Birders of color in Wisconsin flock together and find community

Thank you my friend and brother-in-Christ PO1 William "Chip" Nagel for posting the perspective from wbur.gov contributor Susan Bence, WUWM Susan Bence 'is now WUWM's Environmental Reporter, the station's first. Her work has been recognized by the Milwaukee Press Club, the Northwest Broadcast News Association, and the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association.
Susan worked with Prevent Blindness Wisconsin for 20 years, studied foreign languages at UWM, and loves to travel.'
Top image: Bird bander Susan Schuller and master bander Bob Welch confer on bird's approximate age.

Images:
1. BIPOC club co-founder Dexter Patterson calls the experience bird joy.
2. One of Dexter Patterson's favorite birds - the black-and-white warbler.
3. Rita Flores Wiskowski relishes the experience of meeting her first wood thrush.
4. Zachary Pickett with a Baltimore oriole
5. BIPOC Birding Club of Wisconsin members and bird banding volunteers celebrate Connecticut warbler find, May 2023.
6. Jeff Galligan and Bob Welch with Connecticut warbler. Welch wrote: Please note that during our recent 21 May open house we captured and banded our first (in 49 years of monitoring), a very rare CONNECTICUT WARBLER, a species in critical decline with only three confirmed breeding pairs in NW Bayfield County Wisconsin!


Background from {[wuwm.com/2023-06-01/wisconsin-bipoc-birding-club-continues-to-soar]}
Spring is a thrilling season for people who love spotting migrating birds. At a recent bird banding event in central Wisconsin, more than two dozen species were identified in a single day.
The BIPOC Birding Club of Wisconsin participated in the event. Members were as excited about the species they helped release as the growth of their club.
Zachary Pickett
Dexter Patterson
The morning sky still glowed a soft pink, and birdsong filled the air just after 6 a.m. on a recent Sunday outside Waupaca.
Bird bander Susan Schuller was already at work — identifying and tagging birds.
“Is she young or is she old,” Schuller asks.
“Well, look at the middle tail feathers and look for wear,” suggests master bander Bob Welch.
Welch owns the 165-acre field station where the bird banding was held. Madison resident Zachary Pickett seemed awestruck. He was the first BIPOC Birding Club of Wisconsin member to arrive.
“So how long do they live,” Pickett asks.

This is Pickett’s first bird banding and he was about to release a Baltimore oriole. “She’s kind of aggressive. She wants to go,” he says.
It’s one of 17 orioles that would be banded and released that day. Pickett was born in South Korea and adopted by a family in New York state. He says birds intrigued him for years, but when he learned a BIPOC group was forming, he found community.
“Birdwatching and birding, you know, has always been in America, has mostly been something that mostly the Caucasian population and a lot of older adults have always been into,” Pickett says. “So, it’s been a very good window to open up.”
More birders arrive including Jeff Galligan who co-founded the BIPOC birding club two years ago.
Galligan lives in Madison where he assists first generation, lower-income students, and students with disabilities to thrive at Madison College.
“It’s getting people that traditionally have not had, to have,” Galligan says.
That conviction spilled over into his decision to launch the club. “Not only get people out, but also let other people see, yeah we’re out here, and we are definitely out here and we have every right to be. And people should feel safe,” Galligan says.
But today’s mission is about sheer delight.

Birds of various colors and sizes are carefully removed from nets stretched across sections of the field station’s wooded and swampy spots. Each is carefully inspected, measured and banded. Then BIPOC members take turns releasing the birds.
Dexter Patterson admires a newly-banded black-and-white warbler. “One of my favorites. He’s mixed like me. This is bird joy, this is it,” Patterson says.
As a former student of Jeff Galligan, Patterson helped form the club. His boundless enthusiasm and Instagram feed “wiscobirder” are contagious.
“One bird, one song at a time. Trying to know it all can be overwhelming. I always tell people you don’t need to be a pro to be a birder. All you need to do to be a birder is pay attention. That’s what I tell people,” Patterson says.
Rita Flores Wiskowski’s enthusiasm is quieter but equally deep. She helped create of the club’s Milwaukee chapter.
At the moment she’s basking in the fresh memory of holding and releasing one of her favorite birds: a wood thrush.
“The song of this bird is somethin’ that like every time I hear it, like my heart jumps. To hold it and just to feel the warmth. And he bit me before (I released him). It was so beautiful,” Wiskowski says.

Experiences like these are unique, but Wiskowski says at least once a month members bird watch together in both the Milwaukee and the Madison areas.
“I think that we’re just going to spark interest in people and people who never even thought to love this. I think we’re doin’ that already. We’re just having fun, and bringing the joy and seeing what happens and I think it’s doing good things,” Wiskowski says.
The day reached a crescendo when a rare bird was found: a Connecticut warbler!
Dexter Patterson calls Rita Flores Wiskowski who has wandered off taking photos. “Rita come here, we’ve got to do a group photo of this,” Patter son says.
Field station owner Bob Welch hadn’t seen a Connecticut in nearly 50 years.
Club co-founder Jeff Galligan, who happened to be wearing a T-shirt bearing the bird’s image, had the honor releasing the warbler.

“On my god, this is too much,” Galligan says with awe in his voice. “ Oh man, this is just, wow!"

FYI Sgt John H. SPC Woody Bullard SPC Margaret Higgins CW5 Jack Cardwell Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen CPT Jack Durish
SGT David A. 'Cowboy' Groth SFC William Farrell SPC Nancy GreeneSPC Douglas BoltonSgt Kelli Mays SSgt Alex Robinson SFC Francisco Rosario SSG Diane R. SFC Russell Shaw LTC (Join to see)
GySgt Jack Wallace SP5 Dave (Shotgun) ShockleySSG(P) (Join to see)

As a former student of Jeff Galligan, Patterson helped form the club. His boundless enthusiasm and Instagram feed “wiscobirder” are contagious.

“One bird, one song at a time. Trying to know it all can be overwhelming. I always tell people you don’t need to be a pro to be a birder. All you need to do to be a birder is pay attention. That’s what I tell people,” Patterson says.

Rita Flores Wiskowski’s enthusiasm is quieter but equally deep. She helped create of the club’s Milwaukee chapter.

We gets lots of birders down here during the winter.