Birding with blind & visually impaired birders

A recent BEN Bulletin from Bird Education Network highlighted a "Birding for the Blind" program at Maryland's Patuxent Research Refuge and credited Steve Bouffard, former refuge manager at Minidoka National Wildlife Refuge in Idaho, for creating programs like this.

The bulletin's article said:

A tram tour allowed participants to travel through different habitats of the Refuge to get a real-life opportunity to hear different bird species. After the tram tour, Refuge staff and volunteers led participants through different education stations highlighting bird species found on the Refuge; one station included live Wood Duck chicks which could be touched and handled.

In preparation for the public program, the Refuge staff developed several additional partnerships. They included the Maryland State Library for the Blind & Physically Handicapped and the Maryland School for the Blind located in Baltimore. A professional physical therapist also visited Patuxent beforehand to give staff essential pointers on working with the blind.

The bulletin brought to mind the Great Texas Birding Classic, a birding competition with different categories. The event introduced the Outta-Sight Song Birder division a few years ago and encouraged visually impaired and blind residents to learn birdsong and participate in outings with birding guides. In the 2006 Classic, three teams -- Conroe's Palomas, The Tweety Birds and Caracaras Face to Face with Nature -- identified 35 to 39 species during their one-day event.

Does a festival or refuge in your area host programs for visually impaired and blind birders?

Are you one of WildBird's Facebook fans?

Have you joined us on Facebook as a WildBird fan? If so, you already know that we like to chat about birding and the magazine. We ask for fans' input for the magazine's content; we create photo albums of our readers' bird photos (Wandering Eye), our readers (On The Fly) and our sponsored teams (Great Texas Birding Classic, shown) -- and we give away bird books!

Sometimes our shelves become too full with review copies from publishers (thank you, publishers!), so we like to share the largesse with other birders. Keep an eye open for an update that says something like

WildBird asks that you provide the common name of the "marsh poodle" if you want to receive "Shorebirds of North America, Europe, and Asia: A Photographic Guide" by Richard Chandler http://bit.ly/1MsZOn The first correct answer garners a copy!

So, which book will be up for grabs next? Will you see the update before anyone else? Good luck!

Above: The TAMUG WildBirders -- cosponsored by Texas A&M University Galveston and WildBird -- competed in the one-day contest of the 2009 Great Texas Birding Classic, birded Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge (shown) and other sites, and won the Upper Coast division. Go team!

Winners! We got yer winners here!

WildBird has the pleasure of sponsoring teams in two competitive conservation events each year: the Great Texas Birding Classic and the World Series of Birding in New Jersey. This year, our teams won their categories in each event. Woo hoo!

In the Classic on May 3, the TAMUG WildBirders, from Texas A&M University Galveston and led by Susan Knock, won the upper coast tournament with 179 species identified in 24 hours. Here's the team's checklist.

In the World Series on May 10, Zen Zugunruhe -- led by Dave Hedeen -- won the Cape Island category with 145 species in 24 hours. Here they are, reclaiming the trophy at Sunday's awards brunch.

Zen Zugunruhe: Matt Garvey, Tait Johannson, Glen Davis, Dave Hedeen

For the first time, I participated in the World Series -- as a driver for the Swarovski Digiscoping Hawks. A last-minute invitation put me behind the wheel of a Chrysler Town & Country while Sharon Stiteler (aka Birdchick) and Clay Taylor of Swarovski Optik used digiscoping to photograph birds in southern Jersey. The duo turned in a checklist (actually, a PowerPoint slide show) of 113 species at the finish line and won the category.

Congratulations to the award-winning birders!

Great Texas Birding Classic auction

Want to support habitat conservation in the Lone Star State? With a state list of 632 species, Texas contains valuable habitat that hosts an incredible variety of birds. If you successfully bid on an item in the Great Texas Birding Classic's auction, you'll help birds such as Green Jays (below left) and Great Kiskadees.


In fact, you can bid on the prints of these south Texas specialties, painted by artist Gerald Sneed, as well as many other items: books, artwork, software, a photography clinic, weekend getaways and optics. The online auction will close on May 2, and winners will receive word on May 5.

Good luck!

Photo courtesy of Gulf Coast Bird Observatory

Youth teams in birding competitions

American Birding Association recently announced its 2008 ABA/Leica Tropicbirds teams for the Great Texas Birding Classic and the World Series of Birding.

During the April competition in the Lone Star State, Jeff and Liz Gordon will chaperone and mentor four teenagers:

Saraiya Ruano, 17, of Colorado Springs, Colo. (team captain)
Hope Batcheller, 16, of Petersburgh, N.Y.
Neil Gilbert, 15, of Orange, Calif.
Nico Sarbanes, 14, of Baltimore, Md.

During the one-day May event in the Garden State, Michael O'Brien and Louise Zemaitis will coach and accompany four teens:

Jacob Drucker, 15, of New York, N.Y. (captain)
Ted Stiritz, 14, of Russellville, Ark.
Andy Johnson, 15, of Ann Arbor, Mich.
Matthew Daw, 14, of Raleigh, N.C.

Find more info about ABA's programs for young birders here.