Middle Susquehanna Riverkeeper Association Board President Michael Kinney and his girlfriend, Missy Gray, paddled the West Branch of the Susquehanna River the first 24 days of May. 

Along the way, they took a Birdnet PUC with mobile hotspot and Jackery battery with solar panels ... a unit modified by Doug Fessler of Fessler IT Consulting to help record, ID and upload bird calls across the 228-mile adventure. 

The unit detected more than 22,000 calls representing more than 170 different species, data that Middle Susquehanna Riverkeeper Association board member Eric Belfanti developed into an interactive GIS storymap.

Riverkeeper's note: The following column was written by Middle Susquehanna Riverkeeper John Zaktansky. 

As the world grew socially distant in early to mid-2020, I was just taking over the reins of the Middle Susquehanna Riverkeeper Association, wondering how to make connections and spread meaningful environmental education and education when in-person events were suddenly obsolete. 

Thankfully, my previous work in journalism had included hosting a popular (at the time) regional podcast called Keeping the Beat, where we interview local musicians. Seeing such a rich network of people with a passion for the Susquehanna River -- basically an untapped pool of resources and some vital research being done within the watershed that was going unnoticed publicly, it seemed like a worthwhile opportunity to start recording interviews I was already doing for stories for our growing blog feed and produce podcast episodes.

So, when interviewing Dr. David Lieb, an aquatic biologist with the PA Fish and Boat Commission, about invasive crayfish in early August of 2020, I got permission to record and on Aug. 19 of that year, we released the first episode of what has become the Middle Susquehanna Riverkeeper Podcast.