That’s the title of the most recent podcast from Sinica, in which I had the pleasure of participating alongside Jon Kaiman, writer for The Guardian, and host Jeremy Goldkorn. You can listen to the podcast – an enjoyable conversation about birds in Beijing and air pollution – by clicking here.
As is traditional, the participants make a recommendation at the end of the show and mine is “Birds and People“, a landmark book about the relationship between birds and people, including stories of cultural and from around the world. My apologies to author, Mark Cocker, for referring to him as Mark Golley at the end (revealing my Norfolk roots!).
A big thank you to Jeremy and Sinica for inviting me to help spread the word about Beijing’s birdlife and the importance of protecting it.
I listened to the podcast today and really enjoyed it. I’ve tried to get some expat friends to come out birding with me – maybe it’ll be easier now they’ve heard about it on Sinica and heard that birding isn’t that geeky…
I noticed you didn’t mention the bird markets – not a criticism, I just realised at the end that it hadn’t come up.
Chris
Hi Chris. Thank you. I could have talked for hours about birds, including the bird markets, poaching, habitat destruction etc.. but I wanted to focus on the positives for this interview as it is hopefully reaching an audience of mostly non-birders… If I am invited back, maybe we can go into more detail about the threats the bird face in China.. Thanks again for your comment. Terry
Hi Terry, I came across the article with you in the Wall Street Journal (http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2013/12/16/once-a-quaint-custom-chinas-bird-markets-threatening-wildlife/). This one certainly talked about the bird markets. Nice work! (I didn’t notice you mentioning the article on here, I just saw it in the last week or so.)
Thanks Gretchen. And thanks for highlighting this article. I had publicised it on Twitter but you are right that I hadn’t referred to it on the blog. I have now added it to the “Birding Beijing in the Media” page. Thanks again, Terry
Chiffchaff ? We’ve had one down here, too !
Hi John. Yes, a coincidence! Do you know how many records there have been in HK? It’s perhaps overdue as a Beijing bird given several records from Beidaihe/Happy Island but is still almost certainly very rare in the capital. Terry