730DC’s Not a Swamp: Interview with birder Tykee James
In the summer guide, I highlighted some places and resources to enjoy birding in D.C. D.C. has a wide range of habitats, so it’s full of great birds, and subsequently full of great birders, including Tykee James, who has been birding since high school and now works to connect people, policies, and birds. He’s the government affairs coordinator for the National Audubon Society and serves on the board of directors for the DC Audubon Society. He’s also the host of a political wildlife conservation podcast called On Word for Wildlife.
730DC: What’s cool about your job?
TJ: Having the responsibility to organize bird walks with members of Congress and congressional staff has been very special. I broke my ankle in January and concurrent with my recovery, the covid crisis has presented challenges to meeting in person to lead bird walks. I’m still finding ways to be creative in sharing the joy of birds with Capitol Hill.
730DC: What makes DC’s urban forest and bird scene special?
TJ: We boast high quality migratory stopover habitats found across the city, especially in Rock Creek Park and Kenilworth Park & Aquatic Gardens. Additionally, we benefit from our location at the juncture of the Piedmont and the coastal plain, as well as the confluence of the Anacostia and Potomac Rivers. This means we have an opportunity to enjoy migratory birds year-round!
730DC: What’s been a favorite book or resource that’s helped you and might help others interested in trees, birds, and/or ecosystems?
TJ: The first book that aided my fledgling birding career was the Richard Crossley ID Guide to Eastern Birds. I found it helpful to see live pictures of birds from different angles and lightning conditions. I also had a chance to hear him lecture on field marks on birds in Cape May several years ago — his lessons still stick with me whenever I’m breaking down the principles of identification for a bird.
Nowadays I mostly use the Audubon App to help me with quick IDs, if I’m not studying a Peterson or Sibley.
730DC: If you could be a bird anywhere in DC, what would you be? Where?
TJ: The cardinal you see on a bare branch in the white silence of winter. You could see me on the Mall, you could see me on the tree outside your door.
730DC: How can the city or its residents do better locally to deal with climate change?
TJ: In no particular order:
- Plant native plants!
- Understand how and have a role in confronting systemic racism as a means for a more equitable society and so that environmental progress actually makes meaningful changes in people’s lives, especially for the people that need it most!
- Participate in bird surveys using Ebird from your home: The Great Backyard Bird Count (Feb 14-Feb 17), Global Big Day (May 9th), Christmas Bird Count.
- Also join DC Audubon Society and become a member of our advocacy committee where we focus on bird conservation in DC and advocate for legislation that addresses the climate crisis to scale.
730DC: The bogus call for police help against Christian Cooper (black birder and member of NYC Audubon Society) sucked. I’m not convinced there’s always a silver lining in the reflective wake of racist acts, but then came #BlackBirdersWeek in the first week of June. What was your involvement? What was special about it?
TJ: I had a role in organizing the week behind the scenes and via groupchat with @BlackAFinSTEM as well as co-leading two panel discussions that included Christian Cooper and Dr. J. Drew Lanham respectively on the National Audubon Society’s Facebook live to candidly discuss #BirdingWhileBlack
We didn’t pick our moment, but what made everything special was how we, as a community, rose to the occasion and met the moment in the national conversation about the black experience. Through #BlackBirdersWeek, we got to see how our experiences include pride, resilience, and style.
730DC: In a comment for an E&E story about #blackbirdersweek, you said “more needs to be done to amplify the conservation research being done by black people in STEM fields and connect it to creating better policy outcomes for communities of color.” How do we do this? How do we better serve the connection between social and environmental justice at a policy level?
TJ: If “we” are the institutions, then the answer is to evolve your structure so that you can benefit, support, and promote a diverse workforce. So many institutions have been benefited by or continue to perpetuate anti-black racism with policies and culture that maintain white supremacy. If that can’t be understood at a foundational level within an institution, then “we” cannot achieve environmental progress for all or especially for the people that need it most.
If “we” are individual people like you and me, then we should think critically about how our interpersonal actions maintain the status quo and challenge ourselves, like with recycling, to do what we can to help when we see something is wrong (i.e. even though we didn’t create plastics, we’re trying to model sustainable behaviors for a better immediate environment for the general public).
Obviously, these are general answers and self-teaching is encouraged.
As scientific publications inform our intended policy outcomes, we need to seek interdisciplinarity perspectives from a diversity of people. Too often environmental regulations are “colorblind” or explicitly racist in their development or implementation. While the politics of legislation are being debated, we have to remind ourselves, we’re not working with the science we need to justify our current environmental and public health needs.
For example, if our current regulations can justify and allow for an incinerator to share a fence line with any community, especially knowing that the community is predominantly black and poor, we’re not working with the science we need. Period.
Historic racial injustice and income inequality, as well as the legacy of decisions that intentionally put environmental burden and disrepair disproportionately on poor families and communities of color, can be mitigated through legislation, better understood with the science we need today, and hopefully completely eradicated by full participation of society.
730DC: Blow our minds with one bird fact.
TJ: The ancestors of the European Starling, like my own, were both brought to the “New World” on ships against our will. Both acts would later be made illegal.
Thanks for reading and paying attention. Happy birding to all of you. For those interested in #BlackBirdersWeek, search the # on Twitter. Twitter is not nature, but it does feature a bird (allegedly a mountain bluebird). Other great resources include Jason Ward’s youtube series “Birds of North America” ; Tykee’s podcast On Word of Wildlife ; and the writing of birder-warrior-poet J. Drew Lanham
Follow Sam Nelson for more tree stuff @treegazing. This is his last D.C. piece for awhile since he’s moving to Utah for this. He encourages you to pay attention to what’s going on around you, whether it’s the well-being of people, trees, or birds. We’re all connected in this environment.
