And now the 419 with Gretchen De backer.

Matt.

Kill em, and Kevin Mullen.

Welcome in to the 419, powered by GT and presented by Retro Wealth Management.

I'm Kevin mullen.

Gretchen debacker I kill them.

It is a surprise guest show.

And so it's going to be your surprise guest.

Part of our kind of throwback to the original podcast where only one of us knows who the guest is, and this time no one knows.

That's right.

Well, inevitably doing this, but whenever it's Matt's turn, We can always count on him notifying his guest.

Somewhere inside of 12 hours, I was going to give him 24 to 48.

But you're saying.

You're saying 12 hours, I think.

Okay, well, I'm glad we're talking about this because, for those of you who watch this show regularly, who is next to no one or those of you are incarcerated, the every time something goes amuck from a scheduling perspective, I get blamed.

And it has yet to be questionable.

Let's.

It's in the time that we've been with.

You're saying it's not been you.

That's right, that's right.

Well, I don't think of the past.

Oh.

What did you have nothing to do with the schedule?

It doesn't matter.

I don't know what the schedule is inside the point.

Yeah.

I don't know where to find set schedule, and I've not hijacked it.

Doesn't.

Look, don't cheat me out of this.

You know, we have one schedule.

This is my show.

Basically, we have a big guest today for a guest, and I'm really excited about it.

Okay, good.

So I've got some hints.

Okay.

This person.

Go ahead.

No, no, no, I don't know if is your show or not.

It is.

This person is in charge of bringing billions of people or guests to our area.

Okay.

They are basically a non-official air traffic controller.

Air traffic controller?

That a pilot, the most significant convener of anything that happens in our region is this individual.

Wow.

They are globally significant.

How do you know this person?

Think he I'm thinking port.

Yeah.

All right.

Right okay.

Kind of a travel agents of sorts.

Yes.

There's a little hyperbole here, clearly, but this is a really a really smart, charismatic person that has an expertise that is globally significant in men or women.

It's a woman.

Okay.

Okay.

Well, now, by Port Authority.

Yeah.

No guesses early.

Yeah, yeah.

Okay.

It can't be Tom Crowley there.

That's right, that's right.

Okay.

Right.

So it's not our go to not our go to.

Right.

Tom, the time continues to add your my messages in my calls.

Do we meet us?

Yeah.

All my edible arrangements have been sent into his home.

They're just rotting when I think about, like, speaking of rotting, Gretchen's yard, is almost prepped for season.

Almost.

Now.

The season was 20, 24.

In my defense, yeah, when I did snow early this year.

So, like, I said, my leaves.

Yeah.

So now that the snow is gone, the yard looks like I've got a question for you that Fern is out there in memoriam.

I think it's going to come back.

Yeah.

From the dead.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I see some little green buds out there.

And I really feel like with some of the cigaret butts from people have been painting your house.

People have gone by.

I mean, not so.

But you're saying with proper care, you believe that it could come back?

No.

It's like I don't believe that you have proven yourself capable of providing proper care.

Know to where it would come back.

No.

Normally I get the phone and then I bring it in for the winter.

But the snow came upon us and I just was unawares.

Yeah, it's 2024.

Yeah.

I also just let the pumpkins disintegrate.

Have you taken.

Yeah, have holiday decorations.

There's no thing holiday out there because they go out this year.

Yeah, it's a dead fern and a dead mom.

Yeah.

I've never got to Christmas.

It's just those are fall, fall and the Nutcracker is out standing century.

Yeah.

For close to a it's like a metal nutcracker.

But no, nothing.

It never came out this year.

What what is what is the spring cleaning for the like.

What does that look like for you guys?

Like, is it like you spend a day out in the yard and rake out the beds and flowers and do all that?

Or for me, it's googling spring cleanup, okay?

And finding what businesses come up to have them do it for me.

Yeah.

But then, yeah, I usually plant flowers.

I would put a little something spring out there and maybe even change the light bulb to a brighter, more.

Oh, yeah.

Look, it's mix it up.

I mean, do you want to go down the child labor love, issue again.

My dad always looking for ways to make money.

Sure.

Yeah.

They've been just.

They're desperate.

Yeah.

To find ways to make them better.

When she mowed the lawn for me because she wanted to get American Girl doll.

Yeah, that was when we did not have a, It was not a self-propelled.

Yeah, mower.

It was a push mower.

She mowed compared with the blades.

No.

No, not that old school.

I mean, it was still gas powered, but there was no power.

But, I mean, this was.

Yeah.

Four years ago.

Yeah.

She would have been like, eight.

Yeah, she was little.

This is the last time, Gretchen.

That's the one that she got the phone.

Yeah.

All right, all right.

When we come back, yes.

We find out who your surprise guest is.

Yes.

The big get air traffic controller.

Billions of people to the air.

Billions of of guess.

And a woman, billions of guests.

All right, so he clearly took issue with you saying people.

Yeah, he did.

All right.

Take issue with both things you say.

Well, that's fair.

All right.

When we come back, we'll find out who Matt's surprise guest is here on the 419.

Support for the 419 comes from Whetro Wealth Management, where we understand that your financial path is personal.

Advisory services are offered through capital investment advisory services LLC, securities offered through Capital Investment Group member Finra, SIPC.

More information at whetroadvisors.com The 419, powered by WGTE is made possible in part by supporters like you.

Thank you.

Introducing the local Fred, a community news series uniting voices and storytellers from across the region in partnership with La Prensa, the Toledo Free Press, the Sojourner Truth, Toledo Public School and Rethinking Jails injustice.

The local thread brings you stories and conversations that connect our community here at weeknights at seven on FM 91, with early access on podcast platforms each morning to local friend only on.

Welcome back into the 419.

Powered by our mystery guest.

And it's Matt's mystery guest.

And now I see why you took issue when Gretchen said 3 billion people.

Yes.

And you said billions.

Yes.

Yes.

Millions.

Yeah, yeah.

Billion.

Billions.

Billions of visitors.

Visitors.

Visitor.

Yes.

Tiny travelers visiting northwest Ohio.

Kim Coffman with the Black Swamp Bird Observatory.

So welcome.

Thank you for coming in.

I'm so excited to be here today.

Thank you so much, Kim.

At the risk of making you feel uncomfortable, I was introduced to you by friends of, all of ours.

Oh.

Probably.

Karen Fraker asked me to come with her to the Museum of Art.

To here.

And I just moved back, really to town, and she said, come and listen to the biggest week in birding.

And I do love Karen.

I was like, I guess we can birding.

And it you spoke, and it was, fascinating and, engaging and I'm embarrassed to say educational as well as somebody who grew up here.

And I have been a big fan ever since.

And, now we're a little more closely aligned based on my day job.

But I couldn't be more thrilled to have you here.

And again, we're going to talk about the stars of the show.

Right.

Eventually, which is the birds.

But I do want to talk about the people, because it doesn't happen all at once or on its own.

Because I'm a tool to win.

And I did not think it was the birding capital of the world.

And now I know it.

And more and more people do all the time.

So, great to have you on.

But I do want to start at the beginning.

Kim, when you were a little.

Kim.

Not the rapper.

That's a little.

Thank you.

But did you ever envision.

Where did you start?

Where are you from?

What was your entry point into the bird world?

Well, first, thank you so much, Matt.

That's so lovely of you.

And I'm so excited to be here today.

But, you know, I grew up on a little farm in Kerry, Ohio, and down in the edge of northwest Ohio.

And I grew up in the area era where we were outside all the time.

Our parents had to yell at us to come into the house, and we were exploring the woods and the little creek beside our house.

But somehow I just never connected with birds until my late 20s, not that long ago.

That's right, just a few years prior.

You're new to the game, are you king?

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

And I was at an appointment in Carrie, the little town near where I grew up.

And outside the window was this bird feeder.

And we didn't have a lot of money, so bird feeding wasn't even a concept.

I didn't even know it was a thing.

And, it was in the summer, and on every perch was a summer.

Male American goldfinch.

And if you don't know what that is, look it up.

Now.

Now I'm giving people homework today.

So, this is a show mostly to make people feel badly about themselves, so don't worry about that.

I'm right on track 100%.

So in the in the summer, the male goldfinches are this blazing yellow with black and white on their wings.

They're just extraordinarily beautiful and I said to the woman at the counter, oh my gosh, what are these birds?

They look like a scape canaries.

And she's like, yeah, those are goldfinches.

They're so common in Ohio that you put up a bird feeder.

They're the first birds that come.

And I'm not exaggerating when I say the entire course of my life changed in that moment because I thought, if if something this glorious has been out there around me in my whole life and I missed it, what else is out there?

Yeah.

And I haven't paused for a moment since then to try to figure that out.

That that's amazing.

I mean, it is.

I mean, it's fascinating that, like, I mean, as you're saying this, I'm thinking like, man, I've overlooked all of it.

It all the time, right?

I mean, I mean, how much of the beauty around us do we just kind of gloss right over?

But to have that, that kind of moment and then go, all right, well, now I want to go find all of it.

I also I'm curious, what foster that ability and certainly.

Okay.

Although I know that you want to say this, to say that it was truly generated by you, but the other individuals that talked to you about this, that was just the background to them, right?

I mean, they're like, oh, yeah, you threw up a bird feeder.

But this was an moment to you.

Did your folks or siblings foster this kind of thing?

Was there some was there a and a thought of entrepreneurship or ingenuity or just our artistic flair like you, you were this was a vector a moment for you?

It was it, but it was an instant obsession.

I just was consumed with trying to figure out what these birds and what else was out there.

And for my family, it it was, they're very supportive.

It's a very close knit, loving family.

And I managed to drag my family into it.

And like, I'm going, I have to go out and see what else, you know.

Where else do you go look for birds?

I don't even know where to go to find birds.

Just the basic principles I had I didn't understand, but also it made it really easy at holidays and birthdays because it's like, oh, we can buy any bird thing.

Yeah.

So I think, I think my record was 17 bird clocks, the singing bird clocks.

Oh my gosh.

And every time I was like, this is so wonderful.

Thank you so much.

I put in the closet, we discovered, but I think that they're all hung.

The cacophony of yeah, puppy.

Yeah, has bird clocks all through the night.

Anybody who Poppy is, my wife's grandfather.

Yeah.

And huge fan of the show.

But he's literally every morning, is out the door before grandma is even awake with his camera taking pictures of.

You've got, photo somewhere that he took, at one of the parks of, I don't know, Eagle.

Hawk, goldfinch, I don't know.

Kevin has a real expertise.

Pretty soon you can hear it.

Yeah.

And, Yeah, it's right behind the ears.

Yeah.

What what is that?

That's, Eagles.

Oh, yeah.

That's a bald eagle.

There you go, a bald eagle.

See, I'm American.

I know you know what you're talking.

But but that's that's right.

Yes.

It's not that.

Okay.

What were you at the time that you had this like goldfinch.

Moment.

What were you doing then?

Question I owned a small of a successful home, an office cleaning business.

I had employees, all these clients.

Yeah I did, yeah.

And honestly, I said to myself, I can't work, I can't work, I have to go out, look at these birds.

Yeah, because it's done.

So I sold off the business and just plunged headlong into this world of birds starting in my backyard.

I left that appointment that day and drove straight to this.

It was a grain elevator where they also sold bird seeds and feeders, and I, I literally left there, drove there, bought the feeder, went home and sat down and watch this feeder out the window like, okay, when did my bird show up?

And it happened really quickly.

Within a couple of days, the bird started to arrive.

And then it was like, what's that?

What's that?

Kim, what is the fine line between what you're describing and psychosis?

Yeah.

Which which sure.

The middle line between the wellness checks done.

I'm not sure.

That line.

Yes.

I mean, it really does.

Our true bolt of lightning region really was.

And, I love that area.

I love the community and how people care about each other and help each other.

But for a young woman without a college degree, my opportunities were limited.

To say the least.

You know, my my path forward is pretty dictated to me by, you know, by the world around me.

And birds became a purpose in life.

Eventually, as I was out exploring and someone said, oh, there's a there's a bald eagle nest not too far from between your house and Tiff.

And I'm like, listen, there are no bald eagles around here.

I would have known.

Yeah, they wouldn't come.

Well, so I drove up and here's this massive mess.

I'm like, oh my God, they're bald eagles.

Yeah.

And I spent hours obsessing, watching every move these birds made just to learn.

And I was so fascinated by it.

And the wildlife officer for that county eventually sees me out there every day.

And he says, you know, cam, there's this volunteer program that the Division of Wildlife hosts and you could sign up and all this information you're collecting could add to the database.

So you were collecting information about the journal, what you're writing.

I'm just trying to figure it out.

And the person in charge of that Mark shield Castle for the Ohio Division of Wildlife was one of the founders of Black Swamp Bird Observatory.

Okay.

And very quickly, he realized we have a we have a willing victim here.

Yes.

Right.

He says, cam, you should come up and visit our bird banding research station up here in northwest Ohio.

And I the moment I stepped foot in that area, I, I knew I had found my people, my purpose.

Like, this is what I was meant to do.

And I've been with the organization ever since.

Cam data is that that transaction or that communication was when, Oh, gosh, I'm so terrible.

About time.

Oh, sure.

Well, birds don't carry a they, mid 1990s.

Okay.

All right.

Got it.

And so this is 1997.

Gotcha.

I recently became obsessed with the the live cam.

They had on the Eagle Nest in California, which was so terribly interesting.

But that's another story.

This, this obsession with birds and are in the life of birds also led you to your husband did it, not did.

And your husband is also a very much of a bird authority.

Can you talk a little bit about him and about how you guys met him?

This is what happens.

I bring a guest on, who is fascinating, and I have a whole set of things I want to get to.

And then these two, I. This is interesting.

How is that not a good question?

It's a great question.

Was one of my questions.

Oh, sorry.

Oh hang on, I wish I could replace them with birds.

Oh I ask your question.

Gretchen said it better.

Yeah.

This is a great.

This is at the risk of making you feel in control.

This is a beautiful part of the story to me.

Also, there is nothing uncomfortable about talking about Ken.

Yeah.

Ken Kaufman, my husband, is a world renowned bird expert, and he's, I would even say that he's a beloved figure in the international birding community because he's just such a great person, a great human being, a great teacher.

He's an expert that shares his knowledge so generously and so graciously with every person he's ever met.

And when I first started birding, I was buying everything related to birds, every bird guide, and just trying to figure it out.

And one of the first field guides to birds that I bought was Ken Kaufman's Field Guide to the Birds of North America, and I coveted it.

I carried it everywhere.

I wore it out, and eventually I as I got more into birding, I realized, you can you can travel.

There are other birders out there and there are birding catalogs.

Yeah, I'm not alone.

Yeah.

So in my family, we didn't aspire to travel.

I remember in high school, my friends and I drove across the Indiana state line like they doing.

It was like that.

Yeah.

So, I learned about the Texas Tropics Bird and Nature Festival.

So I booked a commercial flight, and that turned into Coachella and of Tropic.

All right.

Yep.

Yeah.

And, you know, rented a car.

The whole thing, I was just I felt so cosmopolitan.

I was.

And off to Texas I go.

And the first field trip in Texas with all of these exotic looking birds, I was I was to say I was excited as I was obnoxious.

Sure I was.

So I get on the bus and the field trip is supposed to be led by father Tom Pacelli, who is a priest in the the Rio Grande Valley, who's done.

He's an amazing birder, and he's done an incredible job of marketing birding tourism in that region.

So I get on the bus and I'm waiting for this priest, and I'm towards the back, and I have this coffin field guide in my lap, and this guy climbs on the bus, very handsome.

Doesn't hurt.

And I remember thinking, oh boy, what a waste that that guy's a priest because he's really handsome.

Sure.

And he gets the mic because it's a big bus.

We just lost half of our faith based on the the.

No, no, it's just right.

It's part of the plan.

Yeah, yeah, it's it's this is a true story.

Yes.

And so the guy gets the mic and he says, good morning everybody.

And there's a deep voice.

And father Tom couldn't make it today.

His boss called him to, to do something else today.

And I'm Ken Kaufman and I'll be leading your field trip.

And there's fawning media.

And I look down at my book and I flipped it over, and I saw Ken's picture, and I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm on a field trip with Ken.

Oh, and and the rest of the day at that point, I was really immersed in the science of what we were doing at Black Swamp, out banding birds in the marsh, collecting scientific data.

And I went out into the field with Ken that day, and I watched him just weave the spell around every person on that field trip engaging them, helping to teach them like, here's this bird and getting making sure that they saw every bird.

And I thought, that's what I want to do.

I want to help people fall in love with birds and share this gift that I've received with as many people as I can.

I came back to Ohio and said, I want to be the education director.

Yeah.

So Ken really, he changed the course of my life and we definitely hit it off.

Yes, we had some moments.

But it was several years later, on the 10th anniversary of Black Swamp Bird Observatory, when we invited Ken to be our keynote speaker.

And this is become kind of a famous story in the birding community.

But, it was February in Columbus, Ohio, and we the best time to visit Columbus.

Oh, of course.

Yeah.

Got to be and to go birding.

Yes, ma'am.

So he gives a keynote that was absolutely magical on Saturday night, Sunday morning we go on this field trip, and by the end of it, I thought, I don't know what's happening, but I think I love this guy and we're getting ready to leave.

And I thought, you know, he's going to go and I'm never going to see him again.

And I thought, how do I how do I make him more aware of me?

I just made a big snowball.

And Ken had on this rain type jacket and I bombed him with the snowball.

Hit him right between the shoulder blades.

Whack.

Yeah.

And all the older baseball volunteer people were aghast that he struck the leader.

Kim just hit Ken Kaufman with the snowball, but Ken instantly gathered up a big snowball, and we were in a ten minute snowball fight.

And it just then he left.

He just left.

And we both were thinking about each other, and eventually we reconnected.

And so birds and snowballs are very significant.

And what a loss.

That is a beautiful story.

I've got a to two questions to go back just a second and a time and space when people are.

Or you can have the world's best cup of coffee which is made out of nowhere.

Do you mind telling us that Ken is globally recognized?

Can you talk a little bit about what that means and his impact on literally the planet, but provide some context for that if you don't mind.

Ken spent a great deal of his early adult life traveling and leading tours for various companies and establish contacts with birding in the birding community all around the world.

And just once you get to know him, you see that he's just so wonderful and gracious, and beginners will come up and ask a question, a very basic question.

And he always treats it with respect.

And he's given lectures all around the world on a ship in the Antarctic.

On a riverboat in Peru.

I mean, he's he's an incredible bird expert.

He's a talented bird artist.

He's an incredible painter.

He's an author of more than a dozen books on birds and nature.

But he's a great teacher.

Yeah.

I've learned so much from Ken, and I've watched him teach so many others.

And so his impact, for instance, when we got married and we were talking about where to go on a honeymoon, he called a lodge in the Amazon basin of Ecuador and they're like, oh my God, is this the Ken Kaufman like you've called Ecuador?

Yeah.

So he has his reputation is based on skill, knowledge and just being such a genuine gracious.

I'm hearing the birding is for single people.

That's what I'm taking away from this.

I have a story, I follow up, and I think you just scratch the surface of it.

And we're done talking about Ken Shirley here and talking about the real story.

We'll talk about him all day.

I'm.

I'm happy to talk about him as much as you like.

But again, both of you are unique to me in this way.

And this is a generalization, but in my experience, people that are, focused on a thing or are clinical about it don't always have this skill set, the ability to translate it to people or make it inclusive.

Right?

Yeah.

And it isn't their fault either.

Right.

There is an area of sophistication or people think it's a class thing or or intimidated by, not fitting in.

What makes both of you in if you want to talk about him because that's more comfortable, that's certainly fine.

But point you make this approachable and make people feel welcome on a global, in a global way.

What makes you both uniquely good at the inclusion part about this?

That's a great question, Matt.

And I, I think it's, I could go in many directions of this, but I think to just whittle it down to the most simple, philosophy is that birds have brought so much joy and wonder and curiosity to my life and to cans, that we want everyone to at least have the opportunity to experience that, and to feel that joy and that excitement and the wonder of not just what birds look like, because they're beautiful and they're intensely alive.

When you see a migratory bird this spring that's coming back, that's some of them that have made extraordinary journeys weighing less than this pen birds, a bird called the Blackpool warbler and fall will move south, then east to the eastern seaboard and leap off and fly over the Atlantic Ocean for 80 hours nonstop.

A bird that weighs less than a pen.

Once you start to know birds and enter that world, it's endlessly fascinating.

And the other reason is that bird populations are in serious decline.

Habitat loss is happening around the world.

We want people to fall in love with birds because people care the most about the things that they love, and if they love birds, they are now invested in supporting habitat conservation.

We're talking with Kim Coffman with the Black Swamp Bird Observatory.

We're gonna take a break.

When we come back, I want to talk about the origin story of the biggest week in birding, because to some extent, the birds decided this.

But I also think, Kim, you decided this time we're encouraging it as well.

And so we'll hear that story.

We come back and that's how the break here on the 419.

To me, community means connecting to others.

I'm Dani Miller and welcome to the Point.

I lost it yesterday.

We're a community committed to education.

Discover new ideas, dive into exciting subjects, and engage with the world around you.

I would send them personally a t shirt.

Crime doesn't pay in the old West End.

Pass it on.

That's how we cleaned up the neighborhood.

Vision loss for people is not the end.

It's the story.

It's the next chapter.

There we go.

Public media invites you to get out and play day.

Monday through Friday.

It's the 419 powered by W GT with Matt Gillum, Gretchen de Backer, I'm Kevin Mullen.

What can people expect on the show?

Give me an hour.

A reminder of why this is a great place to live, work and play.

Where you come to watch, listen and learn.

Welcome back into the 419.

We're talking with Matt's mystery guest, Kim Kaufman from the Black Swamp Bird Observatory.

The biggest week in birding is right around the corner.

Birds are probably already starting their journey to northwest Ohio.

Let's let's back up.

Like, first of all, what is and why is this the biggest week in birding?

Well, you're right, Kevin Spring migration has already started.

The vanguards of bird migration are here.

The Redwing blackbirds, the sound of their calls are out in the marsh now.

It's it's happening.

And we're very excited.

And you ask about the biggest week in American birding.

And on paper, the biggest week is a ten day birding festival in early May, and it's timed to coincide with the peak of songbird migration through the area.

It offers something for birders of every skill level.

Whether you're an expert or you have never gone out birding before, we make that entry point as easy and warm and welcoming as you will ever experience anywhere in the world.

And there are workshops, van trips, field trips led by expert guides that will take you all around northwest Ohio to all these great birding areas that we have.

There are so many places to go out and enjoy birding in Northwest Ohio.

It's just such a magical place.

And where are they just for the most basic level, where are they coming from and going to, the Columbus, Ohio birds or the the birds?

The birds, I know you expect so in spring, these migratory birds.

And I'll focus on songbirds for the purpose of this and talking about biggest week because the songbirds are the stars of the show, many of these birds are spending the winter in Central and South America and making these long journeys north towards their breeding grounds.

There are some birds that will, winter in the southern part of the U.S, but the bulk of them are in Central and South America.

And their political beliefs?

Yes, exactly.

How long is the journey?

It varies.

In spring there are three general routes that migratory birds are taking.

The first part that that skirts the Gulf and comes up through the coast of Texas, the second we call them the trans Gulf migrants.

And again, these are tiny birds weighing less than an ounce that will move up to the tip of the Yucatan Peninsula and leap off across the Gulf for 18 hours nonstop.

And we know that ruby throated hummingbirds, some of them make this flight.

So when we see a tiny ruby throated hummingbird weighing 3.5g, it's it barely registers, that can do that, that can cross the Gulf in a nonstop flight.

I mean, all hail to human being elsewhere, come what may also be an unintelligent question, but why are they doing it?

It's there are no unintelligent questions at all.

Well, we'll prove that wrong is a question that that, still, I think is not completely understood when it's food and nesting areas.

So many of these birds like the shorebirds for example, are going to go up into the tundra of Canada in Alaska, where they'll breed out on the open tundra.

But food, a lot of these are insect eaters.

And so they're they're moving back and forth for the abundance of food and the openness of habitat that's available in Central and South America.

So those areas of a vast vegetation provide the habitat and the food source that they need to survive the winter.

And they are making extraordinary journeys.

There's a bird called a bar tailed Godward.

It's a big shorebird.

It's the longest nonstop flight of any animal in the world.

They fly nonstop for more than 8000 miles from Alaska to New Zealand.

And one flight, they.

You're kidding.

They build up, they double their body weight, feeding on insects and things.

And then, they during the flight, they shrink their internal organs like the digestive organs because they don't eat obviously, and regrow those organs when they reach the wintering ground.

That's insane.

It's it's just that's what I mean about birds.

Yeah.

The more you're into it, the more fascinating it becomes and the more drawn into it you are.

But when that happens, generally, I as an outsider, that that also comes with it, some annoyance at the folks that are like, I almost feel like, you know, when you show up late to the bar and everybody else is already drunk, you're just annoyed with everybody, right?

And so when you come into this and I know nothing about birds, and I'm bringing my kids who know nothing about birds, and we don't know the etiquette, we don't know the rules, we don't know what we're looking for or listening for.

And then we show up with the foremost bird experts in the world.

I got to believe that, like, what makes that a welcoming environment?

That we're not annoying?

Well, first of all, the birding community itself is a community.

And just a second, you're bringing your children to a bar.

Yeah.

Late.

Late.

Yeah.

We go.

Yeah.

After hours.

Yeah, but 1:30 a.m.. I'm sorry.

I just keep, you know.

Yeah, yeah.

Because your kids don't do it.

They're.

My kids are already drunk.

So what am I going to say?

Please, God, please, please start talking.

Please can be drunk on nature.

Yeah, that God will do so good.

Can you be on the show?

Yeah.

Yes you do.

Can you be on the show every day?

I promise you that if you bring your family, our kids of any age, that you will be welcomed into this community in a way that will will just you, that you'll never forget.

That's part of the appeal, I think, is how warm and welcoming the birding community is.

And it's human nature when you think about it, birds are like these little gems.

They're so colorful and, they sing incredible songs.

And when you see something like that, the first instinct is to share it with someone and show them like, look what I look, what I found, look at this treasure that I've discovered.

And also right from the start, from the very start, as we were planning the bird observatory, put together a conservation business plan.

We built it over two years.

This is such a. I'm going to go off on a tangent.

Please cut me off.

Okay.

We moved into our modest little building at the entrance to Magee Marsh Wildlife Area, which is now.

We've built this into one of the most iconic birding destinations on the continent.

And at that point in 2006, no one was traveling here to go birding.

I shouldn't say no one.

Very few people were traveling here.

Local people came out and we saw a need and an opportunity and a need to build a marketing campaign that was built around sharing this, this incredible birding opportunity with people and also building support for habitat conservation with elected officials and decision makers.

And there was a lot of work to do because the tourism season didn't kick off until a month later.

So we need to get it.

We needed to build an entire suite of services for birders that didn't exist, weren't even birding area maps.

Nothing for for visiting birders and the business community.

We needed it to reach hotels and small businesses to say you need people coming month earlier, we're going to bring a huge audience.

And so we built all these things into it.

And then Ken, my husband Ken, was writing for every birding magazine in the country.

So when we had things in place, Ken started to write about birding during spring migration, and it was as if the collective birding community turned towards the northwest Ohio and said, what?

Birding in northwest Ohio?

It was the best kept secret on a global scale.

And I want to tell you can and I have traveled inverted all over the world and the birding.

There's no place else I would rather be in spring migration.

I love it right here.

And that speaks to the importance of the habitat.

We must we must be good stewards of this habitat and protect, conserve and expand habitat for birds.

Any opportunity that we get, because we are the vital connecting point for these birds from the rainforest where they spend the winter, to the tundra and other places, the boreal forest where they're nesting without us, without the wooded habitat on the lake shore in Ohio, we we can impact the global population of some birds if we don't continue to be proper.

So what is something that just your average resident of our region can do to support that conservation?

I know that there was an ordinance passed, at least in the city of Toledo, about the time frame and the buildings over a certain height, turning lights off, because that confuses them and their flight pattern.

But what what are what is something else that just, you know, Kevin's family, what can Kevin's kids do?

So support sites getting to know.

It's almost as if we scripted this because the perfect segue is coffee it.

You don't have to be a bird expert.

You don't have to go lobby Congress to impact bird conservation or habitat conservation.

It can be as simple as the cup of coffee that you choose in the morning, because the way coffee was historically grown was under the shade of native trees.

It's a shrub, coffee is a shrub.

And now big companies have learned that they can bulldoze those native trees, the forest and plant coffee in the row in rows in the sun.

They douse it with chemicals.

So when you're selecting what coffee to buy, I want you to search bird friendly or shade grown coffee.

If you pick the right coffee, you can impact bird conservation.

There are so many ways on on the Bird Observatories website.

Under the conservation tab, there's a dropdown thing with an entire list of simple things people can do in their daily life to support bird conservation.

What happens if it doesn't work?

We're speaking with Kim Kaufman from the Black Swamp, bird Observatory.

What happens if the if the, if they don't work, if they if they continue, if their habitat continues to decline or the population continues to decline, what happens to the rest of the ecosystem?

Well, birds, you know, we talk a lot about the business of birds, the the economic impact and how much they bring to our lives.

But we need birds.

Birds provide important ecosystem services, like the first thing is keeping the insect population in balance.

They pollinate plants, they disperse seeds.

They they disperse seeds that become forests.

So the ecosystem services are vitally important to not just the health of bird populations, but to our health, the entire environment.

We are all in this together.

Some of th statistics here are incredible.

And I'm I'm always learning every time we interact with some birds because we are somewhat in the same business.

Although I'm certainly a piker.

Comparatively, how many little travelers are there annually?

Estimated?

You know, it's hard to quantify the total number of birds that migrate through this region.

But the really cool thing is that they they migrate in massive enough numbers that they show up on weather radar.

That's right.

And many years ago, we reached out to the local television stations, to the meteorologists, particularly talk about, Ross Elliott and Ross has become a really good friend.

And we said to Ross, you know, the birds show up on weather radar and there's a way to track this.

And he was onboard immediately.

So cool.

And a lot of the other stations now are also they'll they'll not just air the weather forecast during the biggest week in American birding.

There will be a biggest week in American birding.

Birding for a migration forecast.

Well, I love it.

Is it high, low, medium.

And you can look at their weather patterns that the birds take advantage of to save energy.

We know when the wind is right.

And it's there's a southwest wind overnight.

So we should talk about the nocturnal migration, the songbirds.

We know if there'll be a big pulse of birds.

And that's based on more than 30 years of spring and fall banding research, where our staff and volunteers are right out in the marsh.

We set up these big nets.

They're called mist nets, and they're about 12ft high, 42ft long, and the birds can't see them in the vegetation.

So they they they gently are swept into these pockets and our staff will extract they take all these measurements, they put a little band on their leg and then they're released.

So for 30 years we've been doing that and we understand that there's a timing, a rhythm, a predictable rhythm to migration, where in the first wave of migrants we know that these birds will be in that wave, these species in the second wave and in the third wave.

And so it's it's so the science of it is so fascinating too.

But billions.

Yeah, billions of birds not just pass over northwest Ohio but are dropping down into the habitat on the lakeshore.

And so that's why there are so many there are so many ways that we can work together to make the passage safer for birds.

I don't know that this question has a definitive answer, but it is probably just a given that they know where they're going, but there isn't.

They're not following a map.

You don't get a triptych if you remember what those were, which dates me.

But, do we have any idea how these little, buggers know where they're heading or what their approach?

And how long is your show?

Yeah, that's good.

Some people feel like it's.

It never ends.

Yep.

This is part one.

Yeah.

That's right.

This is so fascinating.

If we could fly, if humans could fly, we could migrate the way the waterfowl, the ducks and swans do.

Because the adults teach the young the route and they migrate during the day using visual landmarks.

Okay.

But when you start to talk about songbirds, it's almost like science fiction, because these birds, first of all, they migrate at night.

They and we know from scientific studies that they migrate using celestial navigation.

So they know the star patterns.

And that's something like a little what we call it's a family of birds called warblers.

And we'll talk more about that.

But I mentioned Blackpool warbler earlier, this bird that makes this journey, this 80 hour journey, songbirds hatch out instinctively knowing where and when to migrate.

The adults don't show the young the way.

They don't migrate together and communicate like, hey, come this way.

So this little black warbler, some of them will hatch out up in the air, all the way up in the Yukon Territory.

And maybe they'll stay around the nest when they fled, when they leave the nest with the adults for a month or two.

And then some nights when the sky is clear and the winds are right, this little bird that weighs less than a ballpoint pen will take off on this extraordinary journey, and just know that they'll come down through the Lake Erie marshes in northwest Ohio.

We band a huge number of black hole warblers.

The marshes are so vital to the global population.

Then move to the eastern seaboard and then make this journey.

So every black pole warbler that we see this spring has made that journey and back at least once.

That's amazing.

That's a talking with Kim Kaufmann with the Black Swan Bird Observing Bird Observatory.

I have a crazy idea.

Okay, I want to do Kim run in in lieu of Gretchen's wacky look at the time.

Let's just do a bird quiz.

Boy, we're talking about songbirds, so let's do.

Oh, I'm going to play some bird sounds, and we're going to let you three battle it out to see if they're going to get it right.

You might as well, Kim.

You might as well give Matt and Gretchen a shot at this first.

I mean, so they can get it wrong, and then you'll give us the right answer.

It is.

All right.

Here we go.

Here's bird number one.

Oh, hang on, I love my volume's up.

I turned it down for TV.

Here we go.

So that is obviously a duck.

That.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that is a morning dove.

What in the world is happening over there?

You cheaters!

Cheaters.

All right, Kim wrote it down.

Nailed it.

Matt.

All right.

Oh.

Yeah.

Here we go.

That's a common.

That's a red bird.

Are you?

Good for you, Gretchen.

I mean, that's that's not the actual name.

Northern Cardinal, for those of you that are relatively cardinals are my favorite.

Kim wrote down my answer.

Gretchen.

Actually, I did actually.

All right, here we go.

Independent.

Oops.

I referenced this one earlier.

That's a macaw.

It's a well known parrot that flies around.

It's a McCaul.

It's a McCaul.

You're wrong.

Oh, man.

Okay, Gretchen, get him a red wing.

Blackbird.

Red wing.

That is right.

All right, here we go.

Let's do two more.

Okay.

Oh!

Oh, this is good.

That's a wolf.

That's a wolf.

Matt.

Boy, I have no idea.

Okay.

Openings is a great place.

Oh, no.

I'm very, Tell me what's great when you're a barred owl.

That's got to be okay.

Yeah, that's what I knew.

This isn't known.

That was an owl.

I knew this was me.

Humiliating.

All right, here we go.

And one of my favorite birds of all time.

Okay, mainly because I am wildly immature.

Okay, here we go.

And you already know what?

I bet I know what you're going to say.

Yeah, right.

Oh.

Wow.

That.

Actually, I might be stumped.

Play it again.

Did you make it up?

I don't know that I can do that.

You made that sound all your own.

That's right.

I did that on my own.

All right, hang on.

This is.

This is.

Oh, I know this is.

It's a crow.

Tufted titmouse.

It is the tufted titmouse.

Yes.

Taste it.

Yep.

I thought it needed to either be the tufted titmouse or the American woodcock, which is an incredible bird that people travel here from all over the world.

We've got we're wrapping up, we could do this all day.

And, I mean, that's that's really quickly.

Kim is is there one moment or one bird that you came across that was that is a favorite moment.

You know, that obviously the American goldfinch was what we call my spark bird.

But my favorite thing now is seeing others sure find that bird.

That moment for the first time, and seeing that joy and being part of it.

People.

All right, go ahead, people, and find more information on the biggest week in birding, the Black Swan Bird Reserve.

Where do they find it?

The Black Swan Bird Observatory website is the best place to go.

It's BSB, o dawg and all that.

That's a good jumping off point to find information about biggest week and traveling here and all kinds of things.

Give me the best.

Thank you so much for being so much.

Thank you.

You're amazing.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

When we come back, we'll talk to Dave Castle miner here from Wjct about one of the cool new programs coming to your ears.

Talk about songbirds.

That's right.

We'll be right back on the 419.

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Welcome back into the 419.

We're joined now by Dave Miner from the Toledo Jazz Youth Orchestra.

And no, Matt, we are not going to do an orchestra quiz, but I will be participating in this segment then.

Yeah, play random instruments and make you guess what?

It's so good.

Yeah.

We're just play the.

Is this woodwind or string?

Yep.

Make it really easy for you.

That's right.

Yeah I think you could do that.

Dave, thanks so much for joining us.

Thanks for having me.

What is the Toledo Youth always.

Jazz youth orchestra.

Perfect.

I know it's a mouthful.

So the Toledo Jazz Youth Orchestra is is a new, ensemble that's been created through, Toledo Live Arts and Toledo Live Arts is now the, the recently rebranded name for the organization we've known as Tapa.

You know, because there's been a, a really significant effort in terms of arts in Toledo to try and, and, increase viability and, and, and, be intentional about, I think promoting arts in northwest Ohio.

So the symphony has come under that, that auspice that ballet is under there.

That little symphony school of music is now officially under that lens.

All right.

And in fact, the organization used to be over at the old professional building, you know, on on Monroe Street, Monroe Street in Woodruff, maybe, or something like this or Jefferson.

There we go.

Monroe and Jefferson and, and they they recently, acquired the space, at the very end of the Stranahan.

All right.

So over on Heather downs and, and so that organization has now also, envelop the Pluto Jazz Orchestra under its umbrella.

And I think in, in additional discussions since the youth orchestras that used to be used to work, I think somewhat with Toledo Public Schools have have now fallen under under the symphony and now Toledo Live Arts.

They said you know, we've got the Toledo Jazz Orchestra as part of our entity.

And it would be important to then continue this education initiative.

All right.

But now, to do this under the Toledo Live Arts Lands and in conjunction with Tjl.

So that's essentially what happened.

And so it's, it's it's a new thing.

There have been permutations of this that existed years ago.

I mean, I remember when I was in high school, you know, I mean, people were doing, you know, you know, they were there was an offshoot of this group that was, that was run, and, and it sort of kind of went by the wayside.

And I think, I think Zach Vasser felt that it was, hey, we should probably make sure that we're we're, promoting education of all the musical endeavors that, you know, we as an organization is trying to do.

The conductor, Elaine Trudel is is is in is in both.

And he is a jazz.

Me a well known jazz musician, but is also the conductor of the symphony.

So I'm sure that he had something to do also with.

Oh, absolutely.

Yeah.

I mean, I like Elaine's great.

Okay.

And you say that and no, he does not make me say that, you know, those Canadians are they, you know, you know, with an iron fist, I'm telling you.

Yeah.

All right.

But, no, it's funny because I, I only played under him.

I think maybe once I did some random concert, like, something was at the peristyle for.

What do you play?

I play trumpet, that's my primary instrument.

What's the secondary instrument?

Oh, gosh.

A ton of different things, but it's a long distance, you know, the ego game, usually piano.

Yeah.

All right.

Is a trumpet a, wood, wind, brass or string?

Dave, this is what I have to deal with on a daily basis.

Just answer the question.

You know, it's all of the things, all the money.

It's it's the.

It makes sound the way I play it go.

Right?

Yeah, I don't mind.

Let's bring myself to I'm not going to classify that important instrument into one can do the segregation.

Let's see what I mean.

They're just short thinkers, right?

Yeah.

Dave, other than misspelling your name terribly, I'm going to put you on the spot here, okay?

Sure.

Now, running an animal house, out in the south into Toledo.

Who?

The most unruly person underneath that tent.

Is it the ballet?

Are you constantly warring with them to get their act together?

You know, actually.

Well, the ballet is usually.

They're usually our students rehearsing about the time we get there.

But, you know, insufferable.

But they're on the other side of the building.

All right.

You know, so, you know, we just hear the the gentle rumble of our feet.

Yeah.

But do you talk about that?

You mentioned that this is something that was sort of, hedged at or nipped at prior, but this is a triumphant, connection or an amalgam of all the arts in our area.

You've been around a little while.

If this is working and it's exciting.

Do you mind putting some context into that?

Well, I think I think what's important is, that we have this organization that I think they realize that we've had all these independent groups in Toledo for a long time.

And I think they realized that we could have more impact.

And, and in some aspects, there's a lot of overdub that happens, you know, I mean, there's so much advocacy that's required to get arts organizations to function.

And they thought, gee, you know, maybe we could use some of the, administrative machinery that might exist for some of these other organizations to actually promote and benefit these things.

And part of that includes their education wing.

You know, and so there's already this, this mechanism in place, you know, for training future musicians in Toledo and Northwest Ohio.

And so I think they said, well, geez, now we need to not only do this with the classical musicians with with not only the Academy where they can, or the school of music, where they can take their private lessons, and with the youth orchestras where they have ensembles to perform and.

All right, but then also into the realm of jazz and it's it's a natural, it's a natural partnership because now the tjo falls under that.

What is the, age group for these, for the kids in the youth and the jazz youth Orchestra.

And how do they get into it?

Is it an audition process?

Yeah, that's a great question.

And in fact, one of the, one of the things that happened when the when, when I interviewed for the job because I wasn't necessarily expecting to do something else.

I'm pretty busy as a performer and educator and whatnot.

And, one of my pals called me randomly, you know, one evening and said, hey, there's this new thing opening up, and I think you'd be really good to do it.

And I thought, oh, man, but the more I thought about it, I said, I felt that, the opportunity to help grow this in my community.

Cause, I mean, I'm from Toledo, you know, I live in the old West End.

I'm a big Toledo fan.

I live in the West End.

All right.

Excellent.

There we go.

We're neighbors.

How about that?

All right.

And, So the opportunity to do this here in Toledo really spoke to me.

But the, what happened is, they said, well, you know, you're going to have to recruit.

And they thought, well, how many students you think you can get?

You know, you can get maybe, you know, 7 or 10.

I thought, heck, we're going to have a whole band.

Are you kidding me?

Yeah.

You know, so so basically part of part of my job was to, essentially strongarm all of my friends to teach in the school systems, you know, call up band directors to say, hey, I need you to send me your students because we're going to have a full band.

And so we do.

I mean, we've got four trumpets, we've got four trombones, he's got five saxes, we've got a flute player that happened out of the blue, you know, again, someone calls, said, hey, my daughter is is working.

You know, already does some jazz and one of these combos at school.

Would you consider adding a flute?

And I said, heck yeah.

So yeah, cool and full rhythm section.

So we've got I've got almost a 20 piece big band.

That's what's age.

So it's it's primarily high school.

I think I have one student that might be in in seventh or eighth grade.

Is there plan or are there plans for a, for the orchestra to perform places?

Oh, absolutely.

Yeah.

I mean, we rehearse every Wednesday night over at the center for Live Arts, which is that the name for that new facility that they've got?

And they've they've really done a really cool job.

Amazing.

Yes.

Yeah.

I mean, they've got great practice rooms and rehearsal spaces and office spaces and gathering spaces.

But we're going to have a concert on, this is going to be April.

I have to look at my notes April 26th, which is a Sunday at 4 p.m.. And the Bob Bell did it.

Well, Robert Bell, you know, studio great man.

So yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Can oh why is this important.

Why is i important.

What's hugely importa Because number one, the arts are important.

Yes, sir.

Okay.

And education is important.

All right.

And and the arts are one of these things that, I mean, not only do do do we just we we understand who we are as humans.

You know, there's I, I can't quite paraphrase the Churchill quote, you know, but, you know, if when you're fighting, this show isn't built on accuracy, you know, so fine.

But but if we're not fighting for the arts, what are we fighting for?

Yes, sir.

You know, that's a great way to segue up.

Thank you very much.

We're talking with Dave Cass Minor from the Toledo Jazz Youth Orchestra.

If people want information, where can they find it?

They can find it if they go to Toledo Live Arts.

And we should be able to, have all the information about concerts and whatnot.

Awesome.

Dave, thank you so much.

Appreciate your time on the program.

When we come back, we'll wrap up this Friday edition of the 419.

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Welcome back into the 419 as we wrap up this Friday edition, Mets surprise guest Kim Coffman flew in and flew out.

And Jake Winter nailed it.

Kevin.

Good bird.

I asked her, as she was leaving if we were birds.

Yes.

What birds would we be?

And she gave you the middle finger?

She gave me the bird.

That's exactly right.

No, no, no, she said, Matt, you would be.

You say a red winged blackbird.

Yes.

Because of the personality.

Because there be a Gretchen.

You would be.

Yes, I would be a swan.

Yeah.

I was hoping you'd be the sweetie.

Yeah.

No, no.

And then, she said that I was the majestic bald eagle.

Yeah.

Which I think is a shot at my hair.

I think that's what that is.

I think it's because you seem like a Republican.

Okay, well, guys, back to the show.

If you missed, I can feel the walls trembling.

Yes.

More funds get rerouted, man.

If you missed any part of the show, there's three great opportunities to enjoy it.

Of course.

7 a.m.

on YouTube, 3 p.m.

on FM 91 in Toledo, Brian Defiance of Lima and 6 p.m.

on WGR connects channel 30.4.

Of course, always online at GT Dawgs, the 419.

Or you can download the new GTA app.

It's awesome Matt nice job on bringing cam in.

Yeah, not enough time for either one of them, which is becoming thematic for our guests.

And another highlight of what a great place this is to live, work and play.

She's lights out, her husband is lights out.

But just as importantly, the region is does what it does and always has.

It's time to celebrate appropriately, and I feel the need to go back and talk to my wife about the way she talks about me in public.

Because.

Man.

Right?

Yeah.

Kim is still funny.

Yeah, but he's actually amazing.

Yeah.

So that's a oh, that's your.

Wow.

Yeah.

That is, I've got the producer in my ear laughing at that one.

Yeah.

That's great.

She got there on the.

Hey, thanks for joining us.

Thanks to Kim Coffman.

Thanks to Dave Cross Miami, thanks to you for joining us.

It's the 419 powered by CTE and presented by Retro Wealth Management.

The 419, powered by WGTE is made possible in part by supporters like you.

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