Kimberly Kaufman Receives BirdCallsRadio’s First Thrushy Award™

Good evening and welcome everyone! My name is Mardi Dickinson and I am the host and producer of BirdCallsRadio™ worldwide. Thank you for joining me tonight to present BirdCallsRadio’s first Thrushy Award.

Before I present tonight’s Thrushy Award, I will take this opportunity to make a few comments.

First, I would like to wish The Biggest week in American Birding Happy 10^thAnniversary this week. It is also the 26th Anniversary of the sponsoring organization Black Swamp Bird Observatory or BSBO for those in the know.  We overheard two young birders discussing passionately how Biggest Week is like a homecoming for them, they only get to see old friends now occasionally and this one of the times. They may have not ever experienced Magee Marsh without a Biggest Week. (Applause)

My thanks also goes to the entire team at BSBO especially to Jason Guerard, Jasmine Cupp and the Maumee Bay Lodge for helping to put on this evening’s social event, that is sponsored by BirdCallsRadio, which I promise we will get to shortly. So hang tight for a few minutes please.

Secondly, I would like to share with you what BirdCallsRadio has been up to lately and some fun filled facts.

As of this week BirdCallsRadio has aired it’s 170^th show with more than 296 guests since its inception in 2011. In that time BirdCallsRadio™ developed a unique voice worldwide in all matters relating to wild birds and conservation. There is simply no other media outlet with the same broad scope and in depth content anywhere.

Stats indicate that we have unique weekly listeners tuned in from all 50 States, 110 Countries and 6 Continents! Free streaming/listening on all shows is available directly on our website, including Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Play, iHeart Radio through free podcast subscriptions. Please do consider following us by subscribing to our E-Newletter and fllowing us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. We continue to bring exciting and forward thinking guests including birders, artists, educators, authors, scientists, and organizations to interested listeners. Our interviews are recorded by state-of-the-art digital broadcasting in studio or on location. Guest’s inquiries are always given consideration and our booking for future shows is ongoing. Advertising Rates are also available now for website ads and air time spots including Affiliate Partnerships. For more information about BirdCallsRadio Show, please go to www.birdcallsradio.com.

Now onto this evenings Thrushy Award Presentation –

“The Thrushy™” will be awarded on an irregular basis to an individual or an organization who, solely in the eyes of BirdCallsRadio, and it’s advisory committee, has made a significant contribution, above and beyond what is expected, in the realm of birding, conservation, the environment and natural history and sciences. Although presently the Thrushy has no monetary award, it is intended to call out and honor the recipient, so that our community is made aware of the extraordinary efforts of said individual or organization.

BirdCallsRadio is in a unique position to survey much of the birding world today. This lofty platform makes it possible for us to identify those individuals whose efforts have enabled them to strive well beyond reasonable expectations. We have long wished for a way to call out to our audience, and the greater birding community, that there are individuals and or organizations, those whose efforts warrant greater acknowledgement. We have decided there for to create an award that signals to the world those who deserve some degree of greater recognition. We are calling that award “The Thrushy™.”

Without further ado, in recognition for 30 years of efforts, above and beyond, in support of the birding community, science and conservation, BirdCallsRadio hereby awards Kimberly Kaufman our very first “Thrushy Award™”.

I will now make an attempt to summarize Kimberly Kaufman’s contributions to birding, the environment and the sciences.

First, I must start out by underscoring Kimberly Kaufman’s personal qualities. She is caring, gracious, warm, at times outrageously funny, and posses a drive and business savvy to drive to and meet a distant goal.

As the Executive Director of the Black Swamp Bird Oberservatory Kim has been a trailblazer. Kimberly Kaufman, you have truly gone above and beyond.

From the start, with a clipboard in hand, Kimberly began volunteering with the state wildlife agency to monitor Bald Eagles nesting near her home. She trained as a bird bander and worked as a researcher at BSBO.

Now As Executive Director of BSBO you have helped to grow the organization with a first class focus on conservation, community outreach, education, and science. I won’t go into all the details, but among others these include bird banding efforts, young birders clubs, and local environmental lobbing efforts. Further you led BSBO as it incubated and developed the Biggest Week of American Birding, which is in its 10 year this week in May 2019

Some of the highlights of the Biggest Week in American birding include.

• It is now an event with regional, national and international recognition, drawing tens of thousands of birders.
• Today it certainly the largest and perhaps the best bird related event in the United States.
• We have been coming to Magee Marsh since 2007; we have seen its beginnings and some challenges, and how The Biggest Week has grown bigger and better each year.
• The Biggest Week has dramatically changed the regional outlook on the birding community, which is evidenced by the press and the proven economic benefit to the region.
• Through planned efforts you have relieved some of the pressure on the finite resources of the famed Magee Marsh boardwalk, and now birders fan out across the region in vans and personal vehicles to visit other regional hotspots.

Lastly, but perhaps most importantly, in our society we just don’t do enough to recognize the role of women as leaders. Kimberly, today, we move this frontier forward by recognizing and calling out to the world all that Kimberly Kaufman has done for birding, conservation, the environment and science.

You truly are a trailblazer and have accomplished many good things and it is my pleasure on behalf of BirdCallsRadio, to award Kimberly Kaufman with our very first Thrushy Award on this day of May 9, 2019.

Mentioned In Episode:

Black Swamp Bird Observatory

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