Tenijah Hamilton (she/her) is a multi-hyphenate inventive most identified for her time as host and producer of the podcast Convey Birds Again by Birdnote. As a self-proclaimed Fowl Lady in Coaching, Tenijah has hung out interviewing all varieties of fowl nerds, from leaders of the Black Birder’s motion to raptor handlers on film units to influential environmentalist Invoice McKibben. One in all Tenijah’s deepest held convictions is that individuals don’t should be consultants or go wherever to fowl and that true accessibility, equality, and impression within the fowl world comes from validating each particular person’s distinctive journey to caring about their feathered buddies.
You have been concerned within the publication of “The Pleasure of Birdwatching”, a not too long ago revealed ebook. Are you able to inform us a bit extra about your involvement?
I used to be grateful to be requested to contribute each an entry and the foreword to the ebook by the Lonely Planet staff. It was such an honor and I actually relished the chance, as somebody who lower her enamel within the fowl world by way of audio, to have the ability to flex my muscle tissues as a author to replicate on each what my birding journey has meant to me and the fantastic thing about birding in Atlanta, Georgia.
You contributed a bit on the Atlanta Beltline. What’s your connection to that individual location?
I moved again to Atlanta from Boston in 2020, and one of many issues I had been completely spoiled by whereas dwelling in Massachusetts was the combination of greenspace into public life. For instance, you will have these sprawling campuses in Cambridge with all of this tree cover and buildings with centuries-old creeping Ivy and it simply feels a lot part of the lifeblood of the realm. I bear in mind within the early days of COVID, they shut down a busy road hall close to me so folks might stroll it as a result of it bordered the Charles River and it was the proximity and entry to nature—and the truth that it was proper exterior my entrance door—that appealed to me probably the most.
Atlanta is called the town in a forest as a result of there are so many bushes, however what was lacking, for me a minimum of, was the connection to on a regular basis life. That’s why after I moved again down South, I grew to become enamored with the Beltline. It’s a roughly 30-mile stretch, accessible from many factors all through the town, and it actually fuses nature, city structure, retail, and recreation. And by chance for me, there are some actually superior spots to catch some birds alongside it.
Atlanta Beltline
Are you able to inform us a bit about your expertise scripting this part? Did you study something whereas making ready it?
I realized a ton whereas scripting this part.
What actually stood out to me was all of the intentionality that went into the creation of the Beltline. It was and is a joint effort that included everybody from council members and concrete planners to arborists and group members. Within the podcast I used to host and produce, I bear in mind engaged on an episode dwell from the Beltline the place I volunteered with Timber Atlanta to plant native crops like Bee Balm for pollinators (and in flip, Chimney Swifts, who had been constructed towers at that location to perch on). I realized a lot extra whereas scripting this piece about all of the folks energy it took to deliver this city inexperienced house to life.
Do you will have every other areas described within the ebook that you simply felt have been significantly fascinating? Have you ever been to a few of them? Which is the one you wish to go to most?
I used to dwell in Wellington, New Zealand and I used to be satisfied, because the Kiwis say, to see there have been a few spots that have been talked about within the ebook! A kind of locations is Kapiti Island, and excitingly, I’ve a go to there deliberate for subsequent Spring. I’m actually trying ahead to being in some of the pristine and well-protected pure habitats on the earth and seeing what birds I meet there!
Southern Brown Kiwi (Tokoeka) on Ulva Island, New Zealand
In your foreword to the ebook, you spotlight the elevated variety among the many birdwatching group. Are you able to inform us a bit extra about that?
For me, it’s been actually fascinating to see how within the years since 2020, folks from traditionally marginalized communities together with BIPOC and LGBTQAI+ of us, in addition to these historically with out entry to nature and people with disabilities, have flocked (no pun meant) to the world of birding. Make no mistake, there have all the time been people who find themselves a part of these teams in nature, nevertheless it simply felt like a motion—and that’s in no small half because of the individuals who constructed coalitions and did group constructing like those that began Black Birder’s Week. What I feel was most spectacular about that second in time is that we didn’t await an invite into these areas by the gatekeepers, we reclaimed these areas and invited others to take pleasure in them alongside us. I’m so happy with that, and on the identical time, I can maintain that the work will not be completed. There’s extra to do and construct, and ‘variety’ isn’t a grimy phrase.
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Is there anything you wish to share with the readers of 10,000 Birds?
Birds are actually unbelievable, and I’d encourage readers to get to know a number of the citizen science tasks happening of their communities in order that they are often higher stewards of nature and advocates for our feathered buddies. There are issues just like the Christmas Fowl Depend and the Birdsong Challenge that basically assist us to seize this particular second in time and ecological historical past, so if you happen to can, attempt to be part of that.
