Ta'Leah Van Sistine
Schuchhardt of Madison’s Feminist Bird Club: ‘These are my people.’
It’s late morning when I join several birders sitting on a bench by the Warner Park Lagoon on Madison’s north side. Large groups of Canadian geese periodically land on the other side of the lagoon — honking and doing what I learn is called “whiffling,” where they twist and roll their bodies in the air before falling to a graceful landing.
From their perch on the bench, the birders use their binoculars to scan the horizon for new wildlife. The group of about six are at the park on this unusually warm late October day for the “Saturday Sit,” co-sponsored by the Wisconsin Council of the Blind & Visually Impaired and Madison Audubon. The event is part of the third annual “Birdability Week” — a national celebration of birders with disabilities that encourages communities to hold inclusive activities.
“Birds are such a unifying thing,” says Kaitlin Svabek, communications specialist for Madison Audubon. “Even if you don’t like birds, everyone has a story about birds.”
Birding sits are accessible because there aren’t any trails or debris that could serve as barriers for people who use a wheelchair or have a visual disability, Svabek says. And they have their advantages: a number of birds can be heard by remaining mostly still, while the slightest stir, when hiking, can cause birds to fly away. This morning, says Svabek, they have heard the calls of sandhill cranes and the high-pitched screech of the red-winged blackbird.
None of the birders today have visual disabilities themselves. But they all want to make sure the activity they love is available to all. “The natural world is here for everyone…” Cass Warneke starts to say before excitedly looking through their binoculars again. “Oh a kingfisher.” Birders, Warneke tells me, are always interrupting themselves.
Warneke is a member of the engagement committee for Madison’s Feminist Bird Club, a group whose mission is to welcome new birders and those who have traditionally been marginalized, including people of color and members of the LGBTQIA+ community.
Svabek is always looking for new ways to make Madison Audubon’s events welcoming to everyone; this includes listing accessibility details of events on the organization’s website. Providing information about the width of trails or whether they’re paved, Svabek says, “gives folks a chance to opt in instead of feeling like they’re opting out.”
Madison Audubon and the Wisconsin Council of the Blind & Visually Impaired started partnering on birding programs about five years ago as co-hosts of a “Birding By Ear” course. The class teaches people to identify birds by their songs and wing flap patterns, which Svabek says is a useful skill for all birders because birds are often camouflaged behind leaves and branches.
“The people who love birds and nature are more diverse than we might think about on the surface,” says Denise Jess, executive director of the Wisconsin Council of the Blind & Visually Impaired. “When we actively engage in inclusivity, we actually make it richer.”
Caitlyn Schuchhardt eventually joins the group at the Warner Park Lagoon with binoculars in hand. She’s on the leadership team for Madison’s Feminist Bird Club.
Schuchhardt shares that she felt a bit adrift and lonely after she dropped out of her graduate English program at UW-Madison in 2019. She attended a Feminst Bird Club event at the Lewis Nine Springs E-Way in hopes of meeting people. She felt warmly welcomed, confirming for her the inclusive nature of birding enthusiasts. She also saw 40 different species of birds, most of which she could not have named before.
That day, Schuchhardt says, “I finally found a place where these are my people.”
Number of different bird species spotted at the Oct. 22 birding sit:
27
Number of ‘exotic’ species at the birding sit:
3; rock pigeon, European starling and house sparrow
A unique birding hotspot in Wisconsin:
The Kohl’s in Jefferson County where 5-6 different species of gulls roam the parking lot
Acreage of land Madison Audubon has preserved in Wisconsin:
More than 3,000 acres
