Annual LGBTQ+ Evening at Nisqually Refuge – A Call for Volunteers
June is around the corner, and it’s Pride Month. To celebrate, on Friday June 7, at 6:30 pm, BHAS, PFLAG, and Nisqually US FWS are sponsoring an evening guided bird walk for the LGBT+ community. This includes them and their families, friends and allies.
In this case “LGBT” can stand for “Let’s Go Birding Together”.
The walk participants gather in the Environmental Education Center Building located behind one of the parking lots and close to the Visitors’ Center. After introductions, a brief general-information-talk about the Refuge, and handing out binoculars to anyone who needs them, we will split up into groups of about 8-10 people. We take a slow 30-to-40-minute walk, stopping to ID birds by sight and sound and enjoy the surroundings.
Last year we had 55 attendees. It was a diverse group of people eager to go bird watching and mingle and make new friends in a safe environment. The Refuge’s trails are mostly level and graveled or a boardwalk. You are walking either under the large shady maples or on the dikes that go out onto the Nisqually Delta.
There were some very experienced birders in the mix that made it quite fun and kept the guides on their toes. By the end of our walk the attendees and guides were full of smiles, laughs and amazement at the birds they had seen and the nature around them.
BHAS is a listed sponsor of this event. The EDI Committee hopes some of our flock of great birders will volunteer to lead a group of participants during this evening bird walk at the Nisqually Refuge.
This is a fun and easy way to share our love of birds with people of all ages and experiences. I can’t think of a better way to help expand the birding community than taking new people on a bird walk on a lovely early June evening. It is also a great way to help Audubon “Bend the Bird Curve”, to save the birds and their habitats.
To sign up as a bird guide or a helper, please email Sally or Miles:
General public attending the event, please register with the Refuge at andrew_lavalle@nullfws.gov so we can have a head count.
Photo credit: Double Rainbow at the Nisqually NWR Boardwalk, by Rachel Hudson.
