Episode 60: The race to save our vanishing birds with Beverly and Anders Gyllenhaal

This episode is about conservation efforts across North America.

Beverly and Anders Gyllenhaal are veteran journalists and birdwatchers. They ran newsrooms, assigned features and wrote books.  They publish a website called FlyingLessons.US: What We’re Learning from the Birds,’’ and are here with us to speak about their new book, “A Wing and a Prayer: the race to save our vanishing birds.

Anders Gyllenhaal was an investigative reporter at The Miami Herald and executive editor at The News & Observer, The Star Tribune (Minneapolis), and The Herald. He also served as the editorial vice president for the McClatchy Company’s thirty newsrooms and 2,000 journalists. He served on the Pulitzer Prize board for nine years.

Beverly Gyllenhaal was a reporter, features writer, and food editor at The News & Observer and The Miami Herald. She coauthored a syndicated column that appeared in 100 newspapers around the US and produced three books with nearly half a million copies in print.

Questions:

1. What is the thesis of your book
2. Your book begins with a sparrow and a woodpecker.  Tell us about that.
3. One third of the birds have disappeared from North America. Shocking statistics.  Discussion
4. The bald eagles resurgence in North America.  Do you think this has to do with size and resonance as the nation’s symbol?
5. Scrub jays symbolise the balance between human development and endemic birds.  How does this play out?
6. Using sound to protect a storied species: california spotted owl.
7. Cerulean warblers in Ecuador. Talk about the Choco Corridor and multiple countries that need to work together
8. Hawaii is the extinction capital of the world.  Why? And How can this change?
9. The red cockaded woodpecker and the US military. Coexisting with birds
10. Outline some case studies of getting this done.
11. Making a case for birds.