Last month, as rainbow flags waved from apartment balconies, store windows, and parade floats, a different type of Pride parade was taking place elsewhere. With binoculars in hand, birders across the country set out down winding, tree-lined trails to celebrate Pride—the birdy way.
Since 2018, the National Audubon Society has celebrated Pride Month with “Let's Go Birding Together” bird walks at Audubon Centers across the country. When Jason St. Sauver from the Spring Creek Prairie Audubon Center first created the program (with an acronym that cleverly spells out “LGBT”) , he wanted to build a space for queer people to feel safe and welcomed while connecting with the natural world.
What St. Sauver started in Nebraska soon spread nationwide and became an annual celebration of queer joy and the outdoors in the Audubon community.
Let’s Go Birding Together events are a welcoming place for members of the LGBTQ+ community, allies, families, and anyone else who wants to enjoy an inclusive outing in nature, regardless of their prior experience with birding.
“All types of people came to our event. There were families—people who brought their partner or kids. There were people who had never been birding before. Really, just lots of people who wanted to experience that feeling of inclusion,” said Ryan MacLean, Senior Education Coordinator at Greenwich Audubon Center in Connecticut.
This year’s walk was their largest ever, with some people travelling from as far as an hour and a half away to attend. They owe much of their success to partnerships with local LGBTQ+ community groups like Greenwich Pride and Stamford Pride.
“We were so excited to be partnering with these local Pride organizations. Having them there with us at the event and having their support was so awesome. It felt like it was just the best possible introduction to birding for people who hadn’t done it before or weren’t familiar with the [Greenwich] Audubon Center,” MacLean said.
The Theodore Roosevelt Sanctuary and Audubon Center also celebrated a new partnership with the Syosset Public Library at their Let’s Go Birding Together walk last month.
“Since the pandemic, it’s been really important for us to find a way to help people build community in person. This walk was a great opportunity for us to bring the community people find with the library out into the world,” said Jessikah Chautin, Community Engagement Specialist at Syosset Public Library.
If there’s one clear lesson to take from Let’s Go Birding Together, it’s that in the world of birding, finding your people is just as important as finding birds.
“The best part of Let’s Go Birding Together walks is the people,” said Teresa Pietrusinski, Environmental Educator at the Montezuma Audubon Center. The Center plans to host additional Let’s Go Birding Together events this summer after the success of their bird walk last month. “It’s just an amazing feeling of community, and that’s so special.”
Even though Pride month is over, the spirit of connection, inclusion, and resilient joy that we receive from gathering for events like Let’s Go Birding Together lasts all year long when we continue to make room for it. You may come looking for birds, but what you’ll find is community—and you don’t need binoculars to see it.
