Tenijah Hamilton (she/her) is a multi-hyphenate artistic most recognized for her time as host and producer of the podcast Deliver Birds Again by Birdnote. As a self-proclaimed Hen Lady in Coaching, Tenijah has hung out interviewing all kinds of chook nerds, from leaders of the Black Birder’s motion to raptor handlers on film units to influential environmentalist Invoice McKibben. Considered one of Tenijah’s deepest held convictions is that individuals don’t should be consultants or go wherever to chook and that true accessibility, equality, and influence within the chook world comes from validating each particular person’s distinctive journey to caring about their feathered buddies.
You had been concerned within the publication of “The Pleasure of Birdwatching”, a lately printed e book. 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 e book by the Lonely Planet group. It was such an honor and I actually relished the chance, as somebody who lower her tooth within the chook world by way of audio, to have the ability to flex my muscle mass as a author to mirror on each what my birding journey has meant to me and the great thing about birding in Atlanta, Georgia.
You contributed a piece on the Atlanta Beltline. What’s your connection to that specific location?
I moved again to Atlanta from Boston in 2020, and one of many issues I had been completely spoiled by whereas residing in Massachusetts was the combination of greenspace into public life. For instance, you could 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 keep in mind within the early days of COVID, they shut down a busy avenue hall close to me so individuals 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 essentially the most.
Atlanta is named the town in a forest as a result of there are so many timber, however what was lacking, for me at the least, was the connection to on a regular basis life. That’s why once 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 fortunately 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 keep in mind engaged on an episode dwell from the Beltline the place I volunteered with Bushes Atlanta to plant native vegetation 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 individuals energy it took to convey this city inexperienced house to life.
Do you could have some other areas described within the e book that you just felt had been notably attention-grabbing? Have you ever been to a few of them? Which is the one you want to go to most?
I used to dwell in Wellington, New Zealand and I used to be happy, because the Kiwis say, to see there have been a few spots that had been talked about within the e book! A type 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 probably the most pristine and well-protected pure habitats on this planet and seeing what birds I meet there!
Southern Brown Kiwi (Tokoeka) on Ulva Island, New Zealand
In your foreword to the e book, 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 attention-grabbing to see how within the years since 2020, individuals from traditionally marginalized communities together with BIPOC and LGBTQAI+ people, in addition to these historically with out entry to nature and people with disabilities, have flocked (no pun supposed) to the world of birding. Make no mistake, there have at all times been people who find themselves a part of these teams in nature, but it surely 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 watch for an invite into these areas by the gatekeepers, we reclaimed these areas and invited others to get pleasure from them alongside us. I’m so pleased with that, and on the similar time, I can maintain that the work shouldn’t be completed. There’s extra to do and construct, and ‘variety’ isn’t a grimy phrase.
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Is there the rest you want to share with the readers of 10,000 Birds?
Birds are actually unimaginable, and I might encourage readers to get to know a number of the citizen science tasks occurring 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 Hen Depend and the Birdsong Undertaking that actually assist us to seize this particular second in time and ecological historical past, so in case you can, attempt to be part of that.
