On the Air with Birds
By Hob Osterlund, Safina Center Senior Fellow
DJ Sandy Swift, Hob Osterlund, Thomas Daubert (photo courtesy of Friends of Kauaʻi National Wildlife Refuges)
Disc jockey Sandy Wann “Tita” Swift is one funny lady. Like all good improv storytellers, she’s quick on her feet. She can pick up a grounder from one of her listeners and toss it back without hesitation, predictably with a positive spin.
Her nickname “Tita” is a respected title in Hawai’i. It refers to a woman who is equal parts tough and tender. A wahine who speaks her mind, and whom you might want to think twice before you cross. A woman who can drive a big truck, break a horse and shoot a pig, all without wrecking her false eyelashes. DJ Sandy is also reverent about her Hawaiian roots. She’s got “soft tears,” and chokes up easily about topics that touch her heart.
One of those topics is native birds. She knows a lot about the many challenges they face, and how many species Hawaiʻi has already lost.
For several years I’ve appeared as a guest on her show to talk about birds. Those appearances have been spontaneous and sporadic, however, so this year we decided to make our conversation predictable: every first Monday from 9-10am (HST) we are featuring “Manu Monday.” (Manu is Hawaiian for “bird.”)
Manu Monday gives us the opportunity to celebrate birds as well as take on poorly-understood constructs related to their protection. These last couple of months weʻve focused on the dire straights of our native forest birds and the species that are fast disappearing due to avian malaria. Climate change has allowed non-native mosquitoes to go to higher and higher elevations. The solution? Birth control for boys.
“Huh. Must be kinda hard to put condoms on mosquitoes,” Sandy deadpans.
After we explain the basic science of wolbachia-induced sterilization in lay terms, we get two questions from listeners. One: is getting rid of mosquitoes a problem for other birds? (The answer is no. Mosquitoes are not native to Hawaiʻi, and no species of native bird or bat relies on them as a significant food source.) Two: Are these GMO (genetically modified organism) mosquitoes?
We could not have planted a better caller. Already some well-intentioned people have voiced concerns that are grounded in a misunderstanding that the mosquitoes are actually Frankenskeeters. (The answer again is no. They are not GMO.) Nor is the strategy the brainchild of some anonymous crazed committee. The proponents of the “birth control” intervention are scientists and other conservationists who understand the success of this intervention in international public health settings, and who are working overtime to prevent the demise of our precious forest birds.
Thomas Daubert, KKCR studio (photo courtesy of FKWR)
Jennifer Waipa, Visitor Services Manager, Kauaʻi National Wildlife Refuge Complex (photo by Sonia Narang)
Taking to the KKCR airwaves for the wetland and seabirds are Jennifer Waipa, Visitor Services Manager of Kauaʻi National Wildlife Refuge Complex and Thomas Daubert, Executive Director of Friends of Kauaʻi Wildlife Refuges. Jen and Thomas have been recording a National Wildlife Refuge “Minute” every month for the last ten months. These fabulous blurbs play at least twice a day, and more often when airtime is available.
DJ Sandy regularly plays them on her show and infuses them with her own deeply-felt sentiments. Oh, did I mention humor? She tells her listeners if mosquito birth control fails, the team should just strap her naked self to a tree because the insects love her so much, theyʻd fly from miles around just to sip her blood.
Thomas Daubert and Lindsay Cassandra, KKCR (photo courtesy of FKWR)
“Of course theyʻd have to check into Betty Ford after that,” she jokes, then pushes a button to play a Mele o Nā Manu—a Hawaiian song that celebrates birds—specifically, the beautiful and haunting Ke Hoʻolono Nei by Leokane Pryor.
You can tune into the next Manu Monday on KKCR online here!