[nfbmi-talk] Birding Blog Mentions Camp T and Donna

[Fred Wurtzel]

The Web is an amazing place.  This is a great Blog post.

 

 

VisionAwareT

Resources for Independent Living with Vision Loss

American  Foundation for the BlindR| Reader's Digest Partners for Sight

On CBS News: Blind "Birding-by-Ear" with Donna Posant

Posted on 5/28/2013 at 3:07 PM

by

Maureen Duffy

House wren

My Twitter friend

Fred Wurtzel

, an avid blind birder from Michigan, alerted me to a new "blind birding"
video on

CBS News, entitled

Birding by ear: The birdwatchers who see by listening

, featuring expert birder Donna Posant. Donna is the field services director
for

Opportunities Unlimited for the Blind

(OUB) and a widely recognized "birding-by-ear" teacher and naturalist.

You can learn more about Donna and the birding-by-ear experience by watching
and/or

listening to the video (with closed-captioning)

on the CBS News website

.

Opportunities Unlimited for the Blind

(OUB), through OUB Camps, provides outdoor education and recreation
specifically

adapted for individuals who are blind or visually impaired. "Birding-by-Ear"
is a

series of sessions held monthly in lower Michigan to "introduce the wonders
of identifying

birds by their songs for children, youth, and adults who are visually
impaired or

blind."

About Birding-by-Ear

As a dedicated longtime "birder," I also read - with great interest - a
story by

Donna in the Spring 2012 issue of the

Cornell Lab of Ornithology

newsletter, entitled

Sensing Nature's Beauty in Sound, Scent, and Touch

. Here's an excerpt:

Without sight, our other senses are fine-tuned to nature's rhythms and we
find ourselves

in harmony as she reveals herself to us through touch, sound, and scent.

Behind the thick undergrowth a catbird is claiming his territory. Up over
the wooded

hill there is an ever present chorus of Eastern Wood-Pewees, Blue Jays,
Red-eyed

Vireos, American Robins, and the always-delightful Black-capped Chickadees.
The occasional

Ovenbird is calling for the

"teacher-teacher-teacher."

In the middle of it all we hear the"yanking"

of the White-breasted Nuthatch, walking upside-down to find his meal. We
heard a

Barred Owl here recently during one of our jaunts. He didn't stay in one
spot for

long, probably busy hunting for a mouse. The kids love this bird's
questioning call:

"Who, who cooks for you, who cooks for you now?"

More about Blind Birding

Here's a helpful explanation fromSouth Birder Magazine

(not available online), in an article about the Texas-based Outta-Sight Song
Birders,

entitled "Blind Birding Takes Flight":

There's an "Aha!" moment when you mention blind birding to those folks who
know the

difference between an Eastern Towhee and an American Robin. It's that moment
when

the avid birder realizes that the sense they use most often in their sport
is

not seeing, but hearing

.

Instead of binoculars, digiscopes and field guides, blind or visually
impaired birders

use reference CDs, mini cassette recorders and sighted tour guides to
identify different

birds by their sounds. For the [blind] birdwatcher, a bird's song or call is
as valuable

a tool as the color of the bird's eye ring, feathers and breast is to the
sighted

birder.

"The best analogy I can use is that when you start birding, it's about 80
percent

visual and 20 percent audio," says Jim Booker, naturalist at Bentsen-Rio
Grande Valley

State Park. "I've been a birdwatcher for 28 years and as you get more
experienced,

it becomes more like 80 percent audio and 20 percent visual, and you're
lifting your

binoculars less and less."

Listen to Bird Calls

As a (sighted) birder myself, I know this is true. I often hear the
distinctive birdsong

long before the bird is in my sights. Try it yourself by listening to the
following

bird calls:

Black-capped Chickadee

Additional Blind Birding Information

Throughout the United States, many groups are beginning to acknowledge the
benefits

of blind birding. In Idaho, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service
sponsors

birding trips, and the Massachusetts Audubon Society has partnered with the

Lowell Association for the Blind

to lead

birding-by-ear trips

in the Park River National Wildlife Refuge.

The Great Texas Birding Classic: Blind Birders' Tip Sheet

provides guidelines for sighted birders who accompany blind birders, and the

New York Timesprofiled the Outta-Sight Song Birders in

For a Few Birders in Texas, the Victory Is in the Trill

. (Clever title, wouldn't you say?)

You can find more information about a variety of outdoor recreational
activities

for adults who are blind or visually impaired at

Recreation & Leisure

on

VisionAware.org

.

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