Projects & Outreach
Outreach
B4B—Backpacks for Birders
Want to go birding around Windsor but don’t have the right stuff?
In 2022, PIBO launched its Backpacks for Birders (B4B) program. With funding from TD Friends of the Environment and the Windsor Essex Community Foundation, we put together 22 backpacks filled with everything a budding birder needs for a day’s outing—a pair of Vortex or Bushnell binoculars, a binoculars harness from Pelee Wings, a Sibley Guide to the Birds of Eastern North America, Zeiss lens-cleaning spray and a lens-cleaning pen, a bird checklist for the Windsor area, and a list of local birding hotspots. In 2024, we added 20 new backpacks for distribution, with additional language resources.
Backpacks, available in English, French, Spanish, Punjabi and Arabic, are available for borrowing from the Windsor Public Library. Some packs have been donated to the Pelee Island Public School, Caldwell First Nation, and the John McGivney Centre school for use in those communities. The school packs also include a bird feeder and two-year subscription to Cornell University’s Project Feeder Watch.
BIPOC for Birds
In 2022, with grants from the Windsor Essex Community Foundation and Nature Canada, PIBO hired two members of Windsor’s black, indigenous, and people of colour (BIPOC) communities to develop five events to take place between January and May, aimed at introducing their families, friends, and communities to nature and birds.
That year, Davina Sanjgqly and Lakshimi Thagruval came up with fabulous ideas for events to introduce young people and their families to the pleasures of birding. Events such as a Jeopardy-like bird quiz, bird-house-building afternoons at Ford Test-track Park in Windsor, brought friends and classmates together. We also organized Earth Day events, youth birding hikes in Malden Park, and participated in World Migratory Bird Day.
This year, Rahi Ahmed, serving as Campus organizer, has continued the popular programming begun in 2022. We are also applying for another Work to Grow grant to secure this position in the future.
To learn more or join in, contact Suzanne Friemann at PIBO.
Also launched in 2022, PIBO’s Graeme Gibson Prismáticos Project, collects previously-loved binoculars in Canada and distributes them to schools and conservationists in Mexico, linking the breeding and wintering grounds of the migrating birds that pass through Pelee Island.
Community partnership continues with new resources
Media Release – November 7, 2024
The Pelee Island Bird Observatory is pleased to announce an update on the community partnership between the observatory and the Windsor Public Library. Backpacks for Birders (B4B) is an initiative started in 2021 that brings all the tools of a birders hobby to the public through the WPL lending system.
In the spring of 2024, Pelee Island Bird Observatory received a grant through the TD Friends of the Environment Foundation. This grant gave PIBO the funds to assemble 20 additional birding kits for the citizens of Windsor to use for a day out birding. These new kits are in addition to the 20 kits donated in the fall of 2021, also thanks to a grant from the TD Friends of the Environment Foundation. Since the spring of 2022, those initial backpacks have been circulated almost 180 times! We are confident this new supply will be just as popular with additional youth binoculars in twelve of the new kits, making some a “family birding experience”.
The best way to encourage birding in our area is to make sure those interested have access to the equipment, and with the generous support of the TD Friends of the Environment Foundation, this is what PIBO has done. In each kit, there are one or two pairs of Vortex binoculars, a harness for more comfortable longer birding excursions, a Patterson Field Guide , a variety of tools to clean the lenses, and an information binder with local birding checklists and where to go to see birds (birding hotspots).
“Much of what can be done to protect bird populations involves ensuring current, and future generations of Canadians are passionate about wildlife where they live, in our case, in the City of Windsor. Birds are a ubiquitous species, and bird watching is a great way to become involved in bird conservation; it can transform a casual observer into a passionate steward of the environment. Birdwatching has a positive effect on mental health. PIBO recognizes that birdwatching can have certain barriers, and by providing these kits free for the community, we are hopefully giving Windsorites, including new Canadians, immigrant families and underprivileged groups, a way to try out urban birdwatching.” Says Suzanne Friemann, Executive Director of PIBO.
“The Pelee Island Bird Observatory continues to be a great friend to the Windsor Public Library,” said Acting Chief Executive Officer Michael Chantler. “Their latest supply of backpacks, chock-full of birding equipment and reference material in English, French, Arabic, and Punjabi, are tremendous additions to what residents can borrow from our libraries”.
These new kits will be available to borrow through all the branches of the Windsor Public Library starting in early 2025. Visit your local branch for details. https://www.windsorpubliclibrary.com/
Pelee Island Bird Observatory is a non-profit charitable organization devoted to studying and conserving birds. The observatory conducts intensive migration monitoring research on Pelee Island and provides education and outreach programs in the city of Windsor.
To find out more about this program, visit PIBO’s website: https://pibo.ca/en/projects-outreach/#b4b
Media Contact:
Suzanne Friemann
Executive Director
Pelee Island Bird Observatory
519.982.7426
