I’d love to get some recommendations for great, free online webinars. All naturalist topics welcome!
In your opinion, what made them so engaging? Is it the topic/content? The presenter? The presentation itself (i.e. sequencing, photos, animations, humor, etc)? Audience engagement? Something else, or a combination?
I realize this is all subjective, but I’d like to get some anecdote about what is landing in the nature community, and find some new content to watch. :)
On Youtube i’ve discovered the series of lectures from the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Alberta. Some i have found more engaging than others, due largely to subject matter being of more specific interest, as well as the presenter’s style, but mostly the former - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZlbplZQQwVpcyo2zibn-TBciG0Cmc8R1
Other disciplines than biology are covered so you can shift through, but a shout out to the YouTube channel of inaturalist’s parent organization the California Academy of Sciences is due
The last couple of months I’ve dialled in to the Aspen Center for Environmental Studies’ winter Naturalist Nights series of webinars. Prior to this season they were held in person, but pandemic. The last one in this year’s series was last week, I think, but you can find recordings at the link above.
The topics are diverse but generally relate back to the central Rockies environment. One of my favourite talks this year was by Ted Floyd from the American Birding Association, who talked about birding and citizen science during the pandemic (with a healthy dose of iNaturalist thrown in).