Leading the blind to birding

OTHELLO - "Thank you."

Steve Bouffard has heard those words a thousand times; they're what

everyone tells him at the conclusion of a birding tour, everyone

except one kind of novice birder.

The blind kind.

To understand birding for the blind, "Sound Safari" as he's come to

call it, you must understand Bouffard.

OTHELLO - "Thank you."

Steve Bouffard has heard those words a thousand times; they're what everyone tells him at the conclusion of a birding tour, everyone except one kind of novice birder.

The blind kind.

To understand birding for the blind, "Sound Safari" as he's come to call it, you must understand Bouffard.

When we meet with him in a Boise restaurant on a February day so cold that regular mortals practice the dash from car to heated building, he's already stretched his legs with his Green Belt walking that, he says, adds up to around 20 miles a week. Not bad for a retired guy whose main job now is "chief baby-sitter" of his new grandson.

He also volunteers as curator of birds at a museum, and participates for free in butterfly surveys, and let's not forget his lecturer role at the Sandhill Crane festival, also free.

You see, nature is where his heart's at - "My interest was in animals from day one," Bouffard puts it, remembering a class project in school. "My scrapbook of animal pictures was four times the size of anyone else's in the class."

After earning degrees in wildlife biology at universities in Vermont and Colorado, he got on with the US Fish and Wildlife Service at wildlife refuges, first at Ruby Lake in Nevada and then at Minidoka, Idaho, where at his retirement two years ago, he was the refuge manager.

"Walcott State Park is inside that refuge," he said.

In 2001, a seminar was held at the state park.

"The theme was how to design activities for visually impaired people, things they could do with family, things like Braille scrabble.

We're sitting in the back of the audience, and like always I'm birding, listening with one ear and identifying yellow warblers, Bullock's oriole, western wood pewee ... and the idea just snapped into place: birding for the visually impaired," he said.

Starting such a program seemed inevitable because the centennial of the refuge system was just around the corner (2003), and cost-share grant money was available. Initial reaction to his blind birding-program idea was positive, Bouffard says as he enumerates various organizations that contributed, including the Idaho School for the Deaf and Blind in Gooding.

"We're still learning how to improve the program," Bouffard acknowledges.

Sound Safari has received kudos in so many places that this year it'll be implemented on a refuge by the nation's capital.

Blindness challenges a person in ways that people out of touch with visually impairment seldom think of, Bouffard said. The first time he faced a class of Gooding School children "they were first grade through about grade seven."

He got stumped right off the bat.

"How do you explain a bird to a blind person? How do you explain how the bird wing goes from airfoil to folded structure?" he asked.

It was decided that an indoor presentation with stuffed bird specimens on hand would precede the birding tour. The kids were loud, Bouffard says.

"They get so excited," he said.

One little boy in particular, after he'd been given a pelican wing to feel, was amazed.

"Wow, this bird is bigger than me," he said.

Bits of birds - feathers, beaks, feet - and occasionally a live bird, a duck or a pigeon, also make it to class. Bouffard points out that it takes several volunteer helpers to pass around the avian manifestations.

And then comes the tour.

"We walk slowly. Generally, I walk backwards so I can communicate well with the group," he said.

They don't go far, a half a mile at most, he says, even when it's a group of visually impaired adults.

"That's one sad thing I learned doing this: blind adults are usually very, very sedentary people," he said.

Bouffard plays a bird song for the group.

"I've gone from tape recorder to CD to iPod," he remarks, noting that in general it's not a good idea to join in with avian acoustics. "When you play bird song you're challenging the bird to its home, its mate, its everything."

While he's got everyone's ears perked, Bouffard also explains other nature sounds, cicadas, frogs, etc.

How long does it take for a blind child to learn to identify a bird call?

"That's not the point," Bouffard emphasizes. "My goal is to show them that if you're blind that doesn't mean you can't enjoy nature. For those who really like to become birders, they can get out in nature with the help of a friend, spouse, or parent. It's not that hard to learn bird songs, there are lots of recordings available, and there is even a Braille bird list."

As for the guide on blind birding tours, he gets a different "thank you" from the group, Bouffard said.

"They tell you that nobody has ever done anything like this for them before, and you know what, that gets to you," he said.

For Sound Safari Guidelines e-mail him at sh_bouffard@yahoo.com