Grab the Kleenex: This is the final episode that TBL host Bill Thompson, III, recorded before succumbing to pancreatic cancer on March 25, 2019. Bill interviews Mark S. Garland, a naturalist who has been sharing his enthusiasm for nature for over 40 years. He is also the proud recipient of the Paul Bartsch Award for Distinguished Contributions to Natural History. Bird Watcher's Digest subscribers will recognize him as the author of "Birders Question Mark," a Q&A column that has featured in the magazine since 2015. Mark reveals what sparked his interest in nature and birds early in life, and how it evolved throughout his lifetime. He ends with advice for aspiring naturalists: Be persistent, follow your heart, and in the end, it will all work out!

This Birding Life (Enhanced)

Episode 90: The Final Episode! An Interview with Mark Garland

In July and August, This Birding Life will feature two episodes that Bill Thompson, III, recorded before succumbing to pancreatic cancer on March 25, 2019. In this episode Bill interviews longtime friend Jeff Gordon, president of the American Birding Association, and his wife, Liz. Bill's guests discuss how they met, how their relationship evolved through their love of birds, the accomplishments that they value most in their work with the ABA, current trends in birding, and what the future holds for the hobby we all love.

Episode 89: An Interview with Jeff and Liz Gordon

As you may know, our beloved TBL host Bill Thompson, III, died on March 25, after a short battle with pancreatic cancer. What you may not know is that Bill's mother, Bird Watcher's Digest founding publisher Elsa Thompson, died in a fire in her home in Marietta, Ohio, on May 25. We know you share our grief in losing these two wonderful people who have contributed so much to the world of birding. In honor of BT3 and Elsa, we're re-airing this episode from 2013, when Bill interviewed Elsa about the early days of Bird Watcher's Digest, why the family started the magazine, and what it has meant in their lives.

Best of This Birding Life: The Early Days of Bird Watcher's Digest

Originally recorded in 2010, this episode of TBL features host Bill Thompson, III, interviewing Jonathan Meiberg, a birder and leader of the indie-rock band Shearwater. Both a musician and a bird watcher, Jonathan Meiberg sparked on music at an early age, but he did not catch the birding bug until his college years, while on a visit to the Falkland Islands. In this episode Bill and Jonathan discuss a range of topics including songwriting, bird behavior, life birds, and the vagaries of small travel guitars. Interspersed throughout the interview are short samples of Shearwater's music. This was one of Bill's favorite episodes!

Best of This Birding Life: Music and Birds: Jonathan Meiberg of Shearwater

In this popular episode from 2011, TBL host Bill Thompson, III, interviewed Greg Miller, an Ohio birder who served as inspiration for the character played by actor Jack Black in the feature film The Big Year. In this episode, Greg tells the story of his own birding life.

Best of This Birding Life: The Birding Life of Greg Miller

Bill interviews Ohio birding legend Jim McCormac about his lifelong fascination with nature, his career preserving special places and creatures in Ohio, and his many other accomplishments. Jim is the author of several books; he guides birding and photo tours; and he is one of the few people to see both a red-cockaded woodpecker and a Bachman's sparrow in Ohio! Listen to the banter of these two old friends.

Episode 88: Jim McCormac: A Man for All Seasons

TBL host Bill Thompson, III, will be away from the BWD home nest for a while. We hope soon to resume new episodes of the podcast we all know and love, but in the interim, we're taking a trip down memory lane and replaying some of the most popular episodes. In this episode from 2007, tropical birding expert Alvaro Jaramillo recounts a side trip to Rapa Nui (Easter Island), which became one of the best experiences of his birding life.

Best of This Birding Life: Adventure at Rapa Nui with Alvaro Jaramillo

TBL host Bill Thompson, III, will be away from the BWD home nest for a while. We hope soon to resume new episodes of the podcast we all know and love, but in the interim, we're taking a trip down memory lane and replaying some of the most popular episodes. In this episode from December 2017, owl expert Scott Weidensaul joins Bill for a discussion of the winter's invasion of snowy owls from the Arctic. Through Project SNOWstorm (co-founded by Scott), a volunteer field research program studying these magnificent, mostly white owls, we are learning a great deal about their behavior, population dynamics, natural history, and how they interact with us humans, and vice versa. Scott also shares his tips for watching a snowy owl respectfully, without disturbing it.

Best of This Birding Life: Snowy Owl Invasion with Scott Weidensaul

Melissa Groo joins Bill to talk about her life and the late start she got to her amazing career as a “wildlife biographer.” Though she is most famous for her captivating bird and wildlife photographs, Melissa strives to convey more than that, capturing the personality, soul, and essence of her subjects in hopes of inspiring empathy from humankind for the plight of the natural world.

Episode 87: Melissa Groo: Wildlife Biographer

During a recent trip to South America, Bill collected stories from six of his fellow travelers and shares them here. Included are stories about Juan the Guan, a treacherous journey to Noir Island, a bear story, and three stories about how birds can change the course of our lives.

Episode 86: Juan the Guan and Other Birding Stories

Join host Bill Thompson, III, on his recent birding tour of renowned hotspot Cape May, New Jersey, where he interviews Tom Reed, Mark Garland, and Dr. David LaPuma, expert migration counters from the Cape May Bird Observatory. Along the way he visits the Avalon Seawatch, the Cape May Point Hawk Watch, and South Cape May Meadows talking about migrating seabirds, raptors, songbirds, and monarch butterflies.

Episode 85: Cape A-May-Zing: A Visit to Cape May, New Jersey

Author JR Ripley chats with Bill about his recent birder-murder mystery novel A Birder's Guide to Murder, set at the American Birding Expo. The book is part of the Bird Lover's Mystery series published by Kensington, in which the heroine, Amy, solves murders, while simultaneously running her specialty retail birding store. JR, whose real name is Glenn Eric Meganck, also writes novels in other genres under other pen names, is a professional musician, and is kinda into zombies, too.

Episode 84: A Birder's Guide to Murder, with JR Ripley

Tom Stephenson is the creator of BirdGenie, an app that recognizes bird songs recorded on your cellphone. Bill interviews Tom about his fascination with sound and sound technology, the cross-over between musicians and birders, and how the BirdGenie app came to be. This interview was conducted outdoors during the New River Birding Festival in West Virginia in May 2018.

Episode 83: Tom Stephenson and BirdGenie

In part 2 of Birding in Columbia, TBL host Bill Thompson, III, travels to the Caribbean lowlands near Camarones to visit additional sites along the Northern Colombia Birding Trail. We hear from three different Colombian guides as well as three of Bill's travel companions about the wonders (and challenges) of birding in Colombia. The origin of the vermilion cardinal's colorful plumage is explained by the mythology of the Wayuu People. And we hear the full and tragic birding origin story from guide Angel "Neke" Ortiz Menenses.

Episode 82: Birding in Colombia Part 2: Camarones

In Part 1 of Birding in Colombia, Bill joins a group of avid birders in the Santa Marta region of northern Colombia to explore the Northern Colombia Birding Trail. Besides amazing birding and lots of endemics, he encounters a new generation of excellent local birding guides poised to accommodate an influx of ecotourists to this newly opened birding destination.

Episode 81: Birding in Colombia Part 1: Santa Marta Mountains

This Birding Life: Enhanced Podcast. This Birding Life is a podcast from the folks at Bird Watcher’s Digest. And like the magazine’s content, the topics covered by This Birding Life range far and wide, from the backyard to the tropics, from bird feeding to bird chasing, from authors reading from their books to birders talking about their “spark” bird. This Birding Life is guaranteed to make you think, laugh, and want to spend more time out there with the birds. It’s all about this wonderful hobby we share: watching and enjoying wild birds. Welcome to This Birding Life!

Episode 90: The Final Episode! An Interview with Mark Garlan...