My First Birding Event and What I’ve Learned 

I spent a lot of time planning the first accessible birding event for the monument. After a long time spent sending emails, scheduling events for the future, and evaluating birding sites for accessibility, I was ready to share my excitement for birding with the public. I planned event details, designed the flyer, picked a wide, paved trail for our location, and did my best to advertise the event. I spent what felt like forever finding bird graphics from John James Audubon’s original watercolors to put in the flyer– because the paintings are from the 1800s and in the public domain, they were a great free and legally sound option to use on my poster. The flyer was posted to the site’s Instagram, placed in nearby public libraries, and sent to the Jackson Audubon Society. 

I went back to my laptop for yet another stint of digital design, creating a foldable guide of common birds in the Jackson, Mississippi area that we could pass out to visitors for them to keep. I printed and folded twenty copies, including three large print versions for low-vision visitors. It’s not like I was expecting that many people to come to the event, but I just wanted to make sure there would be enough.  I wondered how many extras there would be after the event. Would any visitor even want a basic guide booklet? Maybe all of them would be experienced birders. But it was no use worrying. I was as prepared as I could be.

The next challenge I encountered was the week’s constant deluge of rainfall. I checked one forecast, and I was relieved to see the rain wasn’t supposed to start until right after the event was over. However, the second forecast I looked at insisted the rain would last the duration of the event. I weighed the costs and benefits of rescheduling. On one hand, a birding event in the rain would be highly unpopular. On the other hand, maybe there were people looking forward to the event who wouldn’t want to come back on a different day. Out of respect for any potentially excited visitors, I decided not to reschedule the event and just hoped the rain wouldn’t start until it was over.

The day for the event came, and I was excited. My fellow intern, Vince, had just come back from being out of town so we had each other to rely on no matter what happened on the outing. We loaded my car boxes of binoculars, trail chairs for breaks, the bag of homemade pamphlets, and a stack of field guides with varying levels of complexity. The weather was scorching in typical Mississippi fashion, but it was pleasingly sunny without any looming thunderclouds in the distance. 

However, as 11 am came and went, we didn’t get any visitors. We waited about half an hour by the trailhead, then went birding just the two of us for a little bit. The situation wasn’t ideal, of course, but it was still fun. We saw three prothonotary warblers, a red-headed woodpecker, two downy woodpeckers, and a butterfly that loved to circle us and take turns deciding which intern to land on. The outcome obviously wasn’t what either of us wanted, but I’ve learned a few things from this challenge.

• Timing is everything: I got the flyer made about a week and a half in advance, and they were sent out and put up maybe a day or so later. The schedule was a little late because I wanted to have an event somewhere after the commemoration of Mr. Evers’ assassination but somewhere around the beginning of June. Most of our events that we’ve scheduled with specific groups are scheduled for late June and early July, so this was the most flexible time period. However, I should have had the event date finalized and the flyers and social media posts ready at least a solid two weeks in advance, preferably three, so people could have more time to put the event on their calendars and spread the word to their friends.
• Check the forecast: The weather forecast isn’t super predictable a few weeks in advance, but it’s best to check if there’s something like a massive storm coming so we can schedule around it.
• Group collaboration isn’t all or nothing: Even though we didn’t have an event arranged with a specific partner group, we still could have reached out to some groups, such as a childrens’ nonprofit we’re working with, to ask if they were interested bringing anyone to the event. In the future, I’ll make sure to advertise our events using the collaborative connections we’ve already established to increase engagement and attendance.
• You win some, you lose some: Even though we tried our best, some things just can’t be controlled. I’m taking the time to remember not to be too hard on myself because I did my best and worked hard planning the event. Sometimes people are just busy. Maybe the flyer fell off the walls at the library. Whatever happened, I’m going to keep looking forward to the next birding event we do while doing everything I can to make it better.