Let’s Go Birding With the Wisco Birder

Dexter Patterson

Dexter Patterson under no circumstances imagined that a global well being disaster would give the nudge he needed to overtly unleash his inner birder. But when cabin fever from the COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns became unbearable, he sought refuge in the good outdoor.

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Respiration refreshing air and taking in lush landscapes was therapeutic. Even the slightest glimpse of feathered fowl on his weekly hikes fanned an previously-current enthusiasm, which he determined to share with the world by way of his social media web pages.

In the earlier, he experienced been hesitant to open up. “I truly hadn’t been community with it right up until the past pair of many years for the reason that there was a minor little bit of a fear variable in me. I did not know what individuals were being heading to assume,” suggests Dexter, who is Black. “Like, ‘Birds? Dex is into birds?’ I didn’t know what individuals would imagine about it simply because, expanding up, I experienced by no means fulfilled a Black birder.”

Sharing His Passion On the net

Dexter, who teaches pictures and performs as a social media manager in Madison, Wisconsin, dusted off his cherished Panasonic digital camera and posted weekly shots of lovely birds on Instagram, Fb and Twitter. His on the net fan base mushroomed and the Wisco Birder—or as he describes himself “the flyest birder you will at any time meet”—was born.

Alongside posts about football and existing occasions, Dexter’s social media timelines are stacked with photos and musings about an array of birds at scenic spots throughout the Badger Point out and bordering area. Highlights of his feed involve yellow-headed blackbirds, Blackburnian warblers, typical yellowthroats, quick-billed dowitchers and green herons.

Dexter’s Inspiration

Dexter’s curiosity in birds started a 10 years previously when he fulfilled Jeff Galligan, his former adviser in faculty, and acquired that Jeff was a Black birder.

They grew closer in 2018 soon after Dexter shared with Jeff a movie of an osprey snatching a fish straight out of the water. Jeff, who sits on the Madison Audubon Society’s board of administrators, responded by sharing his personal photographs of an osprey in action. Remembering the second, Dexter suggests, “I was so amazed that he’d truly noticed that chicken in actual life.” The two straight away bonded, then exchanged photographs for many years.

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On Juneteenth in 2021, they agreed it was time to launch the BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People today of Color) Birding Club of Wisconsin. Avid birder Rita Flores Wiskowski soon joined the club as its Milwaukee chapter coordinator. “Together,” Jeff suggests, “we have developed the atmosphere to bring in individuals of color to our birding local community.”

Be a part of the Club

Dexter leading a walk for Madison Audubon.

The BIPOC Birding Club of Wisconsin aims to motivate and inspire much more folks of color, a group mainly underrepresented in the pastime, to get outside and into birding. The club welcomes everyone who supports range, fairness and inclusion.

Dexter and Jeff advertised the club’s 1st meetup on social media. To their surprise, a lot more than a dozen individuals showed up at that 1st accumulating at 9 Springs Creek in Dane County, Wisconsin. Now their household-friendly jaunts at community parks and character preserves attract upwards of 100 enthusiasts, together with Asian, African American, Latino, Native American and multiracial birders of all ages.

“We do excursions of stunning sites,” Dexter claims. The club has visited the Global Crane Basis and the Aldo Leopold Foundation, partnering with companies this kind of as Madison Audubon, the Feminist Fowl Club chapter in Madison and other groups that provide underrepresented or underserved populations in Wisconsin.

Birding is for All people

Blue-winged warbler — Dexter has experienced a amount of amazing sightings, like this blue-winged warbler.

Dexter loves the simplicity, affordability and accessibility of birding. “All you have to do is search up,” he states.

The club leaders desire to skip the formalities of other birding businesses, preserving their activities playful nevertheless scientific.

“We have pleasurable and we just take a extremely minimal-critical tactic to birding. It’s way distinctive from what you see in a whole lot of these standard birding areas,” says Dexter. “We do not shush folks. We really do not inform men and women to be peaceful. When people say, ‘It’s my to start with time at any time birding,’ we clap. The complete team claps for them and we say ‘Welcome to the flock!’ ”

Making a Space of Welcome

Member Jasmine Financial institutions acquired about the club just after listening to an interview with Dexter. She says the group opened up a entire world of exploration.

“When I listened to Dexter’s interview on a podcast, it was as if he was conversing immediately to me,” suggests Jasmine. “He was inviting me to sign up for a group developed for me, for the reason that I am a Black individual. A area the place I would not feel like an outsider, but [feel] welcomed.”

Before this calendar year, the team aided Madison Audubon rejoice Black Birders Week, a national event influenced by the infamous incident in New York’s Central Park involving Black birder Christian Cooper, who now hosts Extraordinary Birder on the Countrywide Geographic network.

When it arrives to the foreseeable future of the BIPOC Birding Club of Wisconsin, Jeff claims only the sky is the restrict. The accessible interest is getting to be a gateway by means of which more numerous groups are exposed to new outside activities and spaces, he notes, introducing, “Birding is astounding!”