Environmental Professionals Radio (EPR)

The Green Obsidian, the Creative Process, and Birds with Sierra Taliaferro

January 27, 2023 Sierra Taliaferro Episode 103
Environmental Professionals Radio (EPR)
The Green Obsidian, the Creative Process, and Birds with Sierra Taliaferro
Show Notes Transcript Chapter Markers

Welcome back to Environmental Professionals Radio, Connecting the Environmental Professionals Community Through Conversation, with your hosts Laura Thorne and Nic Frederick!

On today’s episode, we talk with Sierra Taliaferro, outdoor educator and bird enthusiast about The Green Obsidian, the Creative Process, and Birds.   Read her full bio below.

Help us continue to create great content! If you’d like to sponsor a future episode hit the support podcast button or visit www.environmentalprofessionalsradio.com/sponsor-form

Showtimes
3:24  Nic & Laura try to talk about birds
8:28  Interview with Sierra Taliaferro starts
9:30  The Green Obsidian
16:45  The creative process
27:35  Field Notes


Please be sure to ✔️subscribe, ⭐rate and ✍review.

This podcast is produced by the National Association of Environmental Professions (NAEP). Check out all the NAEP has to offer at NAEP.org.

Connect with Sierra Taliaferro at www.linkedin.com/in/sierrat
Follow Green Obsidian on Facebook  https://www.facebook.com/TheGreenObsidian/

Guest Bio:
Sierra Taliaferro is a motivated outdoor educator and bird enthusiast with intentions to promote diversity in urban conservation, social justice and community advocacy. Her previous work experience consists of community engagement, urban agriculture, water conservation awareness, and land management practices. Her aim as a millennial in urban environmental conservation is to involve the public in decisions concerning natural landscapes through citizen stewardship and help bridge a lost connection between people and nature in an urban setting. She hopes to continue to make herself an advocate for diversity in conservation and to emphasize the importance of our natural resources surrounding our urban environments.

Music Credits
Intro: Givin Me Eyes by Grace Mesa
Outro: Never Ending Soul Groove by Mattijs Muller

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Transcripts are auto-transcribed

[Intro]

Nic 
Hello and welcome to EPR if your favorite environmental enthusiast Nick and Laura, on today's episode, Laura and I try to talk about birds. We talked to Sierra Taliaferro about her work with green and city and the creative process and of course, birds. And finally, we all know Hummingbirds are small, but let's put that in perspective. Most hummingbirds weigh less than a nickel and the smallest the bee hummingbird weighs less than a penny and even the largest hummingbird very blandly named the giant hummingbird but come on, guys. We can be more creative with this giant hummingbird weighs about the same as a double A battery. So there you go. A whole slew of animals that weigh less than a double A battery. That's pretty cool.

Laura 
They're so cool. I would love to see a couple of those here. And I'd love to hold one. I want to just see what that feels like.

Nic  
I think I told you I only obviously made the show but I think I told you that like I wasn't watering plants once and was like where does the water cans spray kind of thing? And hummingbird just took a bath in the middle of it. And I'm like, believe me my phone is in the house. No one will believe me. Cute, was adorable and he's like thank you so much and yeah. Anyway, if that means it.

Laura 
Part one of the 2023 and AP regulations and rulings webinar series kicks off with a discussion on the EPA and the US Army Corps of Engineers Final Rule revised definition of waters of the United States on January 30 2023, will be this year at 2pm. Eastern Time and 11 pacific time is going to be an informative series meant to tackle the significant environmental legislative changes that are coming this year. Check it out at na p.org We are without sponsor today. So we're going to turn it over Nick for his 30 seconds. Comedy sponsor spotlight. Ready? Go.

Nic 
Are you tired of having a jacket with sleeves? Do you wish that your entire life you could have your whole body warm except for your arms? I'm telling you I got it. I got the thing for you. It's called a vest. It's a very new brand new thing no one's ever heard of before. And it's totally practical, right? Your chest super warm and your fingers can still get frostbite you know that's a feeling we all need to feel alive. So why not embrace the vest this holiday season? That's all I got.

Laura 
I have always wondered about the best living in Syracuse. I've never bought one. And I also noticed that the regular old best from the 90s are very much making a comeback.

Nic 
That's why I thought about it. I saw them like they I was like oh my god this would be a funny thing to rip off so it's just like what, what are we doing with vests? And why are they the same ones from 20 years

Laura  
ago are exactly what they were two years ago coming out of the thrift stores or something.

Nic 
Yeah, yeah, it's pretty

Laura 
unheard yet. Go out there and bust out your best because they're back in style. There we go. Thank you. I'll get my spot. Let's get to our segment.

[Nic & Laura try to talk about birds]

Nic 
Laura, where are you right now.

Laura 
I am in Curtis town Hawaii which is outside of Hilo on the northeast side of the Big Island.

Nic 
So I'm super jealous. Cool. Thank you for that.

Laura 
I'm also it's an eco farm that I'm on so I'm off grid and the Wi Fi just came on here right at seven. Our exit walk up to the house to use the bathroom. Yeah, so you hear lots of chickens and roosters and a goat every once in a while.

Nic 
And then lots of random birds that I don't know what they are. But hundreds

Laura 
of birds I tried to download the bird pack for Merlin, and the file was too large to try again. I was like to know what's around here. I've seen quite a few birds that I obviously don't recognize.

Nic 
Oh, yeah. I mean, Hawaii is a really interesting and beautiful place when it comes to birds in particular. But you know, and you know, obviously, in other ways too, but there's so many different birds so many unique ones. Just for the island themselves. So that's pretty cool. So you're on Big Island, and that's one of those islands like it's one of those things where you know, that's that's where all the lava is, and that's where the current eruption going on right now. And I don't know what it is, but I've been watching I watched two volcano documentaries recently. I don't know why it's not it's not really relevant. But I don't know why. It just reminded me that was a fire of love, which was a documentary about volcanologists that were married. And then there was another one about and the volcano in New Zealand that erupted with people on it. And there were lots of desperate some survivors. So not to scare you about

Laura 
that we've been trying to figure out like when was the last major so to say, volcano eruption that really affected people because no one here has been erupting, but it's not really disturbed any anyone's homes or anything yet? I think it's pretty quiet right now.

Nic  
Yeah, there was one and on Big Island did take some homes a few years ago, but the one that I saw the documentary on which is just crazy to watch because it actually has real genuinely like, you know, HD footage of a volcano. There's no Akari 2018 eruption. And yeah, there's firsthand accounts of it. And you know, there's again, there's video from smartphones that people have this ash, steam cloud coming out and you know, as we've hurt people, it's, you know, people died from it, because it's just so hot. And it just melts people. It's just crazy. I know, I know. And they were gonna be what we're just going into it, you know, and it's just this, this volcano that had erupted three times before that, but just at night when no one was there. So it may be they don't go there anymore. I'll put it that way.

Laura 
Yeah, we went to the black sand beach yesterday and just seeing the formation you can totally see the ripples and the different patterns and different things in the lava rock. It's just really cool. So awesome.

Nic 
Oh, that's so wild. And you know, it's crazy. So I went on Aquino. I'm a nerd. Alright, so I went on a volcano rabbit hole. I wanted to end up picking

Laura  
up birds today. I know. This is what I know.

Nic 
What is it? Like? Can you think about it? Like I was like, what happens if you actually step on lava? And the first thing I learned is that it's more like peanut butter than water. So it's not it's very thick and you're not just going to like, straight through it. Okay, so yeah, it gives but it doesn't give a whole lot. You can see videos of people like stepping and then pulling their foot off. You know, their shoe starts to light on fire and they leave. Yeah, don't don't do that. That's

Laura 
yeah, our host here was telling us that um, the technology and the science to monitor the volcanoes now. It's just so advancing so much that they they've learned a lot about the chambers and how it works and just really interesting and cool.

Nic 
Yeah, I mean, you really should watch fire of law. That's a really great documentary. That kind of like desert, the only two people doing it, but it was kind of talking about, like, their desire to figure this stuff out. Right. And they talked about Mount St. Helens, where they thought that this would be like a two kilometer blast and ended up being like a 50 Kilometer blast or whatever it was. It was way way bigger than they expected. And they're like, how are we so far off? Why are we so wrong? And then it became more and more about their life's mission to understand why these do this and when they will, even correctly predicting a few people didn't believe that they had correctly predicted it and then disaster struck. So it's really really, really interesting. So yeah, modern volcanology has come a long way. And it's really, really cool if they know a lot about those things. And they really seem to be that they really understand their red volcanoes, which is the Hawaiian ones. The slow, steady ones in the gray ones were the ones that they were trying to figure out because they're less predictable.

Laura 
Bird birds, so let's get Sarah who actually did talk about birds. There we go.

[Interview with Sierra Taliaferro starts]


Laura
Welcome back to EPR. Today we have sera Talia Farrow with us. She is an environmental leader, social justice advocate and founder of green obsidian. Welcome back, Sarah.

Sierra Taliaferro 
Thank you so much for having me. Awesome. So

Laura 
you were here last July 2022. And so we missed getting to announce your Black History Month postings with green obsidian. So we're super excited to have you back and looking forward to hearing about your plans for this year. So just for those who have not listened to the first episode you were on which like I said, was back in July. Tell us a little bit about yourself and what green obsidian is?

Sierra Taliaferro 
Yeah, so my name is Sierra tele Pharaoh. So I'm originally from Milwaukee and now living in Florida. And my platform is called the Green obsidian which is a digital platform I created to really highlight the achievements and elevate the stories of black people doing really good work at ground level in the wide discipline of environmental conservation, so that we can just bring their stories to a higher altitude that can really be a source of inspiration for the next generation of environmental leaders.

[The Green Obsidian]

Laura 
Awesome. And you started green obsidian two years ago, no, as

Sierra Taliaferro 
soon as the green obsidian Well, the really the start of the room obsidian it actually wasn't even called the greenest city and it was just post that I was doing on Facebook, just to really advocate about diversity and environmental conservation. And it just kind of grew momentum since 2019. And it wasn't until 2022. So just last year of March, that I decided to just put all of those stories on a platform to just make it easier to be able to share it because a lot of the content I was posting it was on my Facebook page and my Facebook page is private. So if you know our friend you may not see it, but I wanted to just kind of build out my outreach of who this content could be seen by. And so that's when I kind of transitioned it to LinkedIn. And that got a little bit of a farther reach. But I was really encouraged to really be able to put it on a different platform so that it was more public. So hence I've come up with the green obsidian.

Laura 

Fantastic and obviously it's working because I across you somehow and so in the last year he's been getting a little bit more recognition and people who are who are seeing it and kind of catching on.

Sierra Taliaferro 
Yeah, let me tell you it's been a wild year, okay. And it really I had no intentions for he I had no idea what it would turn into. But I'm just so thankful of what has come about truly just what has come about from it and all the support that I've gotten just over the previous years and even now just launching it as the green obsidian just to be in I don't know, it's overwhelming sometimes but truly grounded in gratitude for

Laura 
it. That's fantastic. And then so tell us what your plans are for greenup city and

Sierra Taliaferro
 
greenest city is again launching another year of some amazing people that we're going to highlight this year. Really looking forward to just promoting a lot of the work that's going on with people who are really doing awesome work that I've come across just over over the years, because there's some people that I would have loved to add that just didn't make it that didn't make it. And so I'm just looking forward to this showing who they are, what they do and really getting the support that they need to be able to promote their work that wouldn't necessarily make it to mainstream media, or it doesn't get highlighted as much and how people can connect with them.

Laura  
Very cool. And do you want to give us a little insight into some of those people are seeing previews Yeah,

Sierra Taliaferro 
it's a good list. I would say. One of them that I've come across is Marshall Johnson. He's with the National Audubon Society. He works as a chief conservation officer so he's doing some really extremely good work. Who else can I try not to give away too many good ones. I would have to say Dr. T or more from black and marine science, also really good way I want to get too much but that's a really good one.

Laura 
Both of those I'm trying to get on the show. So hi guys.

Sierra Taliaferro 
Listen to what she's doing with black marine science like truly love their content, love the advocacy work with like water conservation, and just ocean science in general. I think it's just especially me being in Florida. I think it's so important that we really got done no pun intended. But really dive into that whole atmosphere of what the ocean really is. And because there's so much of it that we don't know there's and granted that's okay, I'm totally fine with not knowing all about the ocean, because you have to leave some curiosity, but the way that they really do community engagement and just engaged people into the work of ocean science, like I love it, I love it. And as I learn more about it, it's just so intriguing. So yes, there's just that whole team there. Great. Shout out to them shameless plug. I'm trying to think of some other people don't give it

Laura 
all away. Okay.

Sierra Taliaferro  
Like I said, like it's a good I say this every year, but it's a really fire list of people that I I'm highlighted because I've just kind of been keeping an eye on their content, you know, through the year or through the years. And it's just sometimes it's really about divine timing of when to highlight their work because sometimes I might find them maybe like last year, but they really come out with more content even more so this year. So it just adds to the pot of what I can contribute to their bio. So

Nic 
yeah, so how do you decide like, where like, Okay, this month? I'm going to highlight all of these people. And next month, I'm going to do you know, how do you decide like, it's gotta be challenging. I mean, it can't be easy.

Sierra Taliaferro 
Is is the challenge. And like I said, like through the year, I just kind of, I put everybody on like a list right of like, as soon as I hear their name, or there's a link that can kind of give me more information. I say that there's just so much so much you can do, but I just kind of add once I get to my deadline, which is usually around like October, November. That's when I really decide on like, Okay, I'm going through this list, who can I add? Because it's really about how much content I can grab from all the materials that I researched on them. So that can be tedious. It's so time consuming, because the work that people have, it may not always be out there or they might not always be so well known, which is part of the problem, because I'm trying to gain more awareness about them. And so sometimes there's just not a lot of information. So that's where divine timing comes into play. Because like maybe that just means it isn't their time just yet to be highlighted. Maybe they're working on it for whatever reason, they could mean like maybe they're working on something better and better. And it can gain more just acknowledgement about what they're doing. It's just it's really timing that's the best way I can describe it. Just the material and research that you can gain around those people and how much content you can put into just the writing portion of it.

Nic  
Yeah. 100% And so when you're looking for new people is new people you're gonna highlight this year, is it all new people do you encourage to look back at people you've highlighted in the past as well? Do you update that list? I guess there's

Sierra Taliaferro  
so I update my list with new people. So every year every February, I highlight new people. But what I'm trying to get into this year for the first now that's coming into the first year of the Green City and is to kind of do follow up so like, what are they up to? So like, so far, kind of leading up to black history month I've been kind of been doing these throwback Thursdays. So I kind of I kind of I've been posting a person from each year that I've been doing it what people again, part of the baclofen process was just been tedious as it is. For real. You're talking about 28 people since 2019. Every year that's 140 People just about a backlog. That wasn't on my platform before. But I picked new people every year to highlight for the green obsidian. But what I'm really trying to get into now is kind of do follow up like what are they up to now to see like what has grown what has changed since being not just being highlighted, but just overall and what they're doing.

Nic 
Yeah, and so where can people look at your past list? What's the link that you can send them

Sierra Taliaferro 
so the you can find a lot of that passes on the agreement civilian but again, a lot of that is being still backlogged. So just trying to find a creative way to so that I can show people all of the people that I've highlighted within the past since 2019. She just kind of do it in a creative way that's not overwhelming to bleed all these stories. That one's because there's a lot. There's a lot.

Nic  
It's really incredible and like I say we really appreciate you taking the time to tell us more about it. So for Black History Month, what do you recommend for individuals looking to support some of these individuals? You know, not just for Black History Month but genuinely diversity? Throughout the year? What are some recommendations you can give to people to kind of help support you in this process as well.

Sierra Taliaferro 

I definitely would encourage people to read the stories really like it starts there from reading and to see what all they're doing and see where you can kind of fit in into their main missions or her agendas and just connect with them head on like I give you I give you time and opportunity to be able to connect sometimes I tend to write in the post honest to goodness and I also if I can I add in a lot of their links and websites or Facebook pages so that you can directly connect with them but there's no excuse there's no, I don't give you any I don't leave you any room for error like this is your chance. So if you read their stories and you get inspired or want to read more about them, or how you want to get involved to support them, you have that platform to do so.

Nic  
Yeah, absolutely. So is we talked about businesses too, right. There's also I think, a responsibility for businesses to also be engaged and be involved in connecting with these, you know, with individuals so how can businesses also do better not just from their stories, supporting individuals?

Laura 
My attention with writing that question was because of some companies just focus on diversity just during Black History Month? He's question is, So Nick, I don't know if you rephrase it, but my question for Sierra since this is about Black History Month, is how do they do this? Not only in February, that's most of the year.

Sierra Taliaferro 
Yeah. And that is such a valid question. And because I think if I can speak candidly what we really run into, especially around Black History Month is that a lot of businesses or companies, they do it for clout, and if you're not familiar with Cloud, Google it I won't go into a segment about cloud but it's truthful so like it's, it turns into one of those trends that people are doing, and there's no authenticity behind it. There's no authentic intention behind it. Because I truly believe that you don't need a month to understand that black history happens every day. Yeah, it happens every day of the year, 305 60 days a year, and we just don't happen to highlight it. In a month, the shortest month by let me just say, but we highlight it in the month just to show that we exist. And we are here, and we're part of society. And so to go back to your question of how can these companies or organizations, not just focus on diversity within one month, but do it consistently throughout the year is effort? How Where are you showing up the most effort and how are you connecting with community? Who are the allies that you have in place to do it authentically and intentionally to bring that diversity into place and to not just call it diversity just because you have people have different backgrounds, but how do you keep them there? What is your retention? That's the most important thing because anybody can bring anybody on a team, but if you don't keep them there, if you don't have any tools, or structure in place to keep them out to make them feel seen, you just they're just there, you know, like it's like the same you know, how do you bring everybody to the table, but if you're not giving me a plate to eat, what's the point?

Nic 

Yeah, so it's like, you're hitting the diversity market. You're missing missing inclusion? Yeah,

Sierra Taliaferro 
I can't get fit with the rest of the team. Right, you know,

Nic 
yeah. So are the recommendations you have for people are interested in connecting more in the environmental community to that you would you can share with us?

Sierra Taliaferro  
Yeah, I say it's start with self. I think that's really the most important thing. See, we're not just as an organization where you as an individual can fit in with a person's mission or organization, volunteer. That's how I get started with anything. I volunteer to see if it's a good fit, and then see where I fit in with their mission, or just their statements in general. And then it grows from there. So before any company gets involved, start with them.

Nic 
That's perfect. I love that. You know, we think a lot of times like, I'll have to get paid to do something valuable, which is silly. Other places that you volunteer with yourself?

Sierra Taliaferro 
Yeah, so I tend to do maybe too much that's probably part of the problem. I volunteer too much, but no, I really enjoy being. So I'm a volunteer leader with outdoor afro, which is a organization that's really about creating Black joy in outdoor spaces. So as a leader, I tend to lead people on different outdoor adventures. So I've been doing that for the last couple of years and it's been great. But I also just really volunteer my time within the counties. Because I'm in Broward County, I tend to do a lot of like Spark volunteer opportunities that they usually have, whether that's like invasive species management removal, but also birding with a lot of the naturalist in our county parks. And the same thing for Miami Dade like I was at a new volunteer event today. Just doing putting in garden beds and native plants for local neighborhood park in the area. So it's just kinda like where you have the most where you feel the most connected to do the things that you like to do. I like to be in the dirt because I like to plant things. And I like to go birding. And so I tend to find a lot of activities that kind of are aligned with

[Birds]

Nic 
those things, which makes a ton of sense and that's great. And I love that you're in you live in Broward County, you're basically in the Miami area. Familiar? So that's a great place for birding. It really is. And it's a really unique city just in it's a really, really diverse area. So how are things going and Broward County, I know you work with them as well. So what are the kinds of things that are going on in that area?

Sierra Taliaferro 
Yeah, Broward County. They're really what I really like about Broward County is that they're being being the future forget about being sustainable. And so just kind of getting involved with a lot of just working as a youth because sometimes you work in silos, and I really tried to get out of that so that we can all work as a system because we're all looking for the same thing. We're all working towards the same thing. But sometimes we just, we just kind of get in our groups and forget about the rest. So they're really working a lot with connecting people together about some of the sustainability initiatives that are going around within the different municipalities. So there's Coral Springs, there's Hollandale. So all these smaller cities that are also doing work in like water conservation, plant pollinators, native plant pollinators, and things like that, to just bring more awareness and also the diversity so the language is in because it's such a diverse area, you know, so it's really about just communication and connecting people. Well,

Laura 
that's really awesome. I love you know, being from Tampa and being so close to Miami, Broward County, and a lot of times I was involved with the Florida Stirling Council and Broward and Dade counties were always the role models for all government agencies and things that they were doing. So that's really awesome to hear the good work that you are involved in. Also want to shout out remap. Because if we're going to shut up Dr. Tiara more than he deserves a shout out to he does.

Sierra Taliaferro 

He does I hope she hears this

Laura
 
because I do I love following the work that they're doing also. And so Broward County, are there any projects that you're currently working on that you'd like to talk about?

Sierra Taliaferro 
Not at the moment and if anything, they're just kind of projects that I've been doing so far and just kind of continuing the motion to just elevate it. If anything I will say if anything, I am working on trying to do more with getting data for a lot of our our diversity of birds, especially for migration season coming up. So just kind of getting more tracking information on identifying species within the county. And then again, having that translate to a lot of the smaller sets of or the smaller cities in the area of how to make a lot of buildings. Birds safe. So that's kind of one thing that I'm working on in the works.

Laura 
I see another glass building go up. I'm like, oh,

Sierra Taliaferro
 
exactly. Because window bird window collusion is a really big issue. And so I've been really I used it back in the day when I was in Milwaukee. I was a really big advocate for bird window collision. I was a bird window collision monitor with the Humane Society. And I did it for years actually. And I was really passionate still am passionate about it. And so especially being down here where the majority of the coast is just sky rises. There's not a lot of data. So just trying to bring momentum and more awareness about growth window collisions and how to get businesses and residential areas involved in that capacity to kind of help reduce the amount of burned window collisions that are happening because it decreases the population so many populations, such a decline in species in migratory bird species happening because of that. And so just trying to bring more awareness about it and be intentional about it not just for cloud, because you know, but because you care about what's happening and want to do something about it that can contribute to the to the wide solutions that we have to help wildlife coexist with us and vice versa.

Laura 
Yeah, totally. I often picture like these big glass buildings with window clings all over them or something like that. They close with a hole and we're like, what can we do? The birds are like, Okay, I don't see it. But there's something there.

Sierra Taliaferro 
Exactly. You know, reflection, ya know, so it makes it difficult for them. When I mean, I used to get I had friends. I have friends in Milwaukee that kind of work in a lot of those big buildings where I would monitor especially right off Lake Michigan and they would tell me like sometimes they'd have like good parents hit the glass. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So just kind of pinpointing areas of where there's a high mortality rate of dead birds that are happening and what can we do to reduce the impact
________________
Laura 
Yeah, I worked in the first floor office and a hawk actually flew came out the window and like last second realized it and then came into the window feet first so it's like it was thought it was attacking another bird and then was like oh no,

Sierra Taliaferro 
that's myself.

Laura 
It was wild the heck out of me but thankfully it flew off and I hope it was okay but even just you know, they don't have to be high rises either the glasses a problem. Yeah. So glad you're out there doing that work that is very important. But it's perfect segment now into our field notes segment where we ask our guests about interesting moments from the field. So we're hoping that people are listening will share their stories with us on EPR with the hashtag field notes so we can highlight them on future episodes. That's one of our initiatives for this year. So last time, we talked to your we talked about your love for birds, and you mentioned earlier that you've already been on reading today though, tell us about any great bird encounters you've had since the last time

Sierra Taliaferro 
we spoke. Oh, man. So the day

Laura 
okay, okay, it's the birds go.

Sierra Taliaferro 
Just one Dagnabbit Okay, okay. Okay. Just one, just one, just one. So, since the last time we talked, I have had a chance to kind of go back home and kind of visit family. And I gotta say, I've gotten myself acclimated to an extent being down here and getting used to seeing some of the tropical birds. But then I also think about you know, some of the birds as I AirTrain from time to time, like I go through some of the person one day I haven't seen a Robin, American Robin this alarm I don't know what it sounds like. So needless to say, needless to say, I was home in Milwaukee shout out to the for more for always, I was having coffee with a friend of mine. I collect to coffee on the lakefront and I was parking my car, and I parked my car to the where the front end of my car faces the woods in the parking lot and I sat there for a moment. And then outcomes out of the blue or white or despair. I'm still like, we don't have them a lot down here. And so I was like, roll down my window because Windows I'm asked to manually put it down. I pose Yeah, how'd you like I just want to hear it. You know, like, I just I need to hear this. You know it. Thankfully it did. It's done a little bit but it did. It's you know, as usual. Sparrow chippings down but it's like, I have not seen a wider Despero and so long between that and the American Robin it just I had to stop what I was doing just to stare at it because it was it just looks so out of place. But in all actuality, it was in the right place. You know, just like wow. And it makes you think about where you are location wise of like, you know how the things that we see all the time, and then when you leave and not see them for a while. And then you come back to that like, wow, it's just fascinating how nature works just because of the where we are regionally in the world. And then you come back to the things that are familiar. It, it just grounds you, I think more than anything else, I always love going back home as much as I love the sun. I love custard. Okay. You know, so I always enjoy going back home to just kind of reminisce about a lot of the parks because I used to work for machi County Parks shout out to the park system and just going birding and collecting data going, literally going Eber getting paid bird which is great. You know, and just going to those places in listing all these different types of species that I wouldn't find it here and then coming to Florida, and not hardly hearing any of those familiar birds that are residents of Wisconsin. So I'm like, so I would definitely say the white throated sparrow and the American Robin were my two like, I know they're common for us. It was just different to after being here for a while now. It'll be three years now. But after being here for a while, and then going home and seeing them it's heartfelt like it's very high. I don't know how to it's a feeling. I can't really explain it but it just makes you feel like good to be home. And you're kind of Yeah,

Laura 
I feel like it makes sense. There are not nearly as many mockingbirds in Syracuse as there are in Florida like mockingbirds are everywhere, everywhere. And they're silly other instigators, right?

Sierra Taliaferro 
Oh my goodness, just between them and the Blue Jays. Like they're so funny. I mean, we have Blue Jays back home but not mockingbirds. Sometimes I watch them on suicide. Why are you why are you being a redhead?

Nic 

So sassy for it's like yeah, like I saw you attack that poll. What was the noise? Yeah.

Laura 
Occasionally I will hear this bird and then I will fit I'll turn up like there's a mockingbird. You

Sierra Taliaferro
 
know, I will say I was listening to a mockingbird the other day, who did a fantastic job of mimicking a red tailed hawk. And it fooled me almost I was like, wow, yeah, baby, but you always know because like Rachel hug still finished her call. Like and even like with Blue Jays and mockingbirds, they'll mimic them but they will do the whole thing at the way but man was that my Oh, had me fooled first. I got one. Got me

Laura 
to use the Merlin app ever.

Sierra Taliaferro  
Yeah, I do use the Merlin app sometimes. I also use the Audubon app too, though. Yeah. I use Yeah, I like to use it from I like to go back and forth from time to time because sometimes they have different features. And sometimes they just have different variations of the pictures to really help to identify them. So

Nic 
yeah, awesome.

Laura 
That's really cool. Yeah. charges me nuts. When I hear a bird. I'm like, I heard it. Heard it, and then I can't find it.

Sierra Taliaferro 
Oh, that's the worst is the worst. I hear you. I can't see you and then you wait there for hours and that's me. Yeah, like I'm gonna find it. I might miss lunch, but I'm gonna find

Laura 
there was a Berta parasol for the first time this year and of course I'm not remember the name of it off the top of my head. But it was so cool. Like there's a whole bunch of them. Actually there in my Merlin app, because they're all in my Merlin app. Now. I just, I go walking through the there's actually a bird refuge right here. And I'll just go walk over there and just turn on the Merlin app while they walk and then they'll be like, oh, there's all these birds.

Sierra Taliaferro 
Yeah, man. We have all of these free useful resources at our fingertips. And so a couple years ago, I did like a bird. I call it birding one on one. But just getting an overview of like, how to bird and what it like what is burning and how to do it. And so I tell people all the time birding is so unconventional you don't have to go to these fancy places where you got to pay 30 bucks to get in or halfway across town to go burden burden can happen right? As you're sitting wherever you are, as long as you have a window, you know, and then you have all these additional free resources, like apps that when we all have phones, at least majority of us have smartphones where we can download a free app and it's like having a book at your fingertips, you know, and so like burning can really be this unconventional thing where you know, where you have the usual places where you can go like parks or refuges and things like that, but you can also like burn right outside your window. You can burn at the park you can burn in the mall, go into Target as I do it all the time. You know, I just the other day I was at my target at Publix and I saw this coupons that literally flew right in front of me, literally for right for me and it took me 20 minutes to even get to Publix because I was outside in the parking lot. And all these people started to come up to me like Hey, what are you looking at this? Because I keep binoculars in the car like this. There's a Google Drive. Right there. But truly it can be so unconventional, that you don't you can literally do it anywhere. SkyRise if you live in a SkyRise apartment like most people do in Miami Beach, you know I can imagine the views of pelicans flying by that you can get Okay, so that's there's all these

Laura 

different ways some White Pelicans come in the way

Sierra Taliaferro 
you know the views you know, like you're gonna use your resources to your advantage. So you don't have to go far to go birding. It can happen really? As close as you can make it.

Nic 
Yeah, that's yeah, just totally great. Man agree,

Laura 
Mark. All right. Well, we're getting towards the end of our time. Are there any specific things you're looking forward to this year? Obviously, the growth and the new things with green obsidian but anything else?

Sierra Taliaferro 
Yeah, I'm just really, I'm really looking forward to just awareness, just spreading awareness about diversity and conservation. And also looking forward to highlighting and staying updated with the work of all the people that I've highlighted so far, but especially this year, to just kind of see what they've been up to and to continue to follow them and their journey and just support it as best as I can. Whether it's financially, whether that's just with manual labor, or just sharing it really like that's what I look forward to. So between that and just growth of expanding the green obsidian and just living life in abundance.

Nic  
So yeah, and you know, yeah, the fact you know, like I say, we're happy to highlight that we're really excited and looking forward to all the things that are going to come out with green obsidian. We'll be sure to either ping you here or you know, just pointed out again, as we go through the year, because it's great. It's great and wonderful stuff. And we're really happy. You get to do it. So before we let you go, is there anything else you'd like to talk?

Sierra Taliaferro 

Just keep burning? Burning, keep burning.

Nic 
Yeah. And gosh, yeah, there's always great stories and so we really, really appreciate it. And last but not least let people know where they can get in touch with.

Sierra Taliaferro 
Yeah, so you can definitely get in touch with me on LinkedIn. And you can search my whole name Sierra Tala Pharaoh, but you can certainly find me on Facebook as well, in addition to the Granite City,

Nic 
okay. Yeah. All right. So yeah, thank you so much for coming back on. It's such a pleasure. I can't wait to see you again.

Sierra Taliaferro  
Thank you for having me. Take care.

[Outro]

Nic 
And that's our show. Thank you car for joining us today. Please be sure to check us out each and every Friday. Don't forget to subscribe, rate and review. See you everybody.

Laura
Bye.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai


Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Nic & Laura try to talk about birds
Interview with Sierra Taliaferro starts
The Green Obsidian
The creative process
Field Notes