Posted on 01/26/2004 8:53:13 AM PST by SwinneySwitch
Edinburg man seeks members on first-ever team in state competition
The kiskadee sings its own name: “kiskadee-kiskadee.” And the altamira oriole’s sharp, choppy twitter is quite unlike the song of its identical looking cousin — the hooded oriole — which whirs like a miniature motor.
For blind people in the Rio Grande Valley, these creative chirps are the only way to enjoy the wonders of birding — and for some it’s serious business.
Bird calls are breeding a new pastime for the Valley’s blind, who are cocking their ears each week at Edinburg’s World Birding Center, sharpening their auditory identification skills in preparation for state competition.
“Birding by ear is just like learning a song. It doesn’t take hard work,” said Raul Reyes, president of the 20-member Rio Grande Valley Blind and Visually Impaired Bird Watchers group.
Reyes is recruiting members from Cameron County to help build teams of birders to compete in the Great Texas Birding Classic in April, a competition that pits the bird-identification skills of some 400 people throughout Texas’ coastal counties. Contestants will compete in their respective areas.
“There’s nothing for blind people to do in the Rio Grande Valley. Most of us just sit in day cares all day, not doing a thing,” said Reyes, who lost his sight from eye surgery complications 14 years ago.
No Cameron County residents have signed up, and Reyes needs blind birders before the Feb. 1 deadline.
If enough people sign up, this will be the first year that the Birding Classic will have a division for blind birders, said Shelley Scroggs, Texas Parks and Wildlife Director of the Great Texas Birding Classic. During the competition, contestants will visit a federal or state reserve, where they’ll attempt to identify as many birds as possible. About $50,000 are divided among each area’s winning teams to give to the environmental organization of their choice.
According to a 1998 report based on Social Security information, 13,000 blind or severely visually impaired residents live in Cameron, Hidalgo, Willacy and Starr counties. With so many numbers, Reyes said he should have no problem forming three teams of sharp-eared individuals.
Local groups that offer assistance to the blind — Texas Commission for the Blind in Harlingen and the Valley Association for Independent Living in Brownsville and Pharr — are geared toward job training, not recreation. That’s why Reyes is trying to organize this event. Everyone needs to have fun, he said, and birding by ear is the only outdoor, organized activity developed for the Valley’s blind population.
Classes for birding by ear are held monthly at the Edinburg branch of the World Birding Center, a nine-site entity that stretches 120 miles of river road from South Padre Island to Roma.
The classes teach how to recognize the calls of some 150 birds, which are recorded on a set of CDs.
Stuffed birds let the blind feel birds, to match bird shapes to their calls.
“You don’t have to have sight to be a birder. Some of the greatest birders in the world will identify birds that they can’t see, just by listening,” said class instructor Amy Winters, director of the Edinburg WBC.
The birding by ear project began when the Rensselaerville Institute awarded a $2,000 grant to Reyes in September, with money from Texas Parks and Wildlife earmarked for grass roots projects that teach conservation of the environment.
“We’re just trying to make use of one of the Rio Grande Valley’s greatest resources: nature and birds,” said Eric Ellman, a Valley representative for the Rensselaerville Institute.
“We’re just trying to make it possible for people who have great ideas to go out and do them. The most important thing here is the new relationships that will grow between people in communities.”
To join a birding-by-ear team, call Reyes at (956)381-1931. To join a free birding-by-ear class, call Winters at the Edinburg branch of the World Birding Center at (956)381-9122.
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