Greg breaks down his hyperfixation to Mitch for 50 minutes straight

We're going to be dictating. There needs to be real kissing. I just met you. Off Campus, the unbeerstaanbare series, comes to Prime Video. So what, I help you study and you play my fake boyfriend to get Justin's attention? Deal. This is the most absolutely unhinged planet and I'm obsessed with it. Gebaseerd op de wereldwijde bestsellerreeks van Al Kennedy. This is the part where I tell you all the things I want to do to you. Now, you can blush. Off Campus, a new series. Look now, only on Prime Video. Hi, Donovan Woods here. Hey, hey, it's me, Tom Power. We're here to tell you about our brand new podcast. It's called The Big Five. So Donovan, what is The Big Five? Yeah, exactly. What is The Big Five? That's what The Big Five is all about. Every week, Tom and I will sit down with a special guest and dive into new topics, debating things like what are the Big Five farm animals, the Big Five types of hat, the Big Five guys named Paul, Martin, Revere, Mezcal, McCartney, John Paul II. The debate is settled by a listener from somewhere across the country. It's like a game show. It is a game show. The Big Five, available now wherever you get your podcasts. Okay, so do you want to lead us in? Oh my god, I'm joking. Oh, you're okay. The Lord doesn't want me to talk about this. Controversial subjects with the facts can be tense, but we are a sub-science here to make things make sense. Today we're talking about Gregoire's hyperfixation, his special interest. he's going to be leading me through a conversation into his mind, into his soul. And we thought it would just be a cute little chance to get to know one another, but I'm sure there'll be some science and interesting stuff behind it. No, wait, wait, wait. Why are you laughing? We just thought this would be a fun little opportunity. And then I was like, wait, what? I got to do an episode on my hyper fixation too. Zelda? Don't spoil it. Oh, sorry. Zelda survivor. yeah those are yours mine are i feel like i always talk about them on the pod no yours is like i was thinking about it yesterday because i was like oh what did you talk to your friend about and you were like survivor and then australian survivor and then i was like actually like it's all you talk about and in like an interesting way like sorry not all you talk about but like you can become exhausted with other times they bring up other conversations like politics blah blah but it's like survivor and zelda you could talk about forever yeah what's with that it's your hyper fixation mine's rosalia and what we're going to talk about today okay so do you want to lead us in oh my god i'm joking oh you're okay the lord doesn't want me to talk about this or it's just so excited to come out of you that's crazy wait i'm actually is that like the most embarrassing thing to happen on a podcast wait one second um no i think you're okay if it's really bad in the years we can cut it but i've never like not that i've never choked but like i'm a gay guy that doesn't choke but like that was so weird a gay guy that doesn't choke sorry like when i play sports with people i notice other guys choke it's called the gay guy choke and it's like oh wow they're gay guys so they don't know how to like play a sport wow whereas i canceled that's true that's true that's true um okay so this is an annual episode mitch is really trying to bury the lead because i think he's sort of like you do this every year you're talking about birds and bird watching and okay no i i will talk about this but the reason i just sort of thought like i think it's a because i'm not as much of a birder as greg and yeah we went bird watching the other day and i think a time you went can we just go no like keep moving like i don't like we'll get to it but anyway i just thought like oh well it's something you love and if we can talk about it in that sort of perspective of like you tell me why you're so excited about it why you love it then it's more than just like trying to be like the science of birding oh yeah like that was kind of why i was thinking like it is hyper fixated on this and other things but this is one of them and so i was like hey i feel like it's a interesting perspective to look at it from because of course anything you love i love and i'm interested in and hopefully people watching and listening feel the same so if you're in toronto we will be doing our annual third annual bird watching hike in high park so google third with the three three i three rd annual bird watching hike high park asap science and it'll come up because you have to register is there like can we share this link so we'll share the link on asap science but it's a complicated link okay but if you link it on like instagram stories or something yes okay i should do but agree like if you're and if you're on youtube we can put it in the description description okay but essentially it's so fun we're gonna go bird watching it's a wednesday night all the information is there it's the end of may and i just soon yeah but when you google asap science bird watching hike last year's comes up so make sure you don't click that you want the third annual okay and this is the third annual bird watching episode that we're talking about today so the first thing i'm going to bring up okay this this was funny because it's like so gilded age but bird watching like truly birding quote unquote started because some woman named florence marion bailey in 1899 took her opera glasses outside and started looking at birds because prior to that they would because No one had ever looked at a bird before them. Well, there wasn't really like scurps. Like there was no binoculars were like World War II vibes. Like birding became really popular after World War II when binoculars became like production of binoculars. Because you could see them from a distance. Yeah. Before that, people would shoot the birds and then like take their carcasses and be like, oh, it's blue feather. And then some literal chica from the Gilded Age-ass opera I was like, wait, if I hold my like opera glasses up, I can see the birds. And now that's what I do. Oh, I see. That's cute. I was like, that's really interesting. So it's not like something that people have done forever. Yeah. I mean, like maybe they have. I'm sure there's like indigenous cultures around the world that maybe not with the idea of like being able to be so far away. It's because like modern humans like us are like thumping everywhere and the birds are flying away. Yeah. I'm sure you could like be quiet and get close. You could look. bird watching is like the most colonial white thing like ever like we'll talk about it like the bird watching trip i was at last weekend is like it's hilarious everyone's margaret atwood everyone looks like margaret atwood everyone and they all have like arcteryx and the most expensive like ass shit just to like look at birds anyways but after world war ii was when it actually yeah the production of binoculars became a big part of bird watching and then this i thought was so funny is in the 1950s because of like literally cars and access to cars bird watching really took off because now people could drive to places where birds would like instead of just like going out of their like yeah park or going to the backyard or something it's like now they could actually go to like a big forest or a more natural reserve to to see it and then also this was a article about technology affecting bird watching lol the car so then the creation of digital cameras created like a different type of bird watcher which is the one you will see and a very uh incredible tip for anyone bird watching in a park if you see someone with a giant ass camera like an old white woman with a giant ass camera ask them where the birds are because they will know because they have like spent so much money on like they're such bird watchers but the camera changed bird watching because no longer was it like oh i'm using binoculars and i saw this bird it's now like i have literal literally here it is pokemon yes it's literally like gotta catch them all i want proof that i've seen them all and i was i'm sort of like cool i'm gonna kind of i'm gonna tell a really funny story of last week i'll go over my hyper fixation of last weekend but the camera thing i'm always like oh like why do they have cameras this is like so lame like just look at the bird stop trying to like like capture the bird but because if you're gonna sort of get on a list of bird watchers who's like really good or like however you have to prove it like you have to have the photos oh you need to document it like other people will question if it's like being considered as like a sport or like those like something where you're like trying to show you're good at it then you're saying you kind of need the proof to back it up well every tour guide they're like oh well you're going with frank he's seventh in the world he's the seventh on merlin bird app because it's like he's seen this many birds and so like i think he has to prove it now with a camera you can't just like like you can but people are like it's all sort of sort of like golf or what's that thing about golf it's just i mean to me it is like it's like white people culture but you know what i mean where it's like oh my my score in golf and it's an honor system when you tell someone yeah yeah that like if you're lying it just fully defeats the purpose i feel like there's lots of honor system styles of things like yeah i'm not gonna tear it down too much but but you're gonna tear down bird watching no i'm just like that to me is like i i understand it from the personal level of being like if you love it and you're wanting to take pictures of all these amazing birds you've seen like that is beautiful that is cool but as soon as it becomes like commodification yeah and to be like i'm seventh in the world that's when it starts to tip into kind of like like i get that's interesting and cool and i'd have to know that person to see if i thought it was interesting or cool for them to be seventh. Do you know what I mean? No, I genuinely am like judging and I'm like, no, they're like annoying nerds. Like if they're bragging, it's different than them just not saying it by other people saying it. Okay, so now I'm going to start telling you stories of my birdwatching weekend last weekend, which is insane. But can I pause and do a quick little side note? Because someone commented, I'm like trying to look at you, but I don't have to do because someone commented recently because on YouTube, if you watch this on YouTube, hello, we faced the camera and we both stared at the camera and one comments was like i'm so high in the fact that they're just like both sitting facing the camera it's like freaking me out and then i was like i have an intense face too like i like grind my teeth and like stare here's the thought you're being included when we face the camera and also we just were like well we don't have three cameras wait so what's the other option like that we would look at each other that's so mel robbins actually that's every podcast but then because they have two cameras so they can capture like wait so they look at each other and then the cameras are looking there's like anyway oh yeah that we are wrong we're a single camera also like embarrassingly sometimes i'm like well if we're facing sideways we can't get thumbnails because you can't from the side of the face or it's we're like in our house like we set this up two minutes ago we're not professional you all know that it's just like it's minimal but if you are watching and you're stoned hello hi nice to see you yeah we're not exactly one day we'll we've talked about like upgrading the pod in terms of like getting like it's not gonna happen we've been doing this for like eight years we are not a professional podcast hence we have an episode of me just like talking at you about my hyper fixation okay but i'll try to look at you a little more but just picture it if you're watching the video that it's like you're part of the combo we're talking to you yeah we are talking to you and you have to bird watch the whole point of this is to get people to bird watch because it's extremely good for your mental health unless you become the people i'm about to describe okay let's go so i drove four hours alone to go to a place called point pili which is the southernmost tip of canada same latitude as madrid that's in the museum there which i thought was interesting and did it feel like madrid no it was absolutely freezing and gray and there was no spanish people zero actually i was gonna say zero spanish culture but that's not true there it's this famous like lush land where they grow so much weed and tomatoes. Okay. And there's a lot of people from Mexico who are working there. They work there for six months, get paid a bunch of money, and then go back to Mexico for the winter. And it's kind of like, that's a fun life. Yeah. Spanish, you meant Spanish language. Yeah, Spanish language. So there's actually like incredible Mexican food in Levington, in this tiny ass town. Yeah. Okay. So I drive four hours because it's this point that goes into Lake Erie. and it is south and all the birds who are coming north for migration they like land in this beautiful park they kind of rest because they're so tired from like flying so you can see them snap their pictures if you're one of these freaks and then they continue north and spread out all over canada so it's like an incredible place to get to to see honestly so many birds that is a very cool premise that they're all like arriving there and then going off into their respective areas yeah and i when i the first time i went i was so obsessed with bird watching i was with my friend and even as you drive in, there's just like birds on every wire and I almost killed us because I'm so bad at driving. I was like, oh my God, a purple finch! And it just like almost died. So this time I was like listening to the Lena Dunham book and just like focusing Because they have roads there like small towns are so dangerous and scary they have roads that are like the one lane goes and there's no stop sign and you only have the stop sign right like it's not a four-way stop and i'm like this is a horrible design well i'm from the city and so i was just like thinking they're gonna stop sign and then i almost killed my pregnant friend this was four years ago we still talk about it like every because she goes every year too and we're always yeah but the assumption is that as a driver you're supposed like if it's an all-way stop you may not have noticed but what is the point of that because to murder people from the city no the point is that the main street is probably a higher speed and it's probably less likely that someone comes from the stop side so it's like to keep that flow of traffic going the others have to wait like it's the busier street that doesn't have the stops okay i actually like have so many stories about and just so you know as a driver it will say on the stop sign like all way or four way stop if everyone has a stop sign i technically should not be allowed to drive because i drive so minimally and i just i'm so bad at it and my adhd is crazy um but i was alone and i was focused not on the birds on the wire but it's really cool even as you drive into this near this park there's so many birds okay so i'm just going to tell this one specific story about this one name lady named helen like of course her name was Halloween. So we signed up for the French Canadian tour at 8 30 a.m. This is on this this trip this year. Yeah. Which was like a few weeks ago. It's literally last Saturday. I got up earlier than I've ever gotten in my up in my entire life. I'm like what am I doing? This is crazy. And it's a French Canadian tour. My two friends speak French. My other friends are like I'm not going on that because you know French people. They're going to be like you don't speak French. You're so rude. I'm like no I'm going to do this. And this is because every tour is sold out and we're like it's like a month ago we decide and it's like literally they're all sold out it's so fucking hopping here so we have to go to this french canadian tour and i'm worried i'm gonna get because presumably people are also traveling from all around to this spot the people with us special from france oh wow flown here with their nerdy ass kids from france which was also hilarious that's cool people from france people from quebec and probably in the english speaking one people from many all over britain finland norway different types of white different types of caucasian flying really feel like when you're seeing the people it's mostly caucasian oh my god the amount of times i was like everyone's so high on their horse because they're bird watching i'm like this is like the whitest shit ever like i'm like there is a really dark part about all these people spending all their money on like archterics and cameras just to like capture like this bird that doesn't give a shit about humans anyways we show up i'm like running ahead because we're obviously late actually i'm gonna talk about this one thing that happened right before i'm scared i'm driving so i'm obviously so nervous all i get my two friends to come out to help me pump gas because i'm truly like how do you pump gas like i don't know how to do this we drive i'm truly can't even sleep the night before because i'm so nervous about getting there on time driving my friends i just like hate driving we drive all of a sudden there's pylons all of a sudden there's dirt road and i'm just driving through it and this guy gets out of his truck he's like hey stop what i'm like what so he's like what are you doing i was like driving to the park it's like google maps he's like this road is closed oh and then i was like oh my god like we're from the city we're trying to go he's like where i'm like to the park and then he goes yeah you know the google maps is pretty r word these days i'm like did he say the word he literally said the word i was like this is my worst nightmare i've been panicking now i'm stuck in the middle of a construction zone there's like some small town guy yelling the r word at me he's like i think maybe if you want just go through and dodge all the trucks i'm literally driving through like they're doing construction i'm i'm not kidding I'm like doing like we're like bumping along. I'm like, this is like the car ad. You know how they show like car ads? It's like this car can go through terrain. I was like, I was like, I can't believe this is happening. Like I was nervous about getting to the park. And here I am doing like a course. Was it a construction worker that stopped you? It was a construction worker who said the R word. He was like, okay, just go. He was like turning around at this point is like more complicated. Just go. And then I just got like dirty looks from construction workers. And I was like, city kid. Gay guy. And just like drove. anyways when we got through i was like that they do not like city people by the way i mean i've had enough interactions i mean i am not from the city so i know it inherently but yeah anyways okay so we we i'm running ahead because we're so late and we're like these are bird watchers they've probably been here for an hour before now like it's 8 30 i'm running and then i get there i'm like bonjour bonjour because i'm like it's french and i'm so afraid my bonjour bonjour and the guy honestly such a 10 one of the hottest people i have ever seen which was completely surprising to me he's like oh my god man don't worry like i'm from gattano we're gonna do it in english we're gonna do it in french i'm immediately like okay i'm in love with you it's like if you're i don't know if you'd be listening to this honestly one of the cutest people i've ever seen my friend you were sending my friend ali shows up immediately she's twirling her hair just fully married two kids she's twirling her hair she's flirting we're making him laugh she's like oh my god greg maybe he's gay he talks about his girlfriend in new zealand my friend goes well it's kind of gay to talk about your girlfriend like no he's straight but he's like having the time of our life with us that's when we meet helen so helen she's part of your group part of our group she's so funny she's like the birds aren't here we're like um what she's like birds didn't come last night we're like oh okay like she's like oh it's cold winds cold winds from the north you know they need it from the south they're not even here we're like okay helen like she's so funny she then starts like we start okay we see a prothonotary warbler incredible bird like a rare bird we did see it the day before we love this bird and then we stop and we start looking he starts explaining the different sparrows chipping sparrows white crown sparrows these are i personally like a sparrow lesson because they look so similar i get to learn she's like oh my god we're sitting around for these birds i'm looking for the rare ones I'm like, Helen, she's like, literally, she's like, oh, come on. It's not even worth it. If it's not even a rarity. Like she's doing that thing. I'm like, Helen, like all birds are beautiful. And I'm immediately joking. But kind of like making jokes. I also, when I see a really rare bird, I like to make like noises. It like always goes over well with everyone. So Helen speaking English. Helen speaking English. Helen is like furious that there's no birds. And then also very kind of negative. But I'm like joking with her. So she kind of gets on board with me. with your vibe like this vibe it's not confrontational it's like yeah so then she she comes up to me she goes i just met the worst lady in the world it was like helen like excuse me worst human so i go up to her she's got a big no yeah she's got her binoculars on and helen is a camera girl she's got a big camera and she goes up to the girl and says so what are you looking at through what are you looking at through there and then the woman looks at her and says like maybe you should put the camera down and cut and and get your bins out and actually see a bird for one your bins so bins is short for binoculars she's shading helen for having a camera for not being like a real birder who just does binoculars she's like over the camera culture of like capturing the bird and she says helen open your eyes you're so focused on the camera thing get your bins out and maybe you'll see the bird that's drama i know it's like 73 year old white lady on 73 year old white lady crime wait but when you have the camera i've seen the camera with the lenses is that not like a form of binoculars okay so this wow like you might just be like well i am looking at them still i was is anyone still listening i'm like i am so on my hyper fixation i feel like i'm talking so fast and whatever that's fine okay i agree so i am a bins man lol just learned bins is short for binoculars because i am like i will i refuse to become the man who gets home and counts all my birds on my fucking digital camera i'm like i'm not doing this one man looked like he was in the ukrainian war like he had like seven screens like five cameras okay he had the screen of his like ipad open absolutely covered in like rain protection obviously somehow there's like some machine to get extra reception because there's no reception so his merlin app is open so he can hear all the birds and then he has like five cameras he looked like a sniper i was like this is insane i'm like i'm not doing this i'm bringing my binoculars i am here to see the bird i still have the joy of seeing the bird that's all i'm doing i'm not capturing them so i'm anti camera but i do think that like helen for example wants the photo of the rare bird to go home to and like show people and to feel like she actually saw the bird yes well i think that you should be allowed to do that and i don't think that's like a bad thing do you no no no no but it's like there's something about this sort of like violent act of like like the noise it's obnoxious to have a lot of things on you and like having an ipad and all that stuff is a little like well oh that's the sorry i think a delivery just came um yeah i don't know like it feels like anti nature vibes yeah to be like overly teched out but i understand if that's like something you're interested in that's a fun i could see that's a fun hobby i'm gonna become the old lady who's gonna be like get your bins out and actually look to helen when i'm like yeah but i mean at least they're looking period yeah you know like there's lots of people who won't even go do that and including myself yeah literally Mitch is like so every year so I'm not gonna come on the bird watching that's not true I've never said that okay oh most years I know you made the ASAP science birding trip no you're always at that one yeah I'll go to that because you subway to that um okay here's I I realized the other day because we went to high park and you were wanting to go that was a failed bird watching yeah and I don't I do like it so I don't want to like get the wrong impression I enjoy it but what happens to me is the same thing that happens to me in art museums okay it is moving the other thing i my other hyperfectation which i like but also kind of have the same relationship to and i realize there is a very specific slow speed of walking that my body cannot handle so you're impatient it's now you know what it feels like to be mean it's not impatience i mean i suppose it literally is but okay it's not impatient it is no because when i'm in a museum for example like looking at art i'm not feeling impatient but it hurts my body to walk that slow like after i'm there for an hour i'm actually like i'm uncomfortable but if i was walking for an hour i wouldn't feel like this well you don't like at a normal speed like bird watching you can walk and then stop yes but it's a lot of stopping which is what art is it's like I'm not saying birding is like art. I love how you're literally like, the reason I like art and birds is because of the actual intonation of the way the foot moves. No, I didn't say that like. I said, you know, you walk, you stop, and you look at an art. Then you walk and you stop, and you look at an art. Or you walk at a really slow pace. And I love, love, love, love, love walking in a forest. And so sometimes it does feel like the constant stopping is actually interrupting the part that I like the most. But it is a form of meditation. It's a form of actually taking in your surroundings and listening. But I am doing that. Because in general, I walk much slower than you. Yeah, that's for sure. Yeah. So I'm like a medium pace walker. Like you haven't had your spark moment. Like I feel like every time you've come on the bird watching trip, for example, it's been a little bit like not. You haven't been to Peely yet, right? Yeah. Point Peely is like an incredible place to go because it will hit. Yeah. I'm not saying I won't like it that I don't like it that all those things. But there is something else. I sometimes wonder like, what is it about birds that draws people? I should ask you this question. You always ask me this question. Okay. Compared to, because sometimes I'm like, I think squirrels are cuter. Yeah. Okay. And I guess because they're not as like diverse, like birds. Yeah. It's literally. Okay. So I do think that you need to come to Point Peely and everyone needs to go to Point Peely. Although it's so busy and it's like, good luck. Taylor Swift ass tickets is like kind of what it's like, but we going to be dating There needs to be real kissing I just met you off campus Don unbeerstaanbare serie comes to Prime Video So what I help you study and you play my fake boyfriend to get Justin attention Deal. This is the most absolutely unhinged planet and I'm obsessed with it. Gebaseerd op de wereldwijde bestsellerreeks van Al Kennedy. This is the part where I tell you all the things I want to do to you. Now, you can blush. Off Campus, a new series. Kijk nu, alleen op Prime Video. a squirrel is a squirrel and there's always a squirrel and will always be there so is a bird no okay so this is what i'm saying that's what like helen being like these birds aren't cool enough i gotta know okay when you see nature's nature the prothonotary warblower it is actually insane okay so you're looking at this literal swamp that's like brown and like brown and gray there's this thing that appears it's i call it craft dinner orange actually in french it was called like orange warbler i'm like that's a better name prothonotary war because i'm like it's orange it's this type of orange it honestly looks like a highlighter color it's unbelievable it's like highlighter orange then like the craziest blue you've ever seen it just like hops onto a branch it feels out of this world and then to see it to see it it's crazy it's like it's like honestly looks like it's a luminate like luminescent and it's like drinking water and they're like there's barely any of those around here and it's so cool and then you see the red headed woodpecker which is the same thing it's like its head is such a crazy color and it's in the sun they're like there's so few of these and it's just like all these options the eastern bluebird i have a story about that one the eastern bluebird which is like the color of like a like fluorescent blue on some like random branch like that shit it's crazy and when you're at point pili you have options to see hundreds and hundreds more and of course there's squirrels but the squirrels a brown squirrel yeah there's like one type of squirrel there's and and and again it's well there's more than one sorry but it's a text girl a red squirrel a trip monk yeah you're right but my point is like they are there they're momentarily there they continue to move on there's like this like it's like there it's a migratory bird festival it's like these things are in migration they're coming from columbia they look like they should be in the amazon it's like it's completely different than looking at any other animal that is always in this habitat and it's just fascinating plus they're all dying not that that like matters but it's like there it's like there are not going to be birds in the future in our lifetime like there's a huge chance many of these birds are going to be gone so there's also this sort of like spiritual like appreciation for like these things they're dinosaurs they've literally been on earth longer than mammals like they're they're just fascinating and like i get it they're not necessarily the cutest but some of them are so fucking cute it's not about cute but i agree i don't disagree with anything that you're saying yeah and i think you need to come to point peely one year even though it's literally four hours away and it's just really far and i'm gonna force you one year it goes back to the kind of like walking really slow part like i love to like forest bathe but it feels like i gotta be moving Well, you'll just go on a freaking hike with like the hottest guy ever and you're going to be fine. You're going to love it. Hopefully he's still there. Yeah. Okay. So the other thing was this is like another story and we can stop whenever because it's like I could talk forever. Again, it's my hyper fixation. So we are with there's six of us on this hike. Two other couples. Me and my friend Allie are not a couple. We both have separate boyfriends. she is so funny and has two kids and is totally pushing the time that her husband is caring for her kids in order for her to because he came but he's staying at home he's at home looking over after both there being here wherever you guys are staying and so we're like three kilometers from our car the time's ticking i'm like ali we have to go she's like we have to go so we decide we need to run away from our other friends to get to the car and you know we're counting we're counting and there is this thing called the eastern bluebird which is like absolutely stunning we're talking orange breast we're talking bright bright blue foliage all of our friends want to see this bird everyone wants to see this bird so we're walking back i guess no we're running back we see the hottest man not because we gotta stop there's so many like honestly random because because all the hot men that bird are like such an archetype like they're like a man in like camo who's like been through shit and is like alone and like whatever i was listening to the lena dunham book but i was like it was adam driver oh it was an unsafe that's scary he was all camo alley after was like he definitely was at war and has ptsd like that was the vibe he had because he did not want to make eye contact with us or like look at us but he's so hot we're both kind of like oh my god who's that random like hot six foot three like beautiful man we go up to him like well me i'm always asking people say anything good and they're always just like he goes well i'm looking at three eastern bluebirds i'm like what he's like there's three eastern bluebirds over there we're like no he points we're like kind of like being like where where like oh my god where mr man he's like literally walks away like he's so not into us we lift up our binoculars three eastern bluebirds no one around unbelievable but then when we get back to our friends they're literally like pissed and don't believe us because they really want because me and ally are trolls like and like we were you're exaggerating we're literally like this guy from the ukraine war who's so hot and six foot seven showed us three eastern bluebirds they're just like you're lying and they truly like did not believe us until the next day we were on the hike and the tall ass guy we're like that's the man and you talked to him no but he sort of added up to the way we described him and at that point they were like okay maybe they're not lying like lining up okay and as much just we're trolls we can't keep jokes alive like we would have like yeah it was a lot yeah like i'm not a good i can keep a good joke going for years literally a prank can pay off real good after a couple of years anyways we saw the eastern bluebird but it was not an incredible year everyone was like the winds weren't right and it's true we saw the prothonotary warbler i saw a palm warbler no one else did but i was really close to the cute height guy pointing things out so i was obviously on that one i saw a pine warbler there's this really cool one called a blue winged warbler and i kept being like how do you know which one that is and everyone was just like blue wings like i literally like i i hadn't seen it and i thought it was the yellow warbler over and over and then finally i did see it it was so clearly a blue wing but i kept being like when i couldn't see it i kept panicking like how do you know and then like truly like all these people were like blue wings blue winged warblower i was like okay finally i was like there's the blue wings also another thing i'm really bad at is telling like if i see a bird i'll be like i see it and then they'll be like okay where is it and everyone's really good to be like see the pine tree with the l shape which has fallen two meters back yeah up the tree you don't have this skill i literally just panic i'm like i see it oh my god i see it it's there it's there and i'm pointing and everyone's like panicking and like it's bad when i see one anyways you have to get out there it is so fun you have to go now because it is may and you can use the bird the merlin app which is come back to the my technology notes completely change birding forever because you truly open it yeah and it listens and finds the birds for you well it's it knows what you're there yeah it can tell you the noises that you're hearing and it's really interesting because like we'll go with ernie it knows the difference obviously between like a dog bark or like even a squirrel noise it's not showing you those things but it's picking up frequencies and then it'll tell you like a robin's nearby or a crackle's nearby and it's really helpful to learn the sounds because then you see it light up it's really cool it is ai well but it's ai before ai like yeah everything is called ai now just because it's like analyzing a sound wave doesn't make it ai but i'm sure every company is now like with ai yeah true it has been around longer than the like catchphrase ai has been yeah it's just like computer processing matching sounds totally you know what i mean and also bird washing is officially cool like i was like i keep talking about hot people but i'm like it's so it's getting so much younger and i'm literally basic like i was googling and it said that ebird started to be used 40 like there was a 40 increase in sightings in april 2020 like people literally started bird watching right when i did in covid and to the point where conservationists are unsure if there's higher numbers of birds now for certain species or just more people are using eBird because of COVID. Documenting them. Yes, which is really interesting. It comes up as though there's more in the area because so many more people are like, what, like writing it down? Or just in the app, you'd say, I saw it. Yeah, so there's an eBird app, which is a version of Citizen Science, which is another great reason to go bird watching. And when you're done, you can go on the app and say all the birds that you saw. And then all of it goes to Cornell University and help some understand where birds are. They just assume it's citizen science. So they're obviously like, assume you're right. Obviously, if I put in like some insane like Quetzal, they'd be like, you're wrong, idiot. Like you heard, like you're wrong. But there's been an increase in some species and they're just unsure if it's just so many people documenting it. Well, that's cool. It made me think like, I think if I tried to do it more on my own. Yes, you should. I think part of it is like, not you, but anytime I... So it's me. No, no, no. Anytime I'm gone, I've been at the whim of somebody else. Yeah, me. You should go along. So I think being able to go at my own pace, but my only thought is like, I think I would just go on a walk. No, no. But maybe I would have the autonomy to be like, oh, I think I heard something and I would stop. And it's like at my own pace, maybe it would make me feel... Because, you know, back to the art museum, it's kind of similar. I'm like trying to go at the pace of the people I'm with or if I'm with you like trying to stay around in the same rooms and and you have like that I enjoy where you're like hyper like aware of everyone I bet like in an art gallery you're so aware of like everyone's yeah it can be overstimulating because if you're alone you're just like okay I can read what I want and I do I have bird watched alone and sometimes it's the most like profound yeah that's when I would feel more like it also is just personal at that point you're like actually just connecting with nature it's not about like try competing to try and find stuff not that i ever feel that if i'm just with your friends but there's a certain element of like you know where you want to go in high park because there's certain birds so i'm just kind of like tagging along when it happens yeah and then eventually i'm like i kind of like i'm done with that yeah after two hours of that i'm like i think i just like don't need to be dragged around from place to place and that's why i was like can we keep moving yeah you were like i'm literally done i need to go home i'm like okay fair but it is interesting for you because it is like it's sort of a sense of impatience that i can imagine i feel like to you most of the time yeah you feel it in like everything else i think but i guess it makes me realize is your impatience normally because you're just uninterested okay whoa well sorry that sounds like a read but i'm just like i guess that's what impatience is like where we end up having conflict sometimes over impatience is because i overanalyze things that you do not think are important details to talk yeah that's true you know what i mean yeah because i'm like what yeah to me whereas i yeah i'm like i want to talk about this and then you're kind of like whatever like i don't yeah that's i'm impatient because i don't interested so maybe and you're uninterested in birds well like maybe less interested than you are so it's harder for me to hold my patience because i'm not the one leading with engagement true although that was also such a flop day it was like so windy and we didn't see any birds yeah and i guess the weather's nicer and the sun's out and all those things and there's times where it hits there's like so many birds and you're just like i'm only like i feel like i sound contrarian maybe just because you're such a lover i do enjoy it it's not this is not something that i don't like but it's like you just like it a lot more than i do yeah no and it's just like some people like it and some people don't feel like i connect more with like plant nature for some reason just like visually and walking and not that i like stop to look at those like specifically although i do like no but you look at some people are that something draws me like on my inside to like feel spiritually connected to trees and but some people like that would be their hyper fixation like when we when you go on when you birdwatch essentially you meet the people who are like yeah I birdwatching but I actually way more interested in plants And they be like oh this is a different yeah they know all the names They literally say them all to me like horsetail. But I think that that's invasive, but there were so many trilliums, but anyways, there are a lot of people. Maybe I could get into that. I remember saying that a long time ago, that and insects, but I'm just like, it is not a large enough calling for me. Yeah. If you were interested in it, you would have done it. I just like being in nature, but not necessarily like hyper engaging with it. If that makes sense. Yeah. And bird watching, you do end up learning about all the trees and stuff because it's like, what tree are they going to be in? And this is a Carolinian forest in Point Peely. And that's what's so special about it because it's like, again, so far South Carolina. Yeah. I think it's so far South that the actual like zone of the is similar to yes so carolina because it's at the other side of a great lake all the birds fly over the lake and they're like oh thank god a carolinian forest and then they eat it but it's actually just devastating because it's like okay wow thank god this one little bit of parkland was saved for the birds because everything else is just mowed down for greenhouses to grow fucking weed and then there's this other place where you can bird watch where i went alone with ernie and it was amazing but it was like a little hike that was saved around like a bunch of subdivisions and there were so many birds and it was just like this is what it would look like if they didn't hadn't built like this stupid ass subdivision and like it's sad because at some point there was an economic reason for this soil to be used for right agriculture yeah and it's just you look around and you're like yeah the park's quote unquote big but it's not that big compared to all the farmland you drive by yeah and you're like i hope that the tomatoes are making money okay well it was heinz and now it's french's it was a it was the big heinz and they sold it it's something controversial that everyone needs to look up it's out it's like elbows up it's like it's like heinz left and french's took over so you should if you're Canadian you should buy French's I think I really hope I got this right yeah I couldn't help you there um is there anything else you want to know about birds it feels like it's happening you're like getting impatient I'm not impatient I just okay so High Park Toronto come what is the day May 27th I mean girl there's a lot of things I need to fact check wait why'd you say girl like that like you should know the day putting this together may 27th six to nine we're gonna have hot dogs and veggie dogs and marshmallows there's gonna be a trivia for the people who are not on the hike we're gonna actually go to the pond this time because last time was such a flop and it was so cold and i was like we need to go to the pond because at least you'll see a swan and fingers crossed that the weather is nice last year was very cold and rainy and everyone gave great feedback last year i feel like a lot of that's being incorporated in terms of like smaller numbers so you have to sign up yeah now maybe more limited this year because the groups were really large last year which was so fun and cute and amazing 120 and that was capped so it's like it was me running around be like do you see the robin and they're all like yeah it's like we can see those anywhere we did see like the second group member was like we saw a beaver and we saw baltimore oriole yeah which are incredible but um yeah it will still be great so if you want to make sure you're in on that register and high park is amazing you should you should go now when this comes out because what ends up happening is that all the trees the shrubbery and the foliage starts to like bloom the buds become leaves and it becomes harder to see birds the beginning to middle of may is better for bird watching because there's no leaves so it's easier to like see them moving around yeah distracted by leaves totally whereas like when we go on the 27th it'll be beautiful and there'll be lots of flowers and leaves but it'll be harder to see the birds right so i'm you can go ahead of time you can get practicing you can see um i think we should on like just the apple and description of like spotify also try and put this link yeah just wherever you're listening we'll try our best and it's free obviously it's a really long link we can just make it one of those short yeah you literally just got to hang out with us and watch me scream about my hyper fixation and mitch pretends to enjoy himself no i love being around people and walking through the forest i do enjoy my time there and i promise i like it well last time was like the worst day of the year for me because it was so cold and we saw nothing and i was my hyper fixation was failing there is a bit of anxiety too around like okay we're here to show people birding and get excited with people who have come and then it's like raining and it's cloudy and it's cold and it's like it's like whale watching where it's like there's no guarantee but it's free and you got a marshmallow yeah and you get to hang out with us and other fans of birding and other fans people who listen to the pod or watch the first year was amazing come with that yeah the first year there were so many birds and also the first year was the year that we didn't even tell high park and they were like like what's going on thank god they gave us binoculars oh yeah they saw it online and they showed up with a bucket of binoculars being like we heard you're gonna be here we're here to help i remember when they were like and we're gonna blow all your mind because we know where the baby hawks are and they took us That was like a chef's case. But we saw green herons, I think. Yeah, we did. Which are across the water. Extremely fascinating birds. So there's options. We might be seeing cool things, or it might be freezing, and you're just going to have a marshmallow. But it's kind of like worst case, it's like come and just hang out and have a fun meal. It's not that long. It's cute. It's a nice way to like kick off the spring, summer. Yeah. Even if it's freezing cold. Yeah. So you have no more questions? Well, I don't know. I could ask like lame questions, but I don't need to. Do it. What's your favorite bird? Whichever one I'm looking at. I hate that. That's so rude. I'm joking. I love blue-gray knot catchers. You don't care. No, I want to know. Is there a bird that does not exist in Canada that you would want to see one day? Like a flamingo. You've never seen a flamingo? Oh, shut up. Wow, I've been to Florida. Wait, they're in Florida? I don't know. Isn't that a pelican? Maybe we were at like a zoo or something. That's pathetic. You're like, oh, I've seen a flamingo in a zoo, I think. In Florida. It popped up. Was it listening? Yes. Wild American flamingos are native to Florida. Bam, bam. Okay. And my family, not to like, this is not about it. Of course you're shooting a gun after your Florida pronouncement. Yeah, that goes to Florida. Don't like Florida. But my family used to go there all the time when we were young. Yeah, if you're American, like every Canadian, like older person, snowbirds would like spend their winters in Florida. And now they don't go anymore because everyone's so pissed about Trump. Florida's suffering. It's like, are they? They probably don't even care. I guess a flamingo like in the wild. I want to like see that like David Attenborough thing when they're all like flittering. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I saw that. I'm picturing like a part of Africa or something. I didn't know it was Florida. The bird that I think was the coolest that I've ever seen. I think it's called a cassowary in Australia. Looks like a dinosaur. Oh yes. It's like a mini. Right? It might think you have the right one. They're not flying birds. They look fake. They look like Jurassic Park. Small ostriches but they have like blue and red things on their face and look like dinosaurs. We saw so many cool ones when we went to that bird watching place in Columbia. Remember all the tanagers? Okay. Tanagers are amazing. The tails that are like I forget what those are called. No, but we saw one in Columbia that had the famous. Yes. It's very overwhelming because I actually like, oh, I was going to get the flashcards and see if you could quiz me on the birds like live. Do you want me to do that? No. Okay. Because I'm like, I actually think I know every bird. In Ontario. In Ontario. And then it's just when you travel, you're like. It's a whole. Okay. Like, I don't know what that is, but it's so exciting when you're in Columbia and then you see like a scarlet tanager and you're like, that's the one I see in High Park and it's flown here. My other question is like, where does this hyper fixation go? Like, do you feel like you're at the stage where it's just enjoying it now going forward? Yeah. Or is it? No, no, I know you are enjoying it. But my question is like, is when you're in another country, like, is it on your mind? Like now I'm somewhere different. I want to think about the birds. Or are you just kind of like, I'm at the place where I want to be with it and it will stay like. Well, in the Americas, it's like, sure. Like if I go to Columbia, it's like, yeah, I want a bird watch. because I love the idea of seeing the ones that I know. But it's hard to just like pick it up randomly when you go somewhere because I didn't know how long it took me to like really understand. Learn the locals, yeah. But, oh yeah, and avi tourism, that's a thing. It's one of the biggest forms of nature tourism right now. I have this written down. It's a company? No, like avi tourism is people who just go to places to bird watch, like avi, like avian. And it's a huge like market. And in fact, it's like increasing as people try to like essentially it's better for the environment when you they've like done all these studies when you travel to bird watch versus like travel to actually like just like i don't know go to a museum for whatever reason but they're why they they said it had to do with the way that like the money is actually being funded if to a lot of like parks and places trying to conserve okay areas fair like that money is going into like natural protection yes usually like that's well yeah at least now no but they're like if you're looking for birds it's like it's not a zoo it's like you're going to try and find a wild park that's probably like owned by the local government yeah um and like being preserved but one thing it mentioned was it could stress the birds out if people are using their apps that make the bird sounds which you're not supposed to do but on another flop year when i was bird watching it was really cold and raining and there was nothing and the bird watch hike tour guide took out his phone and was like i'm just gonna call this oven bird over and like used the noise and the way the helens of the group were like this is unacceptable they're like how i cannot i've never in my years of bird watching literally the oven bird came over but it was like it was like wanting to mate it's like not good and it was just interesting to see all these people be like i am despicable action and i was like oh my god this poor guy was just panicking because there were no birds but like do not play the bird sounds from you will get in trouble um but no i just love it and i think the reason i like it is because it makes toronto a more it makes high park more interesting as a place it's like traveling in your own city it's like you got to go and do this unexpected thing it's always going to be novel i think all it's going to be for me is a hobby until i die i always joke with my friends who are like oh we didn't see the eastern bluebird it's like truly everyone who's doing this is 70 like you have time like it's a fun hobby to do when you're young because it's like most of the people doing it are in their 60s and so you're not like in your whole thesis like by the time i know where the birds might not be most existentially challenging part is that like this could with the state of the world with donald trump and the way he's treating the environment like this could all go belly up there's a world just donald trump it's like basically every fucking country in the world yeah but he's particularly bad like i was just truly reading last night about china and europe and like let's not go there no well it's just interesting they're like we do know how to make potentially make plastic without using fossil fuels and they're investing in these like really interesting technologies that essentially like use coal in a different way to like anyways it's just like they're going ahead and making these things whereas the united states is just like getting rid of regulation and making it all go backwards and they're just like in the future like the US is gonna be fucked. It's like it's the fall of the US because like no one's gonna want to continue burning coal in the future. Like it's just stupid. Anyways, if some things go right, we might have more birds in the future but it is an existentially scary thing and every older person goes, you know, 30 years ago, it was loud with warblers. Now you're lucky if you see one and it's like, oh my God. So on that note, come to High Park May 27th. That's what this was all about. okay thank you for asking your questions next time we'll be doing i should have got people to send in the questions for you about birding i never thought about that okay we haven't done we're so disorganized no no we're starting to get organized okay okay next year we're gonna ask ahead of time what are your bird watching general we should think about uh like not right now but like some um voicemail episodes or even just like okay yeah prompt in on other episodes that we're talking about it's just like a fun way to engage with like people's thoughts about topics asapscience.com slash chat you can send us things at any time yeah but like it's nice to kind of like form episodes around those ideas okay cool happy bird watching see you on the slope hopefully