About

Birding.withParkinsons.com seeks to reach birders with Parkinson’s Disease as well as their caregivers and families. We are focused on a North American audience but welcome views beyond this region. Please contact me via pdbirder@icloud.com

I started birding because I found golf too frustrating. Boy, did I have that wrong!

I am in my fifties and I’ve been a birder for the last 35 years. In early 2019 I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease.

An introvert, I enjoy birding alone, but do not mind a brief exchange with a fellow birder or joining up with a small group here and there. Once in a while. Rarely. I am not much of a chaser; I certainly enjoy seeing a lifer, or visiting a new place with new birds, but by the same token I take delight in the visitors to my New England feeders and the birds of the nearby fields, ponds, and forests.

It has been my great fortune over the years to go birding with a number of accomplished birders. With them I’ve watched migrating hawks at extreme distances, hiked through scrub and bog and swamp, and stared mostly fruitlessly out to sea. In spite of those who have been more than generous in sharing their avian wisdom and birdlore, I remain stubbornly average in birding skill.

When I found out I had PD, I went looking for resources on the web. I couldn’t find much about or by birders who were also living with Parkinson’s. Hence this blog–which I hope to fill with tips and advice, reflections on the intersection of PD and birding, and anything else that I feel like writing.

I aim to keep birding in defiance of Parkinson’s: seeing new birds and getting to know even the commonest birds better; meeting others who share this passion; learning all the time and sharing what I learn along the way; and above all maintaining a sense of humor.

Interviews on Birding.withParkinsons will end in some version of the BwP Questionnaire:

The BwP Questionnaire

“Birder” or “Birdwatcher” (or other?)

Birder

Years you’ve been birding *or* age you started birding?

about 35 years

Did a specific sighting or experience hook you? How did you get started birding?

Friends took me birding to Ferd’s Bog, I saw an Olive-sided Flycatcher grab a dragonfly and I was hooked.

What was your most recent life bird?

Yellow-breasted Chat

Do you have a “nemesis” bird?

Up til last winter, that would be Pine Siskin

What is your favorite place to bird?

I love the parks near my home, and places like Parker River NWR and Central Park (New York).

“binoculars” “bins” “binocs” or “field glasses”?

bins

When you’re not birding, you are

connecting philanthropists to a leading university

How long have you been living with Parkinson’s?

I was diagnosed in March 2019