The program, “Birding by Ear, Birding for Everyone” will be held in Springfield on February 26. It had been scheduled for February 20, but the weather forced it to be postponed. The presenter, Donna Posant, is a blind birder who teachers others with visual impairments to enjoy nature.
Posont does an amazing impression of a red-winged blackbird, which is her favorite bird.
She said they’re one of the first birds back each spring, and she likes their attitude – and that they’re very protective of their babies.
Posont, who began to lose her vision as a child due to a genetic condition, teaches others with vision loss to appreciate birds. She has offered her program, Birding by Ear and Beyond, since 2009 at the University of Michigan – Dearborn Environmental Interpretive Center. That’s the year she became a birder.
“I don’t remember ever noticing a bird before that. But I wanted something I could use to teach blind kids, and that was all I could think of because birds make noise, and the rest is history," she said. "I just really fell in love with them and everything about them and learning about habitat and migration an nesting, and UI love to share it with others now.”
Posont attended college and earned her degree in social work even though she was more interested in biology. She said she couldn’t see the periodic table, and, at that time, they didn’t have it available in Braille. And there was no accessibility for her to things like microscopes.
“So my counselor said, 'why don't you study social work?' I'm like, 'Okay.' So I did that and worked in that field some. But I say most of what I used in that field was raising my kids. But I never got over wanting to know about science and biology.”
Years later, she was able to return to college and get a degree in environmental studies. That’s when she started the program on birding for blind people, which became Birding by Ear and Beyond "because we added other things in nature that we learned about, like tree identification and plants and frogs and things that we could learn in other ways other than using our sight,” Posont said.
During her classes, she teachers memory aids that help people remember certain bird sounds “like the sound of a robin. And then you put mnemonics to it, like cheer up, cheer-lee, cheerup.”
Or, since blue jays will sometimes steal eggs out of other birds’ nests, she says their call is thief, thief, thief. In June, they’ll study nesting and in August, they study insects, their different sounds and their importance to the ecosystem. She uses models and other tactile objects such as a bird talon or skull to help people learn. And that learning process often extends beyond the class.
"People who are blind don't always have the confidence to go out and take on the world," said Posont. "And I have seen that, when they find success in, like, recognizing a bird or being successful using their cane to travel on the trails and that kind if thing, it helps give them more confidence to do other things in life."
Posont is also an advocate for the National Federation of the Blind and recently went to Washington D.C. to advocate for programs that benefit people with vision loss, some of which are threatened as federal funding is cut.
Posont will speak at the Missouri Department of Conservation's Springfield Conservation Nature Center Wednesday night, February 26, at 6:15. The program is presented, in part, by the Greater Ozarks Audubon Society. Registration is required.
