Birding Through Pandemic and Cancer with Rebecca Heisman
February 11, 2021
The year 2020 was an especially difficult one for many of us, but for writer and birder Rebecca Heisman, perhaps more than most. In addition to the responsibilities of being the parent of a young child in a year of pandemic, she dealt with a cancer diagnosis that upturned what was already something of a turbulent year. Through it all, birds became, what she calls in an essay recently published at Audubon, a thread of sanity She joins Nate Swick to talk about her trying year and what comes next.
Also, Pileated Woodpecker stories from Cecelia Dumois and Redmond Brubaker, and a congratulations to Wisdom the Laysan Albatross, a mother again at 69.
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The American Birding Podcast brings together staff and friends of the American Birding Association as we talk about birds, birding, travel and conservation in North America and beyond.
Join host Nate Swick every other Thursday for news and happenings, recent rarities, guests from around the birding world, and features of interest to every birder.
I look forward to this podcast every week and as a cancer survivor this one really hit home. Birding got me outside and out of my own head, a wonderful distraction. More recently, a friend was having chemo and was too tired to walk around much but still she claims that the hummingbirds that she was able to watch at her backyard feeders saved her throughout that long tough summer. The power of birds!