying
Well, he fit everybody gets a trophy into an article about changing the names of 70 80 birds
Yeah, see that's what I was thinking.
I was thinking there'd be some curmudgeon's because I was picturing it all as these like
old people.
So I was thinking there would be some curmudgeon's that would be, you know, but even the old
people tend to be nice still who are burgers, right?
Most of because this guy bipedal meat puppet says, uh, while we're at it, how about the
ring neck duck?
Barely perceptible ring, but that bill, the way I heard it, the specimen
sent back to the lab was missing the bill edit.
And I'm fine with renaming descriptive names will be great going forward.
So he's fine with it.
Yeah. But he wants to go further and rename other birds
that maybe don't look the way that their name says, because he has some suggestions on some that they could add to the list,
like the ring duck or whatever that he said.
You know, he I just love the way that they
I love them reminiscing about like a bird that they, you know,
and just the way they talk about it with such reverence.
I really I really do like it a lot.
It's beautiful. Birds and dogs, as there are so many like that, where the bird was named while looking at a dead specimen it a lot. It's beautiful. Birds and dogs says there are so many like that
where the bird was named while looking at a dead specimen
in a lab.
Semi-palmated sandpiper and plover
are just terrible names for those adorable birds.
Red-bellied woodpecker also comes to mind.
So now they.
That is release.
How do you not like the name red-bellied woodpecker?
That's such a great name
That's a good and does it not have a red belly most don't most don't because they actually this guy
The red-bellied actually gets his name because the red-headed woodpecker was discovered first honestly more appropriate in my opinion
There's a very faint red belly and once you start noticing it it makes them more adorable
So yeah, so it does seem like a good name then, you know?
It's like, yeah, it's not super obvious, but it does have a red belly and it sort of tells
you that it's something you should be looking for as well.
And then once you notice it, it's more adorable.
It is.
And it's funny to say like, hey man, this duck's bill doesn't have a ring on it.
Let's name it the ring bill or something than the big build duck
Or so I can I I am not creative enough to start naming birds
I would just call them all like they all look the same to me every single bird looks exactly the same
I'm out walking around. I'm checking out and I see the birds and I'm like, well, that's a bird
Like they're different colors and sizes.
You recognize that, right?
Some bird bird bird blind, maybe bird blind.
I mean, and his the yeah, right now he's I want to say Brian is he does have a broken
foot at the moment.
We should know it has not been mentioned, I believe on any kind of a main episode.
This would be the first main episode we recorded since you broke it
So, you know things aren't always got a lot going on and it was a pretty I mean the story is
The craziest story how he did it crazy. I'll tell it real quick. There was a good
there was a cool red van parked in a
Parking lot by my house and I stepped in a pothole and broke my foot because I was looking at the van.
Okay.
That's a cool story, right?
Like that's like so bad ass.
Can you identify van makes and models, Brian?
No, I couldn't.
Oh, okay.
I was just saying if you know all the vans
but not all the birds, that would be so funny.
No, he doesn't know the vans.
He just saw a van that was like it's like it's very childlike
I feel like he saw maybe it was like a really bright red or something and he yeah, it was just
beautiful like a
Beautiful probably brand new red paint job and then it had something on the side of it painted in black
But I couldn't figure out what it was and that's probably I need to go back by there
I got a little scooter now. I'm gonna go back by there and check out what was on the side
of the man.
He's got a scooter one of those knee scooters you know that yeah yeah yeah it's humiliating
it's great it's humiliating it's I decided when I first heard about it I was like it
seems like it should be something for a dog I don't even know why but it just seems like
it should be for a pet or an animal not not like a human being. And we suggested, and we're still pushing for this, that Brian buys a rascal so he could
drive around in a rascal. And we've looked into it and the prices aren't that high and
it's very. Yes, they are. The one I want was $3,000.
It's an investment though. For six months of my life yes this guy goes I just really want
Stellar's J's to be Stellar S T E L L E R which is the name I know I've heard of
this type this is the first type of bird I think that I've heard of well he wants
it to be named Stellar J S T E L L A R and he goes while we're while we're at
it can we rename Ruby crowned kinglets?
I've seen a thousand and I've seen the Ruby crown maybe twice
No, you guys don't have to be they can't be tried. They're going to it's over
They decided the ones already stop trying to add ones to it. You know, they're gonna name every
That's a that's a fucking gray sea fellow and it's like that's a seagull you piece of crap, you know
Oh, there's no such thing as a seagull. Oh
I
Saw the most handsome seagull in California
I added on from Buffalo I the seagulls there are kind of and then New York there kind of like home
You know there there's yeah, they're eating garbage and stuff. But this bird, this seagull,
and it was in San Francisco,
I was walking around before a show,
and it was so, it's a perfect coat of feathers.
It pulled up mussels from the water,
and to break them open,
it flew up in the air right on the dock
and dropped them like eight feet, and the mussel cracked open, and it up in the air right on the dock and dropped them like eight feet,
and the muscle cracked open and it ate the muscle right out. And I was like, this is, I don't know.
It was not what I like.
It was like a-
He was like a strong, like one of the bigger, more popular, like would you think he's the
most popular guy in his town or whatever?
You'd think it's just maybe a case for moving out west. It's healthier there than in New York City.
Did not feature their garbage rent.
I think you're right.
Our Pacific Ocean seagulls are like, I live on the west coast as well.
The Pacific Ocean and Vancouver.
I will say having gone up to New York, yeah, we've got much more handsome seagulls than
you, healthier seagulls, and
stronger in every way.
One thing is really crazy, people have seen this and you'll know if you're around seagulls
a lot, a crazy thing that they do is eat starfish.
You'll see it all the time, Stanley Park in Vancouver on the seawall at a certain time
of year, you go there and you can see them like putting it down their throat
and you see the actual starfish like going down
and it is the craziest thing to see.
Wow.
So yeah, I saw a whole conversation about,
they were like, we should rename a bird seagull
because there's no such thing as a seagull.
That if you put seagull on your life list
You put nothing on your life. That's not a bird. What is the thing the thing that joe and I are discussing right now
What is that called? I didn't see what they call it
They just were like we would name a we should name a bird a seagull because a seagull it's almost like saying look
It's animals
Oh, you know what? I mean? Like it's it's it's a bunch of different types of seagull, it's almost like saying, look, it's animals. Know what I mean?
Like it's a lot.
There's a bunch of different types of seagulls,
so you're not being specific enough.
Is that the whole idea?
Right.
They're called gulls.
Oh, OK.
OK.
And they fly by the sea.
So you can call it a seagull, but that's not what it is.
And there are several different types of gulls.
That might be the reason why Joe right there,
they might be completely different gulls
on the East and West Coast, you know?
I mean, I know they look similar,
but they might be different species, subspecies.
Listen, I love, I don't mind.
I'm not big on language policing,
but I can't have people on this show saying seagull
because that's not a real animal
And we're trying to be accurate over here and you didn't get the real name for us. This guy goes mixed feelings
I understand the logic of naming organisms after their inherent characteristics rather than making them a tribute to some naturalists from long ago
The name should stand on its own two feet not be a fan club for someone else But now here he goes, but then I hesitate because I have no idea what sort of bird name folks will someday consider exclusionary
Well, some will somebody new to birding find titmouse offensive or perhaps very low. It's because that's
Because that's the direction our cultures headed in I don't think that I don't think anybody's arguing that our culture is headed into being
like titties.
We're embarrassed by them.
We don't like, you know, I mean, I think we're heading in the opposite direction.
People are starting to like titties.
Yeah, they seem pretty popular.
I think amongst most groups, to be honest, I think even in all of the, you know, the
sort of divisiveness in our world now, I think one thing we mostly
agree on is that we like titties.
They're good.
They're fine.
Yeah.
I mean, Brian likes them a bit more than others.
Oh, shut up.
Don't do this with Joe on the show.
He's too nice.
I'm not going to do it.
People actually get really mad at me about bringing up stuff that they say, I can't even
listen to the show anymore because Chris is always bringing up stuff that Brian did before.
But I will say very quickly, Joe Quickly Joe that Brian when he was younger
He used to suck on his girlfriend's titties for three hours and then go home and masturbate afterwards
And she was willing to have sex. He just didn't want to he was too afraid
I'm that's close
Are you sorry Joe?
Sorry, Joe, I wanted to respond to that. I'm just embarrassed. No, it's fine. He's got to be a little bit cautious about you can't be like a horny guy
on a scooter, on a one-leg scooter. If people get nervous, I'm going around, think he's
looking at this, going around looking at butts and breasts on his one-leg scooter.
That is a great point, Brian. You do need to be concerned with that. Brian is known as a horny guy.
I'm not known as a horny guy. Oh, dude, I did my show, my other show yesterday. And one of the,
we do a new metal podcast and one of the bands was called Orgy. You can't even imagine how many
jokes they made at my expense because of that
I wonder why that would be we don't I don't know to it
But I'll tell you what if I was talking about a band called orgy nobody would say a word about it
I don't know why that is
It's just don't you it's very quaint that
People don't let people tease you for the orgy stuff.
You say, I'm an old fashioned guy.
I just like sucking on breasts for three hours.
What's wrong with that?
In this day and age, that's almost a wholesome thing.
It is kind of wholesome. Thank you.
Here's another argument I saw.
Are bird watchers ever called birders? I came across an online definition which referred to birders as those who catch or hunt birds
I always thought the birder is just another name for birdwatcher
Me too. Yeah, I thought of birders. I I don't I think of hunter someone who kills birds as being a hunter
I think of birder as birdwatcher right so this is from bird forum calm
And these are the birdiest of all bird guys they love birds he goes that love birds. That's nice
He goes I would say that birder is a more serious form of a birdwatcher if you see bird while traveling
You're a birdwatcher if you travel to see birds. You're a birder. I don't associate those terms with hunting. I think
like I've been traveling more and I think after doing this episode, I might look at
birds when I'm not in where I live. I live in Columbus, Ohio and I live downtown. All
the birds are just trash birds. It's like pigeons and then those little brown things
that just fly around. They're all little brown birds. It doesn't. Yeah, I do have, I have that going for me being in Vancouver that
we're very, very close to the ocean and lots of like, you know, nature. And so there are tons and
tons of different birds that I can go see. And let me tell you, if I move to the, to the place
I'm looking at moving on Vancouver Island, it's the salmon
capital of the world. So you can imagine that brings a lot of bald eagles and a lot of birds
of prey. And yeah, there is there is gulls. There was definitely gulls there. Brian, I
saw gulls for sure. If you call them seagulls while you were there. I didn't even refer
to them. I bet you if you caught them. No, I never got those bikers.
Looked at them. I never no one ever asked me what are those or I never had any need to discuss them.
Yeah, those 1% bikers were probably like actually they're not called seagulls. They're called gold.
Yes, Joe, just to their while I was in town looking for a house. There was a motorcycle run. A thousand bikers came through town at the same
time so our hotel was overrun with bikers. Beautiful. Yeah. One percenters. I was laughing.
Well, the guy told me, I talked to a guy and he said he's not a one percenter. That's a
gang, a motorcycle gang guy. He said, absolutely not. I'm not down with that shit. But then
I looked up the name and he was lying to me. He wasn't an act. He wasn't a motorcycle gang.
Is it true? I think somebody who, when I was in Vancouver, somebody was telling me that the
Hells Angels still have a big influence on the ports in Vancouver. Is that true?
That they don't?
That they do.
Oh, they do. Yes. Yes. We discussed this actually. We did mafia guys recently.
Might have been the last episode that came out. I'm not sure. No, two episodes ago. It's okay. No, no, don't be sorry at all.
But yeah, no, that's it. They absolutely they do. They control all of it. That's why they're like an organized crime group out here.
Not like a bike. You know what I mean? Not like old school bikers that you're thinking about. Toys for tots.
Well, that's that's that's what what this was though. That's what this was
This was a toy drive that the bikers were doing so not all of them were like a lot of them were just
We're just hobbyist bikers and they were doing a nice community thing there for sure
Sure, well that the yeah to cover for the crimes that they do, you know, are you doing nice?
I've seen sons of anarchy. I know what goes on, you know
This guy goes so do you folks refer to yourself as birders or birdwatchers?
Using the term birdwatching or birding and by the way should that one word birdwatcher or two?
I know these are frivolous questions
I'm thinking of making a blog or website and I'm wondering what would work best for SEO. That's so sweet again
It's just like hey listen. I know these these questions I'm asking don't seem important.
Here, let me just explain to you.
I want to do a bird watching blog and I just don't want to be disrespectful and have a
compound word if it's not.
I mean, that's just nice and thoughtful of your fellow bird watchers.
So here comes a guy and we haven't done these guys yet and they just made the list because
of this post.
It reminds me of spelunking.
Spelunkers call ourselves cavers, and a sure sign of a noob is someone who says,
are you into spelunking?
Birders refer to themselves as birders.
That said, I've always preferred to be understood as someone who values watching
birds over ticking off a list.
That's a big controversy in the world is like there are people who just like to see birds and see what birds do and then there are the list guys and they
are maybe so among the list guys, they admire each other in a way and they're competitive.
You know what I mean? So like they're like, Oh, I got a hundred birds on my life or list
and other guys like I got 60. I'm trying trying to get to you know, 500 or something like whatever number 60 on your life or less. It's not that bad
I hope you just started if that's the case. I could walk outside my fucking front door and see 45 this afternoon
I mean, give me a break 45 different birds that you can see with your own eyes and identify. I'm not joking or
Right on the river. I live right on the river. I live
right on the river and I there is just there are so many different types and not 45 probably,
but probably like 15 to 20 I could go see today. They also you if they're nocturnal
birds if you hear them you can put them on your list. A lot of people say you don't have
to see the nocturnal birds. Because it's really hard to see in the dark. I think you'd want to see an owl before you put it on your list instead of saying like oh and hooted
That's an hour. It's a guy who does a really good impression. Oh, you have never heard an impression like my owl impression
It's let's hear it
That's what they sound like here good lord, that's not that wasn't good or bad enough to be good. You know
Thank you birdwatchers sounds a bit passive and limited compared to birder. We don't just watch
But what do you do? Oh they oh take pictures take pictures document? Yeah?
Oh, yeah, cuz you taking pictures is obviously a big part of it, right?
Yeah, this guy this guy goes. Hello EMC. I definitely prefer birdwatcher and birdwatching stay safe Arthur Pinewood
Oh, thank you Arthur that to me sounds like the name of the guy who does birdwatching Arthur Pinewood. I
Imagine they're all they all have that name.
It sounds like, again, and it might be a reference.
It might be like some famous, you know,
it might be the character from that famous Steve Martin.
What's that Steve Martin film?
Do you know the one I'm talking about?
It's literally all about bird watching.
Yes.
What made you want to watch, with Jack Black too, right?
Jack Black.
What you're saying, what made you want to watch with Jack Black too, right? Jack Black. What you're saying, what made you want to watch that film?
Yeah.
I am a huge movie fan and I watch a lot of movies,
but also, Steve Martin is like the reason,
I was obsessed with Steve Martin when I was younger.
So I do still have like a soft spot.
Like I'll watch only murders in this building and stuff for him and Martin
Short. And, you know, I don't really necessarily love every minute of it,
but I still I still love watching those guys, you know.
But the movie movie was I remember enjoying it.
I think it's like a movie. It's like a middle.
And if I had to guess it would be 50 percent on Rotten Tomatoes,
that would be my guess.
And I think it was pretty boring, but relaxing.
And it was before Jack Black was like,
he wasn't even very annoying in it at all, if I recall.
2011.
2011, what was the Rotten Tomatoes on that?
Of course it's, oh, hold on, let me do this.
It is a 42% critic.
So a little lower than what this. It is a 42%
But a 41% audience score so that's back when audience scores were not not gonna get into my audience score
You know rant here, but that's when you could rely and depend on an audience score nowadays. It's completely it's bullshit
It's they've figured it out. They're game
Trin void says to be honest., I'm an opportunity opportunist,
and we'll look at anything that appears interesting.
So he's just a looker, really.
He goes, some of my best viewing this spring was watching small snow
and dirt avalanches coming down the mountainsides.
Most of the most of the birds I read.
That's great. I like that guy.
Yeah, he's a looker.
He just oh, wow.
If something moves, I'll take stop what I'm doing.
He's busy working and then just some stuff falls down the side of a hill
and he just completely stops his day.
Oh, this is that most of the birds I really enjoy looking at are eagles and ravens.
That I mean, that'd probably be my favorites, too
Both of those this weekend Ravens and Eagles bald Eagles Yeah, but I'll watch little birds who have names. I don't know though the black-capped chickadees are also special to me
I believe I'm neither a birder or bird watcher either though. I will never look away if they seem interesting enough
if this guy
Yeah, is he's on the site? I'm sure. Come on.
I bet the some of the hardcore birders were having a laugh when he said, I love eagles and ravens.
Yeah. Yeah. Like, oh yeah. You like Oasis and you only know Wonderwall. You know what I mean?
You're a real birder. I put up a bird feeder to watch the birds, but it was more fun
watching the squirrels trying to get it.
So I guess that makes me a squirrel watcher.
Ha ha. That's funny.
That's a bit of humor. Yeah, I saw.
Yeah, squirrels are I mean, squirrels are like kind of like birds of the ground.
You know, not the ones in my neighborhood. They are scary.
Is that true? Yes. And in what way are they like? Well, they actually
Like are they are you just intimidated by them or they have they been aggressive? Well, you know, I don't like animals
But also they stand on my fence ago
So he's just they taunting he's just sort of showing his teeth to us in a weird way up this
Like they're just they're just making their noises. They're doing their regular. They're communicating or whatever. It's a disgusting noise
It's like hawking up a luge or something
It's like hawking up a two hours. We're
Know the row sound there. It's not a pleasant sound. It sounds like they're like
I want to get your garbage because they also I have a
And it sounds like they're like I want to get your garbage because they also I have a
Bucket outside for compost the fuckers will chew the lid off I have like a pile of lids in my basement because I have to keep changing the lid
Because the squirrels are chewing the lid off and screaming at me all the time you think I don't need that in my life
Wow
Yeah, yeah, I've never had an issue with squirrels around here. They're very
Like timid like they don't really, they'll come up
and eat out of your hand or whatever.
Like if you have, you know, nuts or whatever,
they'll come eat it out of your hand.
They're really sort of friendly around here and nice.
Well, this guy goes, I first came across the term birding
in Bill Otte's book, I think from the late eighties,
also defining twitching, et cetera,
with twitching as a other form of bird watching,
not going on the website twitch and
Joking around about Bubba the love sponge and he goes still think of it as a bit new. Oh new vo
So what is twitching though? What is it explaining? It's looking at yards and putting them on your list
But so why is it not like that that sounds like the other stuff, but it's hardcore like twitching is hard or over and it's more European
But it is like the the the birders are just guys. They're like looking at birds
You know what I mean twitching is like I got a list. I got to get this list filled out before I die I
In order to hand it off to somebody else so they can be like man
My uncle looked at a lot of births
Well, they can or they can add to the list and can you continue it on there's presumably gonna be new and exciting
Birds that are gonna pop up in the future and then they can add those birds, you know
so I I think it's a good idea to
Have an idea of what you're gonna do, you know?
And like that's what I thought it was,
putting together a whole list, like 200 birds,
and I gotta go find these birds, you know?
That's so funny, new types of birds.
You should get on the forum, Brian,
do you ever get into the, do you ever comment on them?
You should just pop onto one of the burger forums,
it'd be like, I'm in my basement,
breeding different types of birds.
There will be new types of birds
that you guys have never seen.
These birds I am breeding are faster than any birds,
faster and stronger than any birds you ever see.
They are more colorful,
and you have to pay me money to come see these birds.
Come in my basement and twitch.
You're allowed.
I'll let you in and you can...
I wanted to look...
It seems as though parrot guys are like a different thing than birders.
Because I did look at breeders and stuff, but they were depressing.
That guy that likes watching mountains and stuff, he came back and he wanted to say this.
What's his name?
I like him.
I want to know his name. He's Trinavin avoid Trin avid and and he's replying to a guy saying ravens and eagles both seem to exist in a social
animal category along with humans and wolves
So he's telling him like brother those aren't real birds. Those are basically humans. He's saying
Those are like you could you could get a ride with one of those they could drive a car
And he goes as someone who's seen and heard lots of all three Eagles Ravens and wolves. I always find it fascinating
What he has to stay to I promise he goes
I always find it fascinating to hear them in real life and how they sound completely different in cinema. Sure, wolves howl when they're trying
to gather from distance, but it changes to a more abrupt yipping sound that people tend
to associate with coyotes as they get closer together and then suddenly silence. Ravens
too, all at times, but if you only see them on TV, then you think it was the only sound
they were capable of
Contrarily, yeah, I don't I they do that with things a lot, you know, they just simplify things in in like movies or television
You know just like a simple kind of concept. I think about that when I'm getting sounds like eagle sound or cricket sound or whatever
It's not like actual one that you want
That like really invokes that feeling of crickets for people is not a real
Like accurate sound of crickets. It's like things are brought up and down and it's like yeah, it's a different sound. I
Yeah, I think you mean inaccurate. I don't think you mean different
It would be more inaccurate than different like you're getting it wrong
It would be more inaccurate than different like you're getting it wrong
What do you mean? Well, this guy goes contrarily they often make baby like gibberish sounds as well as an endless array of vocalizations Including one of my personal favorites the giant drop of water sound then there's my favorite Raven story
Which I read about at the library on Prince Prince Wales Island
Regarding the naming of claw claw awk and how it came to be after the
Tlingits, notice that the ravens were made an uncommon cry. Claw-awk. Ridiculous was
my first thought, but a few days later, in a bike ride in Claw-awk, I heard it. Claw-awk,
Claw-awk, Claw-awk. A couple decades later, after having paid close attention to ravens
the entire time and over wide-ranging exposures to Ravens
I've never yet heard them make that sound anywhere else not even in the Prince of Wales communities of Heideberg
Hollis Kaufman Cove or Craig, but they do it in claw walk
Eagles however, that was a British guy. I think his guys British. Yeah, he does Eagles I started to really get super British
Did I yeah we heard a Raven like I didn't even know what it was
I was like, holy this is weird sound like just this weekend and it was Ariel my yeah
My partner was she was like she reckoned she's like guys that's a Raven, you know, and it does they make fucking weird sounds man
Like really weird sound sometimes that don't sound like a bird really at all
Eagles however, totally different anyone that's ever seen Eagles on TV's thinks they scream
Never ever ever have I heard Eagles accurately voiced in common media agreed agreed a hundred percent again. I I get
Eagle audio cuz I'll play it sometimes when someone
says something really patriotic on my channel or whatever and yeah it's nothing, it's not
what a real eagle sounds like, it's not even close.
The fake scream heard on TV is totally inferior to the actual chittering sound that they make
and I love it so much.
All Raven fans should try to go to Prince of Wales Island
someday and hear the Ravens in and around Claw Walk. At the same time, see some of the
least shy eagles of anywhere else I've ever seen them, inclusive of the rest of Alaska.
I didn't see a lot of birds in Alaska.
Wait, so that's Alaska? It's not England?
Well, no. He went to Alaska and England.
Oh, I see, but he's from England. Yeah, okay.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I didn't see any birds in Alaska at all
I I that can't be true
It was cold
But there's cold birds can there's birds that are in the cold weather. I'm hoping to see a penguin I
literally penguin
Listen, I didn't see and I'm serious. This is a hundred percent serious. This is not me bullshitting
We didn't see any animals in Alaska me and really yeah, we went there. We didn't see a single
Animal the whole time because my wife is like into nature. I've said this before on the show my wife was like
Oh, I love nature. I love to go to national parks and
Stuff like that or whatever he talks about
nature and like like it's like so fucking stupid and weird, you know?
Yeah, she doesn't just want to go to AEW
wrestling and wander around for 40 hours a day.
That's I mean, it's a point that she doesn't just want to go to wrestling vacations,
but she does have to go to some of them because I go to nature.
Yeah. Most of the vacations, I want to go to wrestling vacations, but she does have to go to some of them because I go to nature. Yeah. Most of the vacations I want to be clear. Most of the vacations are wrestling vacations. I think I can only recall one nature vacation. It's the one he's
describing right now. There was no wrestling in Alaska. That was kind of a bummer. I did
look up to see if there was some wrestling happening there. But yeah, you know, it's
harder to get a wrestling show together in Fairbanks Alaska than it is.
What'd you see the Aurora Borealis which by the way oh it's I'm gonna tell
you the truth it's not that impressive and I'm gonna tell you why you take it
you have to take a picture of it to see it. Really? That's what we had to do it
was out like crazy they were like oh It was out like crazy. They were like,
oh, it's out like crazy tonight. We went out there and I was like, I don't see anything.
And then I took a picture and I have like a hundred pictures of the sky being green,
but only because I took the picture of it. So you said all of them could see it and you
couldn't. And also you didn't see any animals and you can't tell what different birds are.
Is there a chance you can't see?
I can see great. And we were up on this mountain. I told you about it. I was miserable. We were like, okay, this guy was like,
we're going to go up to the top of this mountain.
We're going to look at the aurora borealis.
We're going to be up there from 8 PM to 2 AM.
Wow. Maybe bring snacks or you bring snacks.
Oh, oatmeal. We're in a a big year and they had instant oatmeal. I think that's all they had really was instant oatmeal
That's and yeah, that's not I would maybe want a little bit more than that hot cocoa
Yeah, like a yeah beverage of some kind. Yeah, that'll like like Joe is it like you're you're having to stay up
So maybe something that gives you a bit more energy. got coffee up there and perhaps, you know, no protein. There was literally just
Instant oatmeal they were bragging about the instant oatmeal and I told you that the other food at the resort was Hot Pockets
Next to a microwave. It was the worst resort. I've you could ever go to in your life
Just I forget Chana Springs and in Alaska and yeah
That seems like it's crazy to even call it a resort
You're like exaggerating or no, I'm not exaggerating I went to this hot spring
And I was like we I get some food and we went into that that was hot pocket Springs that I went to this hot spring and I was like, we gotta get some food. And we went into that.
That was hot pocket Springs that you went to or hot pockets. Yeah.
It was actually, it was actually sponsored by hot pockets and they call it.
Did you see the packaging of the hot pockets? Yeah.
It was hot pockets. They had other stuff too,
but it was all frozen like pizzas basically.
And so they take you to the top of the mountain. Oh, there was a,
I'll say this.
There was a big ice room that you could go in and you can get a
Appletini and an ice glass. Right.
I did not because I don't drink, but my wife did. And then you,
you drink it and then you take it outside
and you make a wish and you smash it on the ground.
That's the-
That's kind of cool.
That's kind of cool.
Oh, Joe, you don't like that?
You don't think that's kind of whimsical and cool?
You know?
The Alaskan Appletini tradition.
Yeah, it's like the Screechie.
Yeah.
For centuries, people in Alaska have been smashing Appletini's and having their dreams
come true.
Yeah, I think that actually the Appletini part is undeniably very weird.
I think.
Yeah, the Appletini part of it, it doesn't feel like like Alaskan kind of drink or the
only drink they had in there
They're what you couldn't be like I'll take a shot of vodka or something
It was literally you get an apple teeny teeny or you get nothing and I didn't get anything because they didn't have anything without booze
in it
Wait, sorry. They didn't have beverages. No not in the bar where you smash
What was this place? What was this place?
What was this place?
How much?
How like don't you?
Oh, you don't want to know how much I spent to stay at this place.
You would hate me.
So these people are taking advantage.
This resort is taking advantage of people who want to see the Aurora Borealis and are
willing to pay money to go do it because it's kind of like a bucket list thing. They'll pick you up in Fairbanks and drive you an hour and 45 minutes out of town.
And you can't go back to town.
There's no other shuttle to get back into town.
So you get there and it's like, well, we're going to be here because I was afraid to drive,
you know, because somebody if somebody like one of the staff members fucking just completely lost it and just started fucking killing people
You would be like fully out there in the middle of nowhere. Nothing you could do you're dead
Yeah, they live there the staffers live there. They don't leave because there's nothing there's nothing between it and Fairbanks
Mm-hmm, so when we get up there we get to the top of the mountain
He's like, I don't think it's it got cloudy
halfway through the night it started snowing and
The guys like I'm like, I don't think we're gonna see it and he is like you want to go, you know
We can't leave till four
We're up here until four
So you just and any Nicole and then he goes he goes like this. Okay, if we can get everybody to agree
To leave we can go we can get everybody to agree to leave,
we can go, we can leave now. You're not seeing anything else. This is it.
And he could only get less than half of the people to agree.
And then he goes, well, we'll take hat. We can take half of you down.
You just got to figure out which half,
which people get to go down in the thing and I was like
let's get in there let's get and my wife was like I will stay and I was like damn
it so she ruined it because she was being too nice and then we ended up
staying up there. She ruined her vacation that she had been desperately asking for
after going on a hundred wrestling vacations where they watch, not even real wrestling, AEW,
not even the good at wrestling.
So a birder could be defined as someone
who could not cope with the not knowing
and would have to know.
Many birders are not obsessed with lists
and of course do watch birds for the sheer pleasure of it,
but it's in the job description to know or work out
what the bird is they're watching for the pleasure of it.
So a bird should know.
Should know.
Let's take a look at
one and another thing here. I was looking to see why people do this. Do people birdwatch out of curiosity, competition,
or personal clout, which I really like.
Yeah, personal clout, like just,
I don't know what kind of circles you're running in
where that is something that gives you clout.
I mean, you'd have to be running in burger circles,
and in that case, you would probably already be a burger,
so it doesn't really make sense.
I don't know, I like clout.
No, I know, but I just, I don't think it gives you
a lot of clout, you know? I don't know, I- I make a living like clout. No, I know but I just I don't think
You know, I don't know I make a living getting clout I think it's relaxing, you know what I mean? It's like a really nice relaxing thing and it's like a collecting thing for me
This is how I feel why I want to do it is because I have this thing of collecting
I grew up collecting baseball cards and stuff and I really like collecting things
And it's like a fun way to do it where you're not accumulating any physical things
that you have to get rid of.
And you're going out and exploring
and learning more about the world,
and it's super relaxing.
I mean, there's not that many downsides to it.
I personally collect experiences.
Oh, and also Lego, as we can see behind you.
You also collect insane amounts of Lego.
I haven't had a chance to play with my Lego since I broke my foot.
So that's been a bummer.
That's because it seems like you should be able to.
Joe, sorry. What were you saying?
No, no, I think that's a nice sentiment about the relaxing.
Like I would never.
Yeah. After I did the first season of my TV show, I was just
totally spent and I didn't know where to go. I just wanted to go somewhere warm because
we filmed in Milwaukee and Michigan in the middle of winter and I booked a ticket to
go to Everglades by myself. It was a real quiet time of the year and I didn't know any of the birds,
but it was, I guess, some, it was a good bird time of year
and I just kind of walked around by myself
and looked at all of these birds
and it was a real sense of peace looking at these birds
and seeing them and I don't know.
Yeah, yeah, I think that that's kind of like,
I think if it was for me, it's like that,
getting in the bird zone where you just,
I don't know, be so at peace just looking at a bird
and watching it do its thing and then, you know,
walk away and get a, I don't know,
stop at a fresh fruit and vegetable stand on your way home That's that's that's a good day and that's I think if I were to do
For I get that aspect of birding but once yeah
Everglades is a
Really good spot with a lot of birds as well, you know, yeah
Yeah, every time I do something Joe I'm like on we should
Well, I you know, it'd be cool as if we went somewhere warm
So when I watch this the season of your show when I watched your show I was like man
He was like I'll go somewhere cold. That's crazy. I
Do like going somewhere cold. It's about going places when they're quiet like my Everglades is
It was pretty quiet in April,
I think that was when I went.
And it was, yeah, and if you go up to Michigan,
in northern Michigan in January, February,
it's not, people are, it's kind of quieter there
than in the summer, so I just kind of like going
where places are, I travel opposite of vacation ceases.
That makes sense.
That's the- That's an interesting approach
I like to go to somewhere where there's 1,000
The first time we saw the Aurora was up in northern Michigan in a city called Alpina we stayed in and
It like it was not we went to Mackinac Island and stuff
We did the tourist stuff, but we're in Alpina
Yeah, and I I was like I'm gonna get this really romantic situation set up for my wife and I rented a camper which I thought
Hey, you know, it's an Airbnb. It's a camper will be out in the middle of nowhere. We'll stare at the stars
It's gonna be beautiful. It's the darkest city in this part of the country
out in the middle of nowhere, we'll stare at the stars. It's gonna be beautiful.
It's the darkest city in this part of the country.
Closest to Columbus is Alpena, Michigan.
And we get there and the camper's in some guy's driveway
and he keeps walking out and talking to us.
And also it said he had wifi and I had to work,
but the wifi was in the house and didn't work in the camper.
And when he was bringing me in he was like yeah
We got Wi-Fi. It doesn't generally reach out to the camper, but I'll tell you what I don't even like watching TV when I'm on vacation
I'm not watching TV dude, so I had to do my podcast in the parking lot of a Meyer
Well, I'm there that wasn't that was Street Fight Street Fight. Yeah.
So this guy goes a single Carolina Wren is more entertaining
than the entire Kardashian family.
Oh, no, they did it.
The Kardashians catching strays again, in my opinion,
I don't even know why they're famous.
In my day, you had to do something to be famous,
like be a fucking yellow tailed warbler, you know
I love this. I love I love people. I don't know when this post is from but I love people who are still
fucking ripping on the Kardashians a
Single Carolina Wren is also somehow more dramatic than the entire Kardashian family
I'm not sure but I think they're kind of known as being over dramatic.
I don't know that that one lands, really.
This guy goes, we had a few in our backyard.
So it all just turns into, like, comparing the Kardashians to a Carolina Wren, which
I kind of like.
We had a few in our backyard this year raising fledglings, and the cats watched them way
more intensely than any form of TV.
You're definitely right.
So, yeah, yeah, the cats were into it and yeah. So the cats prefer this to the Kardashians.
Yeah, here's a guy.
Here's a guy you guys are both going to love.
Mahatma Mahatma.
You can't use a lot of time.
You can't say these guys name.
He's a he's a lifer king rail. I
Definitely am drawn to the competition slash numbers aspect of it
It was very rewarding to be a top 100 birder in my extremely populous state last year
Oh, so they have lists that I was gonna ask that there is real things that you can go and you can say like
I'm the number one fucking birder in all
California that's cool
He's a top 100
And I don't know how extremely populous area yeah like but I don't know how like not impressive that could be really good
But there might be only 300 people that are like registered to do it. You know right that means either. He's number 100 or 99 by the way
Yeah, you would 84. I feel that no you would say I'm in the top way. Yeah, or 84 I feel that.
No, you would say I'm in the top 85.
No, you wouldn't.
If you were 84, yeah, you would.
I think you'd go 100 or 75.
I think we can give them between 75 and 100 perhaps.
He would have said 75.
I definitely, and he goes, the number one thing that primed me for being an enthusiastic
bird, the enthusiastic.
Hey Joe, you just got to experience one of the most famous parts of the podcast is known as a brian flub a bunch people are
Slamming the table right now chanting flub flub flub flub
They love it. He once called me gris
instead of that one
And that one's so great because it's like now I just have to deal with the fallout of it now like
People are calling me gris like I didn't say something wrong I just fucking sat here you know it was an accident because the name of the guest
was a little harder to know so like I got all your focus on that name I mean it's almost
like this this show when I said how you doing Joe I'm Brian yeah yeah well that I thought
I think that was before we started actually.
Oh, that was on the show. Oh, was it?
I thought that, you know, I thought I thought it was before we started.
But you Brian Joe said, how are you doing?
And Brian said, I'm Brian.
How are you doing? I'm Brian.
Can I tell you that feels like that's how the Lego guys behind you talk?
That feels like that's how the Lego guys behind you talk
Can I tell you that and crystal experienced this in October
Yeah, when I perform live and do live shows and stuff like that after the show
Every single person that I talked to I shake their hand and say hi. I'm Brian
They came to see me but just don't do well, why don't you just don't not do that because I can't I can't
imagine somebody not Like somebody knowing my name, but they watched you on the stage, you know, I understand but it just doesn't happen
This is the closest thing I have found as an adult to the way Pokemon made me feel as a kid
So that's why that does that does That does make sense, the Pokemon Go or what, you know, like collecting the things in a
way where you're not physically collecting them.
That makes sense.
Well, I said I have one more story for you.
One more news story.
That also might be, that might have something to do with the younger people getting into
it.
A bunch of people who are like super into Pokemon and they're getting a little older
now and then they're like, Hey, what's the adult version of this? And then they're getting into it. A bunch of people who are like super into Pokemon and they're getting a little older now and then they're like, hey, what's the adult version of this? And
then they're getting into birding.
You know how that's how Pokemon started. The creator was kind of feeling down about a lot
of the woods around Tokyo where he grew up disappearing and so wanted to kind of have
that feeling of exploration and seeing animals in the video game.
That really is true?
Yeah, so that's very, I'm pretty sure it's Tokyo,
but after World War II, they cleared a lot of the woods
that he used to walk around in as a kid,
and that's, he wanted to capture that feeling,
so that's very cool that it's kind of come full circle
to like bringing people back
Yeah, you're going to see yeah
Well, let me just say that
Rax King from the tattoo guys episode sent me an article that her friend Willie Blackmore wrote and
This is an Audubon magazine, which is a bird
Magazine Audubon birds. I don't know if you know that Chris I don't they do bird
the Autobahn Society does bird stuff they're the bird people it's not a
bond that like really fat the highway where you can drive as fast as you want
yes Chris but there is also the American Autobahn Society which is a bird society
okay but I'm not wrong right you're not wrong on May 11th 2018
Andrew Farnsworth saw something that was almost unbelievable a migration ecologist at the Cornell lab of ornithology
Farnsworth has seen more than his fair share of rare birds
but there was one species native to the lower 48 that he'd never recorded a
Kirtland's warbler and he assumed doing so would require a trip to
its breeding grounds in Michigan's Jack Pine Forest. The rare Warbler is
all but unheard of in New York State. That a Kirtland's came practically to his
front door when it stopped over in Central Park not far from Farnsworth,
Manhattan apartment was nothing short of extraordinary. I think as reported about
5 p.m. he says, I took a cab to 60th and 5th and bailed out and then ran fast. After spotting the burn Farnsworth realized
the warbler was only part of the spectacle. Seeing the speed with which tens and then
hundreds of people appeared in the park to see the bird was like a BTS concert or a Beatles
concert he says. A birder named Kevin Top topping first spotted the Kirtlands and posted about it on Twitter
It's a funny place to post it. You know what we should was an X anymore, but you know
Yeah, I mean, that's I wonder I wonder if birding was big on Twitter
It was okay because this is a story about celebrity birds becoming a problem
He said, uh, uh,
where it was immediately picked up by Manhattan bird alert,
a feed that repost sightings of birds in the park, particularly uncommon species.
The news got out through more traditional means,
but none are geared towards speed quite like Manhattan bird alert by 6 30 PM.
Hundreds of people were watching the bird.
The crowd was so large and it formed so quickly that the cops came.
To Farnsworth, who's birded in Central Park for decades,
it was clear that something had shifted.
That was a moment of like, wow,
this is a whole different level.
The whole social media angle to alerting people
has arrived in a very different sort of explosive way.
Social media has become a powerful,
now they explain social media for some,
but Willie, we know what that is. But so while a feverish crowd can form anywhere,
a rare bird appears. Manhattan's most famous green space is a crucible of the
phenomena. Central Park is really one of the best birding spots outside of the
tropics, says Todd Winston, a birding guide and urban biodiversity specialist
in New York City, Audubon. The metropolis is in the middle of the Atlantic flyway, so millions of migrating birds pass
through amid a landscape dominated by concrete.
They concentrate in its green oases.
At more than 800 acres, Central Park is one of the largest havens available for migrants
as well as residents like Northern Cardinals that inspire the city's human inhabitants. So I've been to Central Park before I walked around
and I definitely saw some birds. It was a it seemed like a pretty nice park to me.
I mean I'll be honest I've seen better parks but Joe you live in New York.
You're there quite often or do you ever get out to Central Park and walk around?
No, I'm by Prospect Park in Brooklyn.
And it's it's I think.
I don't want to give bad facts, but they got some of like the last remaining like
trees from.
Before they knocked over all the rest of the forest to the rest of Brooklyn.
And it's a really it's a really nice feeling park and then some deep, I guess like as serious woods
as you can get in a city.
And so there's good birds.
And sometimes I will see a bunch of people
gathered around the bird and I try not to,
I try to lower my conversation
because I don't want them getting...
Imagine, can you imagine you walk by and I know you're notoriously loud obviously and
I can just imagine, but imagine you walk by and you just like everybody's there looking
at this bird that hasn't been there in like two years and you're just like, yeah, no,
I'll be there later, man.
And then it just fucking flies off and everyone turns to you like what?
Well in recent years Manhattan Bertler with roughly
80,000 followers and counting whoa has brought new attention to the delights of birding in the park and helped attract new people to the hobby
It has also elevated a number of individual birds to celebrity status
And like any star they're pursued by admirers whose behavior verges on that of a paparazzi. David Barrett, the man behind
Manhattan Bird Alerts, sees nothing wrong with propelling a bird to fame. My site gets
people to like birds, he says. They've got a bird in their life now and they think more
about, well, what is this bird's life like and what could affect it? And if so, and so
they care more. Yet many of the birders, here's where we get to the issue here.
Yet many of the birders, ornithologists, and members of avian conservation organizations I spoke with
paint Barrett as a person who has brought widespread attention to birds in often unethical ways,
such as sharing the real-time locations of sensitive species.
Barrett's profile has risen in the media along with that of the birds he's helped make famous. And he's often quoted in news stories as an expert, much
to the frustration of other avid amateurs who would prefer that effective science communicators
weigh in. After getting someone interested in birding, you want that entry to move those
people toward being conservationists and supporting the birds, says Dr. Bruce Yolton. But with
David it's empty. It's like eating candy or popcorn.
So the actual scientists are very angry at David.
So can I know about some of the famous birds though?
Are they any of the ones like any of the big famous ones that I know?
So I'm going to teach you a thing before we get out of here.
Obviously I'm going to teach you about vagrants.
Now you're like Brian don teach you about vagrants. Now you're like, Brian, don't talk about vagrants.
No, vagrants are good in the bird community.
And now, Chris, I'm gonna remind you of Opie
talking to that really boring guy.
Do you remember that time Opie and that boring guy
were talking to each other?
So we do a stream where we've,
some of the times we'll watch Opie from Opie and Anthony
show New York City radio guy. He he's not doing so well. And now he does his interviews with just
random guys from his Facebook group. And one of them was he talked for about an hour about birds
with this guy and ticks and ticks and stuff. Or maybe the guy was a bird guy and he was talking
about ticks. Marine biologists. Whenever we put it on everybody leaves the stream everybody all the viewers leave like in like
Yeah, genuinely a hundred people will leave as soon as we play the clip so he was talking about
What in the heck there was a flamingo flying through New York?
What in the world well? That's a vagrant and those are
birds that somehow got knocked off course
and ended up in a place that they're not supposed to be.
And I think what's happening is this is happening
and now these got,
cause you're not supposed to have bird feeders by the way,
letting everybody know that it's unethical
to have a bird feeder.
Just letting you know.
I know that, yeah, it's sad really
I mean a lot of birders have them with the camera on them, but apparently
like
It messes up the bird's ability to forage for food if the food is just hanging in front of your house with a camera
So and also there's weird consent things about them being filmed which that part
I don't know if that was a joke or not
I think that's a joke. I don't need to get you can't obviously get consent from a bird
Chris you have no idea how serious it seemed like it did not seem like a joke when the guys a parrot
But the parrot you would have to like you would be giving the consent really, you know what I mean?
Like and we know minor birds are the actual ones
That can sound like human so but they they they like you're not supposed to give them
I thought I guess that makes sense because they go to a different place
So they like migrate so you're giving them bird feed and they can just get it so easily then they go migrate to a different
Place where they might not be able to find it so easily and they might not be able to get food and they might die
Yes, and and they get fat too.
I saw a few fat birds when I was looking at the camera.
People have, Mike Hale actually, friend of the show,
very good friend of the show,
always on any episode where we're talking about porno.
Yeah, he's our first ever guest
that we ever had on Sex Guys, DB, dog boner on Twitter.
We know he has a bird
Camera mm-hmm he bought it on Kickstarter because he shows about kickstarters, and I was gonna let him know
Hmm probably shouldn't have that but he likes looking at birds and in my opinion It's like I guess if you like looking at birds. What am I gonna say? He's he listens to the podcast
I think so I guess he does Jesse will tell him
That's for sure so he knows now that you think he's doing something wrong
Like a hundred guys are walking out of their house right now and bringing their bird feeder in that
Yeah, I don't know like
Yeah, I guess I've never had a bird feeder, but oh okay. Yeah, I believe that
What?
We know it's okay. It's okay
You know a canal why I would lie if I really never okay
Have you had one Joe a bird feeder
Personally no, but that's growing up. We did stick it out. You know I don't
Personally, no, but that's growing up. We did stick a glass, you know, I don't
Suction cup to the window type thing the kitchen. I never had one I always found them to be you know, there was always something that struck me as unethical about it
I oh shut up when I was five six years old. I couldn't quite put my finger on it
But I was like this is unethical in some way
Why and like crazy? I've never had one but and I bet people believe that cuz I don't care about animals
Yeah, you hate those those squirrels sound like they would have to weigh with it. Oh, thank you, Joe
I hate those worlds. We have an albino squirrel around here that I kind of like he didn't say that Joe didn't say he hates the squirrels
By the way, he just said they would eat out of it
Oh, you are welcome to come over and look at the squirrels anytime, Joe.
I promise you'd hate them.
Like, believe me.
All right. Well, I think we covered birders, Chris.
How do you feel? I feel like we did.
We covered birders.
It was a nice episode.
There's at the beginning, there was some of the woke people.
We don't like that.
Stuff. You get the woke people come out when things get new names, they just get really in a huff
about it.
But everyone seemed nice.
I was just going to ask, who is in charge of doing the names?
Or who gives the final stamp of approval on the official bird name?
That's a good question.
This is interesting.
And I do have some people talking about that.
Let me see if I can grab that real quick.
Who would? Like, would it be because it wouldn't be a government. Do you know what I mean? It's
not like this is an animal that it's not. It's different countries. It's like an international
thing. Yeah, some sort of governing body that decides on animal names.
Well, there's a lot of people who do not want it to be a vote.
But there's because yeah, I'm thinking about that.
Now I need to look into this myself now.
Like who decides on animal names?
Like there's it seems like it's like no one's really fighting for it.
So it seems like kind of like, oh, this person discovered it and they let that person name
it the person who discovered it, I think.
But I don't know. Yeah. So.
The the the thing I read
was that like it's the American Ornithological Society or the Audubon
Society that's in charge of it.
And a lot of the people are are very
worried.
They're going to put it up for a vote.
And then some literally the one I saw
was like hockey, Migg Hawkface. They're like very worried that they'll put it up for a vote and then some literally the one I saw was like hockey
mchock face they're like very worried that they'll put it up for a vote and
goofballs will come in I I saw I know a guy I watched this creator named Michael
who was doing a video about it and he's really worried that they're gonna let
non-birds into the the birding thing the Hall of Fame the Bird Hall of Fame and they'll be sorry. That's a reference Joe to some
Completely meaningless to you
Yeah
so it is going to
It's weird right because you probably would want
People to have a say and what they're gonna name the birds because it seems like having a top-down approach to that
Yeah, it's also not cool to me like I you know, I've been an anarchist podcast for a long time
So I kind of am like we gotta let the people make this decision, you know, but they're totally right
They're renaming animals. I how are we naming animals? Here's what I propose. Okay.
Every nation in the world sends
five representatives
two scientists
Two amateur birders and then one random person who just is like
They select that random from the population.
They send them all to the Ohio State football stadium in Columbus.
And then-
I'll be there.
Yeah.
If you're lucky enough, maybe this podcast will help bump you up on the...
And then they just put the birds on the Jumbotron board and everybody.
And then they say, nobody leaves this conference until all the birds are renamed something fair.
Well, here's the guy. This is the guy that I saw.
It is a good idea.
They have like a debate, like, really pushing, then they like, you know, like, hey, like, listen, hey, we'll give you,
how about if we concede that we call this the blue jambler and then
yeah, give us a red winged tip or two or whatever, you know?
And there's like, yeah, I I mean, it seems more fair than as fair as any other way.
You know, one of the guys shouldn't care.
Right. Yes. Yes.
Scientists, you got the two birders and then a guy that doesn't give a crap.
Yeah, and for humorous effect, you say all them and they all have scientific names and
then his name is like Jeff, you know what I mean?
That's funny because it's just one name.
So here it is.
I just had the same journey as the ornithologist they interviewed.
Oh, hell no.
What a pain in the ass.
Two, they've got a point.
I'll have to buy new guides, but my kid or anyone else new to the hobby doesn't have to whip out
their phone to understand who this bird is named after. It'll make the hobby easier to
start into. More people will care, so conservation efforts will go up. As long as they don't
go to public voting, I don't want to have to tell the kid that jaunty blue one there
is a pointy headed peanut goblin. More and song names would be great one generation of birders
Sighing into our field glasses can suck it up and learn some new names
If it makes the hobby better for new learners and then the guy goes no public voting
You mean you don't want a hockey mchawk face. So I think you can write Joe
Yeah, you can't trust people you need a system because people are always
Goofing around on the internet. They still haven't figured out how to you know stop goofing
Yeah
Yeah, I don't know you said they did that anarchist podcast is it too crazy to propose
No more bird names
Okay, that I mean that listen the fans of that show would have been like yeah, no more bird names? Okay, that, I mean that, listen, the fans of that show would have been like, yeah, no more bird names.
We call them what we're feeling that day. You see it, and it's like, you know, you describe it.
I mean, listen, what's the need for it? What's the need for a name of anything?
You know, I once lived in the Bahamas. They had no addresses, and it was totally fine.
Really?
Yeah, it wasn't completely fine.
Yellow would have issued.
Yeah, that's literally how you describe it.
You'd say like it's like I live in yellow house, three windows.
It's like on the left, the third house passed this like business or whatever.
That's what you'd have to say.
But it became became an issue, I think.
You know, I think it is to have stuff named and,
you know, labeled. It helps us. think I mean you let the scientists just do it
Listen, but then there there's a problem with that too the last time you let the scientists do it. They named it after the scientists
Yeah, that's true, but they were saying somebody did mention like
None of this is gonna change the scientific name and many of the scientific names have the names of the scientist in them, too
So you still get that?
The Latin these bird guys were pretty nice. I would say I
Think I have decided I really do
I think this is the one of all the things that we've done that I really am going to get into. Maybe not right away, but I'll say this.
Yeah. The one I'm going to get into is the mafia.
OK, I'm going to get into the.
What's your what's your leg wheel?
Yeah, you're wheeling around on your fucking scooter leg.
The least intimidating man in the world.
Try to. Yeah,, they push you over
Writing you're like coming up a hill to like confront someone and he just pushes you back down there
He I could do a drive-by shooting sort of thing, you know
or
You know when I get my foot better. I'm thinking I'm joining the mafia.
I'm not Italian, but, you know, I'll join a biker gang then maybe.
Buy a bike.
Which we know that the mafia does not respect because they're scumbags.
So that is, we learned about like the fact that the mafia is like, these bikers are disgusting
and they don't shower enough.
So Ryan talked to a lot of shit about criminals in his town and stuff on the podcast too and
sort of outed a bunch of businesses that were fronts for criminal activity.
So be interested when that episode comes out.
See what happens with that.
Yeah, I'm going to walk over to Granaro and be like, hey, I talked about you.
I'm going to wheel over to Granaro and say, I talked about you on my podcast.
He'll turn it on and be like, he had Granaro is a mafia front. So
Joe do you have anything you want to plug?
Yeah
Not too much I got some shows in
Philadelphia DC Bethlehem PA in October and then other than that
Just say hello if you see me around.
Watch the TV shows.
Yeah, watch Joe.
Oh yeah.
I think probably a lot of you guys know Joe
and you've probably watched and listened to a lot of his
stuff, but if you somehow don't, then yeah, go watch.
I'm gonna make one recommendation that's a
lesser known thing.
It was the web series that you did with Connor
where he was your agent can you
tell me yeah let me the name of that how to make it in USA how to make choice
say which is very if yeah if you're a fan of if you somehow haven't seen that
I watched that so many fucking times it is one of the funniest web series but
yeah all this stuff is great and check it out. Thanks Yeah, we really appreciate you doing this next week. We will see you with pizza guys
My mama Mia