Apr 18, 2024, 9:00 AM – 11:00 AM PDT

Via Parasio Park, Monterey, 100 Vía Paraiso, Monterey, CA 93940, USA

Trip Leader: Amanda Preece, MAS staff and Birdability Captain.

Description: Likely birds include Townsend’s and Yellow-rumped Warblers, Acorn Woodpeckers,  Red-shouldered Hawks, and others! Birders of all abilities (birding or  otherwise) are welcome on this trip. We’ll take every opportunity to sit and listen in quiet areas to better  learn our bird calls and songs. We will walk at a slow pace to better  hear and locate birds. This trip is open to all levels of birders! Bring  binoculars if you have them or note that you need binoculars when you  RSVP. We have nice ones to lend out. 

Meet: 9:00 am at the parking lot near the tennis courts on Via Parasio Road in Monterey.The GPS point for parking is located HERE. This park is in the neighborhood up the hill from downtown Monterey. Trip Difficulty: The trail will be ADA accessible, with a few benches to stop at along the route. We’ll move at a slower pace to better hear and observe the birds and wildlife at the park. Bring a small chair if you like to sit and listen. We will travel approximately 0.5 miles with no elevation gain.

Facilities: Wheelchair accessible bathrooms are available at this park.

To RSVP, contact the trip leader at montereyaudubon@gmail.com.

Birdability is thrilled to announce the launch of the Birdability Book Club. Birdability is dedicated to making birding and bird activities more accessible for everyone, especially individuals with disabilities. The Birdability Book Club is an extension of this commitment, providing a welcoming space for participants to connect, share experiences, and explore the world of birds through the lens of literature. The book club is scheduled every other month on the 3rd Wednesday at 7:00 P.M. Eastern Time/6:00 P.M. Central Time/5:00 P.M. Mountain Time/4:00 P.M. Pacific Time. Please register here to receive the link for our virtual meeting.

Birdability knows the importance of virtual social opportunities to people who experience disabilities and health concerns. It can be difficult to socialize when you have an access challenge, and that is why we’re bringing the popular bird-themed board game, Wingspan, to monthly games nights on Zoom! Join Birdability right from the comfort of your home to make friends and play birds on the second Thursday of each month at 6 PM Central Time! Join us via Zoom here!

Birdability knows the importance of virtual social opportunities to people who experience disabilities and health concerns. It can be difficult to socialize when you have an access challenge, and that is why we’re bringing the popular bird-themed board game, Wingspan, to monthly games nights on Zoom! Join Birdability right from the comfort of your home to make friends and play birds on the second Thursday of each month at 6 PM Central Time! Join us via Zoom here!

Birdability is thrilled to announce the launch of the Birdability Book Club. Birdability is dedicated to making birding and bird activities more accessible for everyone, especially individuals with disabilities. The Birdability Book Club is an extension of this commitment, providing a welcoming space for participants to connect, share experiences, and explore the world of birds through the lens of literature. The book club will debut in February, with subsequent meetings scheduled every other month on the 3rd Wednesday at 7:00 P.M. Eastern Time/6:00 P.M. Central Time/5:00 P.M. Mountain Time/4:00 P.M. Pacific Time. Please register here to receive the link for our virtual meeting.

Birdability knows the importance of virtual social opportunities to people who experience disabilities and health concerns. It can be difficult to socialize when you have an access challenge, and that is why we’re bringing the popular bird-themed board game, Wingspan, to monthly games nights on Zoom! Join Birdability right from the comfort of your home to make friends and play birds on the second Thursday of each month at 6 PM Central Time! Join us via Zoom here!

The Puget Sound Estuarium's Discovery Speaker Series welcomes artists, educators, scientists, and earth advocates to share their recent or current work to raise awareness and spark conversations. These 45 minute webinars allow the audience 15 minutes for questions and answers at the end.

We are pleased to welcome Virginia Rose, founder and board president of Birdability! Birdability is a nonprofit organization that’s dedicated to welcoming, inclusive, safe and accessible outdoor birding. Learn how you can be aware of accessibility challenges and get involved in making sure that birding is for everybody and every body. If you are interested in creating these welcoming spaces you’ll want to tune in and see what Birdability is looking forward to as they continue to grow!

Birdability Birders: Conversations about Birding with Access Challenges. Episode 6: Paul Miller.

Birdability and American Bird Conservancy (ABC) are co-hosting an online interview series aiming to promote accessibility, inclusion, and representation within the birding community.

Throughout the series, interviewees will discuss their experience with birding, what everyday life is like living with their disability or other health concern, and what they need from the birding community and birding locations for them to feel welcome, included, and able to access birding locations.

The sixth episode will feature Paul Miller (he/him). Paul has had FSHD since birth, and now uses a power wheelchair to get around. (FSHD – facioscapulohumeral dystrophy – is a slowly progressive condition which results in the weakening of muscles in the face, shoulders and arms.) When he started birding his difficulty using his hands and arms meant that special adaptive birding equipment was needed to support, move and focus his binoculars and scope. This equipment didn’t exist, so he built some himself! He a Birdability Captain and chair of the Accessibility Committee at Sacramento Audubon, and is passionate about sharing his inventions to help others overcome obstacles.

Closed captions and an American Sign Language interpreter will be provided. The series is free to attend, but registration is required. Register to attend the sixth episode here.

This is the final episode of this series. You can read more about the series and access recorded interviews with previous guests here.

Join Freya McGregor, Birdability Coordinator, in a presentation to Brooklyn Bird Club on Tuesday February 8th at 7pm Eastern.

Birding is an activity that can bring so much joy and empowerment to everybody, but not everybody is able to go birding easily. Birdability is a non-profit organization focused on removing barriers to access for birders with mobility challenges, blindness or low vision, intellectual or developmental disabilities (including autism), mental illness, being Deaf or Hard of Hearing and other health concerns; and bringing the joy of birding to people with disabilities and other health concerns who aren’t yet birders. Learn about why this should matter to you (even if you don't have an accessibility challenge), ways to be a more welcoming and inclusive birder, the Birdability Map (and how to submit a Birdability Site Review) and our resources for birders (and potential future birders) with accessibility challenges... because birding is for everybody and every body! Learn more and find resources at birdability.org.

Learn more, and register, on the Brooklyn Bird Club website.

Birdability Birders: Conversations about Birding with Access Challenges. Episode 5: Day Scott.

Birdability and American Bird Conservancy (ABC) are co-hosting an online interview series aiming to promote accessibility, inclusion, and representation within the birding community.

Throughout the series, interviewees will discuss their experience with birding, what everyday life is like living with their disability or other health concern, and what they need from the birding community and birding locations for them to feel welcome, included, and able to access birding locations.

The fifth episode will feature Day Scott. Day Scott (she/her) is a certified California and Wyoming naturalist, wildlife photographer, writer, and environmental educator. Her passion in ornithology has led to amazing opportunities including her work being featured on Discovery and BBC America in addition to teaching a bird photography workshop at The Biggest Week in American Birding festival. Though still navigating through her traumatic brain injury (TBI) recovery and adjusting to a lifestyle with disabilities, she’s discovering her voice for storytelling, an affinity for birds and the bravery to stand out and dare greatly through it all. Day continues to find joy through her connection with nature.

Closed captions and an American Sign Language interpreter will be provided. The series is free to attend, but registration is required. Register to attend the fifth episode here.

New interviews will be held live online on the first Tuesday of every month, 6-7.30pm Eastern, from October 2021 to March 2022. You can read more about the series, upcoming guests and access recorded interviews here.

Birdability Birders: Conversations about Birding with Access Challenges. Episode 4: Kari Sasportas.

Birdability and American Bird Conservancy (ABC) are co-hosting an online interview series aiming to promote accessibility, inclusion, and representation within the birding community.

Throughout the series, interviewees will discuss their experience with birding, what everyday life is like living with their disability or other health concern, and what they need from the birding community and birding locations for them to feel welcome, included, and able to access birding locations.

The fourth episode will feature Kari Sasportas. Kari Sasportas (she/they) is an Autistic birder with a lifelong passion for animals and nature.  A serious interest in birds began with the sighting of a Pyrrhuloxia in 1997 while serving as an AmeriCorps volunteer at Guadalupe Mountains National Park in Texas.  In 2015, Kari was certified as a Master Naturalist by the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge in Massachusetts.  Kari has been a member of Mass Audubon since 2002 and avidly contributes to eBird, adding to their life list while furthering citizen science.  Kari is a Massachusetts Birdability Captain and advocates for greater understanding and inclusion of neurodivergent individuals in natural spaces and birding communities.  

Closed captions and an American Sign Language interpreter will be provided. The series is free to attend, but registration is required. Register to attend the fourth episode here.

New interviews will be held live online on the first Tuesday of every month, 6-7.30pm Eastern, from October 2021 to March 2022. You can read more about the series, upcoming guests and access recorded interviews here.

Join Birdability Coordinator Freya McGregor to learn more about our work at Birdability, what makes a truly accessible birding location, and how to be a more welcoming and inclusive birder. Come away understanding why this should matter to you, even if you don’t have a disability or other health concern, and how you can help us ensure that birding truly is for everybody and every body!

Thursday December 9, 6.30-8pm Eastern. Register to attend here.

Birdability Birders: Conversations about Birding with Access Challenges. Episode 3: Letícia Soares.

Birdability and American Bird Conservancy (ABC) are co-hosting an online interview series aiming to promote accessibility, inclusion, and representation within the birding community.

Throughout the series, interviewees will discuss their experience with birding, what everyday life is like living with their disability or other health concern, and what they need from the birding community and birding locations for them to feel welcome, included, and able to access birding locations.

The third episode will feature Letícia Soares. Letícia Soares (she/her) is a broadly trained ornithologist. She is a post-doctoral associate at the Advanced Facility for Avian Research at Western University, and was a co-chair of the joint meeting of the American Ornithological Society and the Society of Canadian Ornithologists in 2021. Throughout her career, she has done field research with birds from the Amazon forest in Brazil, where she’s originally from, to the Caribbean and the mixed forests in Ontario. She has battled Fibromyalgia for eight years and is currently learning to live with Long Covid, which causes chronic pain, fatigue, brain fog, among other symptoms. She considers herself a non traditional birder and is passionate about making birding and ornithology more inclusive and accessible. 

Closed captions and an American Sign Language interpreter will be provided. The series is free to attend, but registration is required. Register to attend the third episode here.

New interviews will be held live online on the first Tuesday of every month, 6-7.30pm Eastern, from October 2021 to March 2022. You can read more about the series, upcoming guests and access recorded interviews here.

Georgia Audubon is partnering with Birdability to host virtual field trips highlighting accessible trails, birders who experience accessibility challenges, and birds from around the country! Come birding with:

• Emerson Milam (she/her), is a Birdability Captain who has chronic Lyme disease and ADHD, which she views as a birding superpower. She will be birding from Huntley Meadows in Fairfax, Virginia.

• Joseph Saunders (he/him), wildlife photographer, member of BlackAFInSTEM and owner of Paraherpetologica, who uses a manual wheelchair. He will be birding at Lake Hefner in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

• Freya McGregor (she/her), Birdability Coordinator and an occupational therapist with a dodgy knee. She will be birding near Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

• Corina Newsome (she/her), Community Engagement Manager for Georgia Audubon. She will be birding in Atlanta, Georgia.

Register to watch live via Zoom, or watch the recorded event on the Georgia Audubon Facebook page on Sunday November 21st at 10am Eastern. These events will occur quarterly, so stay tuned to learn about more accessible trails around the country with more birders who experience accessibility challenges!

Georgia Audubon is dedicated to building places where birds and people thrive.

Birdability Birders: Conversations about Birding with Access Challenges. Episode 2: Jerry Berrier.

Birdability and American Bird Conservancy (ABC) are co-hosting an online interview series aiming to promote accessibility, inclusion, and representation within the birding community.

Throughout the series, interviewees will discuss their experience with birding, what everyday life is like living with their disability or other health concern, and what they need from the birding community and birding locations for them to feel welcome, included, and able to access birding locations.

The second episode will feature Birdability Captain Jerry Berrier. Totally blind from birth, Jerry Berrier worked for Verizon Communications for 24 years. Since 2003 he worked as an assistive technology specialist, most recently as Director of Assistive Technology for the Perkins School for the Blind; he retired in June of 2021. He has been birding by ear since 1972, and he has served as an accessibility consultant with Mass Audubon on more than a dozen All Persons Trails projects. For several years, he has been invited by L.L.Bean to conduct birding by ear workshops at their annual spring birding event in Freeport, Maine, and has conducted numerous birding programs for adults and children who are blind.

Closed captions and an American Sign Language interpreter will be provided. The series is free to attend, but registration is required. Register to attend the second episode here.

New interviews will be held live online on the first Tuesday of every month, 6-7.30pm Eastern, from October 2021 to March 2022. You can read more about the series, upcoming guests and access recorded interviews here.

Sponsor birders with disabilities and other health concerns and raise money to help cover the costs of Birdability Week 2021!

Come birding with folks with access challenges via Facebook and Instagram Lives from 8am-1pm Eastern. Pledge to donate $1 (or more!) per species of bird seen or heard by one (or more!) members of #TeamNuthatch and cheer on this example of birding for every body!

Donations can be made online or via check and are tax deductible. Help us raise $5000 to cover honorariums for Birdability Week panelists, workshop and American Sign Language interpreter costs, and enjoy some virtual birding!

Sponsor #TeamNuthatch!

Join in for a conversation about inclusion, diversity, equity and access (IDEA) in birding and the outdoors, and learn what you can do to be a more welcoming and inclusive birder for folks who are BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, who have a disability or other health concern, and who share intersecting identities. Come away with more understanding and appreciation for your fellow birder, and strategies you can start implementing immediately for yourself and any groups or organizations you’re a part of to help ensure birding truly is for everybody!

Closed captions and an American Sign Language interpreter will be provided. This event is free and will be recorded and available on the Birdability website and YouTube channel. Donations to support Birdability’s work are appreciated; you can donate at birdability.org/donate

This event is being held in partnership with National Audubon. Register to attend this panel here.

Moderator:

Freya McGregor (she/her), OTR/L, CIG is the Birdability Coordinator and an occupational therapist. Birding since childhood, her ‘dodgy’ knee often creates an accessibility challenge for her. With a clinical background in blindness and low vision services, she is passionate about enabling all birders and potential future birders to enjoy birding and nature as much as she does.

Panelists:

Jerry Berrier (he/him) has been totally blind from birth. He has been birding by ear since 1972, and recently retired after 18 years as Director of Assistive Technology for the Perkins School for the Blind. He has served as an accessibility consultant with Mass Audubon on more than a dozen All Persons Trails projects, and has conducted numerous birding by ear workshops for adults and children who are blind.

Monica Bryand (she/her) is the Co-Executive Director at Voices for Racial Justice and Founder and lead at the Urban Bird Collective, and has been working on social justice issues and the intersections of issues and identities for decades. Monica started the The Urban Birders Collective four years ago to support birders of all different skill levels and to create safe and welcoming spaces for all communities, including Native Americans, People of Color, immigrants, the LGBT communities and more, to explore birding. The UBC wants all communities to feel the benefits of being out in our natural green spaces in our various Twin City neighborhoods and beyond.

Elise Greenberg (she/they) is the founder of Philly Queer Birders and has an educational background in conservation biology. She is passionate about creating safe, queer community in the outdoors and centering the knowledge and experience of other LGBTQ+ birders. Birding has helped improve Elise’s mental health, strengthened their connection to the environment, and has served as an ongoing learning experience. 

Meghadeepa Maity (they/them) grew up birding in India and now lives in so-called Western Massachusetts where they continually navigate the challenges of exploring the outdoors as a neurodivergent, Bengali, immigrant, queer woman and a trauma survivor with multiple invisible disabilities (complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, a Traumatic Brain Injury, chronic migraines and visual processing disorders). They have been a persistent voice championing safety, accessibility and inclusion in birding spaces across Massachusetts for the last year and a half. They are the primary organizer for the local Anti-racist Collective of Avid Birders, and have been involved with Mass Audubon, Birdability and the Murmuration Project.

Corina Newsome (she/her) is the Community Engagement Manager at Georgia Audubon and a recent graduate from Georgia Southern University with a Master of Science in Biology. Having experienced the hurdles faced by Black, Indigenous, Peoples of Color, and low-wealth communities in wildlife conservation, Corina’s mission is to center the perspectives and leadership of historically marginalized communities in wildlife conservation, environmental education, and exploration of the natural world. Corina is excited to serve as a Birdability Captain, and supports the work of the Freedom Birders.

Karla Noboa (they/she) is President of the Feminist Bird Club (FBC), a chapter leader at FBC Philadelphia, and the Community Engagement Manager at River Network. They are Latine, queer, non-binary, and live with anxiety and depression, as well as an autoimmune condition (Hashimoto's Thyroiditis) that can impact their ability to be active. Karla is dedicated to and passionate about environmental equity, safety and access in the outdoors.

Dexter Patterson (he/him) is known on social media as the Wisco Birder, and is on a mission to spread as much joy as possible by making his new hobby of birdwatching welcoming for all birders in the State of Wisconsin. His Instagram followers love his energetic and exciting videos that feature him singing and dancing through the woods, finding stunning birds throughout the state, and taking gorgeous photos, and he co-founded the BIPOC Birding Club of Wisconsin with Jeff Galligan to continue this work.

Kari Sasportas (she/they) is an autistic birder and a Massachusetts Birdability Captain.  Kari is a member of the Feminist Bird Club of Boston and has been a Mass Audubon member since 2002.  In 2015, Kari was certified as a Master Naturalist by the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge.  Kari is an appointed Commissioner on the LGBTQIA+ Rainbow Commission in the Town of Arlington, Massachusetts, and advocates tirelessly to dismantle systemic barriers to inclusion, safety, and accessibility in public spaces.

Letícia Soares (she/her) is a broadly trained ornithologist. She is a post-doctoral associate at the Advanced Facility for Avian Research at Western University, and was a co-chair of the joint meeting of the American Ornithological Society and the Society of Canadian Ornithologists in 2021. Throughout her career, she has done field research with birds from the Amazon forest in Brazil, where she’s originally from, to the Caribbean and the mixed forests in Ontario. She has battled Fibromyalgia for eight years and is currently learning to live with Long Covid, which causes chronic pain, fatigue, brain fog, among other symptoms. She considers herself a non traditional birder and is passionate about making birding and ornithology more inclusive and accessible. 

A birding location opens a new boardwalk and describes it on their website as “accessible”… but when you arrive, you discover it really isn’t… To help you submit Birdability Site Reviews to the Birdability Map, and to help you know where to hold accessible and inclusive bird outings, as well as learn a few things you may never have considered, join Birdability Coordinator and occupational therapist Freya McGregor to learn what can make a birding location truly accessible. We’ll hear from special guests explaining what they need, and get ideas on trail design and upgrades you can advocate for in your community.

The presentation will last less than an hour, but we have included 90 minutes for this event to ensure there is plenty of time for questions.

Closed captions and an American Sign Language interpreter will be provided. This event is free and will be recorded and available on the Birdability website and YouTube channel. Donations to support Birdability’s work are appreciated; you can donate at birdability.org/donate

This event is being held in partnership with National Audubon. Register for this webinar here.

Curious? We hope so! Join birders – and potential future birders – with disabilities and other health concerns as we discuss their approach to adventure and exploration. What do you think about when planning a birding trip? How do you tackle obstacles, and what happens when something goes wrong? How can you frame your birding exploits to be a tool of empowerment, rather than seeing barriers at every turn? We hope you’ll come away with a new approach to birding!

Closed captions and an American Sign Language interpreter will be provided. This event is free and will be recorded and available on the Birdability website and YouTube channel. Donations to support Birdability’s work are appreciated; you can donate at birdability.org/donate

This event is being held in partnership with National Audubon. Register for the Zoom webinar here.

Moderator:

Virginia Rose (she/her) is the founder of Birdability and a Board member of Travis Audubon in Austin, Texas. She has been a paraplegic for 48 years and uses a manual wheelchair to get around. She began birding 18 years ago and discovered her best self in nature, and founded Birdability to help others with access challenges discover the joys of birding.

Panelists:

Topher Downham (he/him). An avid outdoorsman before his accident, Topher Downham found solace and healing on City of Boulder hiking trails after becoming a quadriplegic.  For the past 25 years as an Outreach Coordinator for the City of Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks, he has been helping other people with disabilities reconnect with nature and the outdoors through wheelchair hiking, birdwatching, and all-terrain handcycling. A firm believer that nature is needed by everyone, Topher has continuously advocated for opportunities for all. 

Michael Hurben (he/him) is an avid global birder who has been legally blind due to retinitis pigmentosa since his mid-twenties. He has made it a life goal to identify at least half of the world’s bird species despite his disability. He is a retired physicist and lives with his birding wife, Claire, in Bloomington, Minnesota.

Bonnie Lewkowicz (she/her) is the Program Manager of Access Northern California at Bay Area Outreach & Recreation Program in Berkeley, CA. In this capacity she educates about and advocates for greater access to the outdoors for people with disabilities and maintains a website of accessible trails in Northern CA. As a nature lover and wheelchair rider she is passionate about expanding people’s perceptions about equity in the outdoors to include people with disabilities.

Emerson Milam (she/her) is a Birdability Captain from Virginia. She has ADHD (which she views as a birding superpower) and chronic Lyme disease which can create some challenges for her. When asked about her favorite bird, she usually replies, “Whichever one I happen to be looking at.”

Nicole Neigel (she/her) is autistic and struggles with Chronic Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) and an undiagnosed illness. She works as an educator and bird rehabber at a nature center, where she advocates to make her workplace and their programs more accessible for everybody. She is a Birdability Captain, and is passionate about helping others enjoy nature and birds regardless of any accessibility challenges!

Marjorie Turner Hollman (she/her) is a personal historian who loves the outdoors, and has completed four self-published Easy Walks guide books, including her newest book Finding Easy Walks Wherever You Are. She regained some mobility after being totally paralyzed on her right side by brain surgery to save her life. She volunteers with the National Park Service in the Blackstone Valley Heritage Corridor, where numerous adaptive outdoor programs are held, and is the moderator of a Facebook group with over 7000 members where participants share not only photos, but trail conditions, accessibility info, and specific info to help others be more active, regardless of challenges.