Latest / In Focus with Carolyn Hutcheson / Birding Tours - TPR's In Focus - June 3, 2026

Transcript

Birding Tours - TPR's In Focus - June 3, 2026 · In Focus with Carolyn Hutcheson

• 0:00
  Support comes from Troy University's Trojan Cafe, offering handcrafted Starbucks beverages and a wide assortment of meal and snack options located on Troy University's Montgomery campus across from the Rosa Parks Library and Museum.
• 0:14
  From Troy Public Radio, this is In Focus and I'm Carolyn Hutcheson.
• 0:21
  A few years ago, Christopher Joe noticed that Mississippi Kites and Swallowtail Kites were visiting his West Alabama family farm in large numbers.
• 0:33
  Today, he leads birding tours on that farm and in Montgomery.
• 0:38
  He recently joined us at Old Alabama Town to talk about his favorite subject.
• 0:44
  Christopher Joe, welcome to Troy Public Radio.
• 0:54
  It's a pleasure to be with you today. Thank you.
• 0:57
  Where are we?
• 0:58
  We are here at Lucas Tavern in Montgomery, Alabama, and this is a spot that I recently started to do bird walks with the Old Alabama Town through Landmarks Foundation.
• 1:09
  And we just invite people to come down Saturday mornings and get some fresh air, but also to see what birds we can find.
• 1:15
  And it's really taken off. So this is going on my second year with them doing that.
• 1:20
  What is interesting is that you're making these bird walks available in an urban setting.
• 1:27
  And I think that's the biggest key is showing people that things are right around you.
• 1:31
  And I call it putting on the right glasses to see that there are birds right around you.
• 1:36
  And then when I take photos and I show people, they're like, where are you?
• 1:40
  And I'm like, I'm right here in Montgomery.
• 1:42
  Join me when I have these walks. And also I go to Lagoon Park for biking and birding.
• 1:47
  How is that working?
• 1:49
  It is going well, and we're trying to pitch that activity to folks at the city and try to get an event going to where a lot of people want to get outdoors.
• 1:57
  And they have bikes and just nice trails.
• 2:00
  And I think that if you have a good bike, we can help you ride that around there and also show you birds, too.
• 2:06
  So that's a good thing.
• 2:08
  How did you get interested in birds to begin with?
• 2:11
  And that's the funny thing. I grew up on a we raised Black Angus cattle.
• 2:15
  I'm from New Bern, Alabama. It's over in West Alabama.
• 2:18
  And what we've done on our family farm, I'm third generation.
• 2:22
  We've been raising Black Angus cattle my entire life.
• 2:25
  And I have two older brothers and a younger sister.
• 2:27
  So growing up on the farm, we noticed nature and we would go out and explore.
• 2:32
  But I really didn't get into bird watching until probably 2018.
• 2:37
  So it's something to show to other people that, yeah, you can get into this anytime and see nature from a different perspective.
• 2:44
  You have quite a fancy, is it camera?
• 2:48
  I also do birding photography.
• 2:51
  I invested in, I call it my bird tech.
• 2:54
  And right now I still sell photos to people needing pictures of birds.
• 3:00
  And this is one of my prized possessions because it has paid for itself multiple times.
• 3:06
  And then there's a recent magazine that have come out from Cornell.
• 3:10
  They bought my pictures to use in a story that they did on it.
• 3:13
  So those bird pictures are actually mine from the farm.
• 3:16
  And also I'd like to give that to people on the tours after we finish tours because a lot of folks don't have a lens like this.
• 3:23
  Now I can give you a photo of that bird because I do Google Drive for everybody.
• 3:28
  You can go back and look at it. I was at the Joe farm when I saw that warbler.
• 3:31
  Let's zero in on this article.
• 3:33
  It's in Living Bird Magazine, spring 2026.
• 3:37
  You have a magnificent picture of a bird in here.
• 3:41
  To me, you are the focus of the magazine.
• 3:43
  Let's talk about what's in it.
• 3:45
  We were contacted through a good friend, Dudley Edmondson, which wrote this article on us.
• 3:53
  And he was saying, Chris, I'm going to pitch this to Cornell.
• 3:56
  And y'all story needs to be told in these spaces.
• 3:59
  And I'm like, hey, man, whatever you want to do.
• 4:01
  He came to the farm actually last year at the Black Belt Birding Festival.
• 4:05
  And he interviewed us, took pictures, saw what we were doing.
• 4:09
  And he just wrote something so brilliant.
• 4:12
  And when the magazine came in the mail, and I got about five copies,
• 4:16
  and I'm just like, wow, I can't believe it.
• 4:19
  And then to see my pictures, people started calling me.
• 4:22
  They're on my website. I just read about you.
• 4:25
  When is your next tour?
• 4:26
  So probably seven people that are on my next tour read about me through this article.
• 4:31
  And they're coming from Texas. I got a few people that are coming from Texas.
• 4:35
  This magnificent bird here in this magazine, what is that?
• 4:40
  So we are known for the kites.
• 4:43
  We have Mississippi kites and also swallowtail kites.
• 4:47
  Those two birds, sometimes you don't see these birds close up to you.
• 4:51
  They're way up in the sky. Wow, I see that bird.
• 4:55
  I know that's a swallowtail.
• 4:56
  But to actually have them going over your head,
• 4:59
  people come from all over the country to see these birds
• 5:03
  because some of these are, especially the swallowtail kite,
• 5:06
  is kind of like a South America type bird that comes up through the summer to Alabama.
• 5:10
  And their range is kind of spreading a little bit more north.
• 5:13
  But they showed up at our farm in 2018.
• 5:16
  And Dad called me one day and said he was cutting hay.
• 5:20
  And cutting hay basically makes insects move around, pop up out.
• 5:24
  So your grasshoppers, which that picture is that I took,
• 5:27
  is the Mississippi kite has a grasshopper in its talons.
• 5:30
  He said, Chris, these birds are following me around the farm,
• 5:33
  and I'm cutting hay, and they're right behind me.
• 5:35
  And I said, what do they look like?
• 5:36
  He said, well, they look like a kite.
• 5:38
  And I'd never seen one before.
• 5:40
  I started asking my friends, and the friends I have at Alabama Audubon,
• 5:44
  they were like, those are swallowtail kites, Chris.
• 5:46
  Are you serious? I'm like, yeah, they're here now.
• 5:49
  I came back the next week to help him rake the hay in the process of baling hay.
• 5:53
  20 minutes in, once we had the tractors cranked up,
• 5:56
  here they started coming around.
• 5:58
  And next thing you know, they were right behind us.
• 6:00
  So they found our farm and love it.
• 6:02
  So every year, and this is our fifth year,
• 6:05
  they've been coming back every summer, faithfully.
• 6:07
  This is a beautiful bird.
• 6:09
  Please describe it for your listeners.
• 6:12
  Well, the Mississippi kite, just think of a bird of prey.
• 6:16
  It's on the white side with dark kind of red eyes.
• 6:21
  And the swallowtail kite, that's the real attractor.
• 6:25
  It has a swallowed kind of forked tail, black on the back, white chest,
• 6:31
  and it just soars.
• 6:33
  It basically looks like a fighter pilot jet coming over your head
• 6:36
  because their wings will move and their back tail will move
• 6:39
  and they will swoop down as fast,
• 6:41
  and then also just soar just like their own cruise controls.
• 6:45
  I really think we found something down at our farm
• 6:48
  that a lot of people, once I tell them that we're doing tourism,
• 6:52
  actually our logo bird is a swallowtail kite.
• 6:55
  And how big is it?
• 6:57
  Well, the wingspan, I think you're looking at almost 4 1⁄2 feet to 5,
• 7:01
  and they're bigger than you think they are.
• 7:04
  So they fly around, they eat on the flight.
• 7:07
  They'll grab a grasshopper, munch it, and keep flying
• 7:10
  until they get a full belly, and then they'll go sit in the tree.
• 7:13
  We had 22 swallowtail kites and about 12 Mississippi kites,
• 7:17
  all in the same field.
• 7:19
  Christopher, aren't we in nesting season?
• 7:22
  Oh yeah, so everybody is seeing birds going back and forth to trees
• 7:27
  because they're in that time-to-lay egg process.
• 7:30
  We recently had a walk here at Old Alabama Town,
• 7:33
  and we counted at least 5 nests that we saw on site.
• 7:38
  So we had 3 robins, and also we had a brown thrasher
• 7:43
  and a northern mockingbird.
• 7:45
  I'm giving people skills of observation.
• 7:48
  A lot of different birds build nests in different areas.
• 7:51
  A lot of people are having those barn swallows in the corner of their houses.
• 7:55
  A lot of people are getting the Carolina wrens to make their little nests.
• 7:59
  The Black Belt Birding Festival is when?
• 8:02
  So far, so good. We're going in year 5.
• 8:05
  The Black Belt Birding Festival, July 31st through August 2nd,
• 8:10
  located in Greensboro, Alabama.
• 8:12
  We have multiple stops, field trips, so our farm is one of the field trips.
• 8:17
  There are other trips that you can take to see different birds.
• 8:20
  Each area has a different concentration of what they're going to be looking for.
• 8:24
  We have guest speakers that come, and it has turned into, like I say, a 3-day event.
• 8:29
  So now we're doing Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.
• 8:32
  And the location one more time?
• 8:34
  Greensboro, Alabama, my hometown, and it's very small, very rural,
• 8:39
  but I think birding has really allowed us to bring the world to small areas.
• 8:44
  Well, finally, since we're short on time, give us your website so that your listeners can check it out.
• 8:50
  My website is ConnectingWithBirdsAndNatureTours.com.
• 8:54
  You can click on the Events tab, and we do have a flyer,
• 8:58
  and we still got some more tickets available.
• 9:01
  Everything is on the website, and each link you can click, and it'll get you right to me.
• 9:05
  Christopher, it's been a joy celebrating birds through your eyes.
• 9:09
  Thank you.
• 9:10
  That was Christopher, Birdman Joe,
• 9:13
  who often leads birding tours at his 200-acre West Alabama family farm and in Montgomery.
• 9:21
  More information is at the website, ConnectingWithBirdsAndNatureTours.com.
• 9:27
  Professionally, Christopher Joe serves as District Conservationist
• 9:32
  with the Natural Resources Conservation Service in Macon County.
• 9:37
  Thanks for joining us today for In Focus, which is a podcast, wherever you get your podcasts.
• 9:43
  I'm Carolyn Hutcheson, and this is listener-supported Troy Public Radio.