By Alex Kneubehl, PhD, Houston Audubon Young Professionals Advisory Council member 2018 – 2023
*note on word choice: to me, I make no distinction between birding and bird watching and often use the former when discussing the hobby at large.
I got into birding at a fairly low point in my life. I was about three years into my PhD and it was looking like I was going to have to, at best, start over in a different lab or, at worst, leave altogether due to funding issues. Prior to living in Houston, I grew up and lived in rural parts of Ohio so I also did not have much of a connection to this new concrete jungle. In short, I was miserable. Birding came to me by way of my sister who was taking a summer undergraduate course in ornithology. My discussions with her and my Dad, who has always had an affinity for nature and wildlife, helped me get started in birding. I was very fortunate to be in Houston because what better place to get started in birding than in the Texas Gulf Coast region?! Fast forward a year and birding saved my mental health and this helped me to navigate through some trying times during the course of my PhD work. It was around this time the call for applications of the inaugural class of Houston Audubon’s Young Professionals Advisory Council (YPAC) went out. I applied thinking it was unlikely I would get in since surely there would be vastly more qualified individuals applying than myself. To my surprise I got in and it has been extremely rewarding for me and hopefully beneficial to Houston Audubon as well.
I have been a YPAC member for the last five years and in this time, we have accomplished quite a bit. Our first year was largely the group finding itself and the direction we wanted to take YPAC. We initially struggled with the large number of ideas we all had for service projects. One of these ideas would be to establish a “Bird of Houston” by popular vote of the city of Houston. The Yellow-crowned Night-Heron won this competition and was declared the Bird of Houston by a proclamation from Mayor Turner in 2019. An accomplishment I am proud to have been a part of. We aggregated many of our other ideas into a weeklong, distributed festival around Houston called “Bird Week” to celebrate Houston Audubon’s 50th anniversary. While YPAC does more than just Bird Week, it is something I have been involved with since the beginning so that is the story I will tell here.
Bird Week was to be a celebration of the important role Houston and the upper Texas Gulf Coast play in the lives of billions of birds. The goal was to partner with different organizations around the region to host events during a week in the Fall that would engage the public through fun, educational, and experiential events to help folks connect with nature and each other. Since the first Bird Week, we have grown considerably and is now celebrating its 5th anniversary! The COVID19 pandemic threw us a curveball and we had to pivot to more virtual options for Bird Week 2020, but this opened up a new avenue for us that we hadn’t considered. We reached over 700,000 people in 11 countries largely through Bird Week 2020’s virtual offerings. Bird Week now incorporates in-person and virtual options ultimately increasing accessibility. I have met many people during Bird Week events since the lockdowns who got into birding during the pandemic just by watching birds in their yard, gardens, or balconies. For most of these people, Bird Week events were their first outing specifically related to birding. This was not surprising given the massive surge in folks interested in birding as a hobby due to the pandemic. As the Bird Week committee chairperson for Bird Week 2021 and 2022, it was very rewarding to see that Bird Week provided these folks with a way to connect with nature and birding. It was and still is a goal of the Bird Week committee to retain and increase the interest of folks new to birding. Moreover, each year YPAC’s Bird Week committee strives to reach new partner organizations throughout the city especially in areas that have not previously had Bird Week events. We also try to connect with underrepresented minority groups and children/adolescents as much as possible. We are making headway in these areas, but there is more work to do. We are always looking for partnerships and opportunities that would help further our outreach efforts.
After five years, this will be my last year on YPAC. The initial intent was to have short term memberships in YPAC to refresh the group with new ideas every year and avoid stagnation. We have found that retaining some members of the previous years’ groups has been helpful with maintaining continuity of projects while also providing leadership to YPAC’s committees. Houston Audubon’s YPAC now has a solid foundation and support from Houston Audubon leadership and partner organizations throughout Houston. I am immensely grateful to all of these groups for their help and support of YPAC and I am very proud of what we have accomplished together. I am personally thankful to Zineera Seth and Anna Vallery both of Houston Audubon who were essential in the founding of YPAC and its successes. I feel confident that Bird Week 2023 will be a continued success under the leadership of the new chairperson Kelsey Baird-Campos and this year’s Bird Week committee. I leave YPAC having gained great knowledge of birding and Houston Audubon’s mission as well as great friendships. I now have a greater connection to and appreciation of the region and to birding in general. I look forward to YPAC and Houston Audubon’s continued successes in the many years to come.
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