- [Announcer] Fleet Feet believes that running changes everything, and we're proud to sponsor Crosscut's Out & Back with Alison Mariella Desir.

We host fun runs, training groups and events.

Whether you're training for your first mile or your 50th marathon, we're here to run with you.

(upbeat music) (birds squawking) (birds squawking) (birds squawking) - [Speaker] I feel that we're so disconnected from nature, and I feel like when I'm birdwatching, birds could kind of my anchor back into the natural space because I find that I'm listening more, much more calm, much more at peace.

There's been hard times in my life where going out with my spotting scope and just being by myself and watching rough-legged hawks and short-eared owls and rare ducks that are appearing here in the wintertime is all that I needed, you know.

I think it's a real great anchor, you know, anchor to the soul.

(upbeat music continues) (flock fluttering) (gentle music) (upbeat energetic music) (gentle instrumental music) - Birdwatching was never on my radar.

That is until 2020 and Christian Cooper, a black birder, was harassed in Central Park by a racist white woman.

It was yet another example of black people harassed or killed for doing ordinary, mundane things for daring to exist in the world.

And yet black people have still found enjoyment in the activity.

One such person is Armand Lucas, an environmentalist, a globetrotter, a birder who's originally from the Bronx.

Today, he'll show me the ropes of birdwatching while we explore Seward Park.

(gentle music continues) - I first started birdwatching, definitely when my grandfather was always excited about nature, and when I was a kid, he would share a PBS episodes of "Nature" with me.

He would prerecord them and I'd come to his back room and sometimes we'd watch for hours.

And birds were always a big excitement for us to see.

And as I got older, I remember in the Bronx, in Parkchester where I grew up, there was a red-tail hawk that was in the neighborhood, and it was hunting all the squirrels in the neighborhood.

I went out with my grandfather and we actually took a photo of it, and I remember everyone in the neighborhood would...

There was like a myth that it got... it was escaped from the zoo.

(Alison laughs) And people didn't realize that it actually was just a wild red-tail hawk in, you know, the area doing what it does.

But I remember after that, my mother saw the interest that I had in birds, and after that, she bought me Sibley guides and Kaufman guides and these animal fact files.

And I would spend hours, you know, reading about them, about their wingspan, about how they live their life, where they migrate.

- Wow.

- And so I...

It just took off from there.

(gentle piano music) There's a huge birdwatching community.

There's like a... People are very open about...

When I go out, people are always asking, "What did you see?"

Or sharing what they saw.

So it's really, a warm community, generally.

- I have to say this is one of my favorite things about this show because you're mentioning this birdwatching community that to me, feels like it must be underground.

(Christian laughs) because I'm so unfamiliar with it.

But that's so beautiful.

It's like a thriving space.

- Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, birdwatching is one of the largest hobbies in America.

(gentle piano music) - Birdwatchers, birders, are always excited to get more folks into the activity.

But what would you say are some of the things that keep people out?

- There have been many times that I've gone to wild places birdwatching where I've been singled out.

People have...

There's bad apples out there, people who don't find people of color or black people in a neighborhood as a threat or as a potential... very suspicious.

And so I've confronted that several times going very, you know, earnestly just out birdwatching looking for a specific bird near a neighborhood and finding that people are concerned that I'm there.

I've rarely had those experiences, but they do happen.

They do happen, absolutely.

They're exogenous things that definitely make people feel uncomfortable in wild spaces.

I'm really grateful and fortunate to have my parents, my grandfather, who was so, like, engender that interest.

And I think more people need to do that.

Like if their children have like a curiosity that's not their own, find ways to engender it or get them connected to the right people to kind of ignite that fire.

- [Alison] Yeah.

- Because I think a lot of, especially kids who grow up in the inner city don't have that exposure.

(gentle music continues) - All right, so we're here in Seward Park.

What are the steps to birdwatching?

- Well, birdwatching only requires you... well, first requires us to be good listeners.

I think when I start birdwatching, when I get out of my car, I usually find a quiet trail, and especially in a place here in like Seward Park that has really old, mature trees and I'm listening for birds.

I'm looking for swift movements in the trees and just letting the birds, you know, come to me sometimes or I look out and listen for a bird and kind of chase them a little bit.

But it's a lot of patience and a lot of listening.

And hopefully you get to see a really great bird, you know.

When you see a bird in the canopy or on a branch or in a shrub, is to look directly at it.

And then bring the binoculars to your eyes and then focus that... use that main focus style to see the bird clearly.

- Patience is the name of the game.

(laughs) - [Christian] Yeah, patience, serendipity.

But most of all, it's just an enjoyable experience.

- As somebody who's grown up playing sports and always gone outside with intention, I have to relearn that idea.

(birds chirping) (gentle music) (gentle music continues) Oh, my gosh.

Oh, wow, they're actually like really pretty.

- Yeah, the American widgeon.

- Oh, my goodness.

- [Christian] See what else are we doing.

- Whoa.

Okay, they just went off.

- [Christian] There's gadwall too.

- Ah, beautiful.

Oh, my gosh.

Hi, little guys.

(gentle music) - [Christian] There's a powerful quote from James Burrow and he says, "We always have nature with us."

It appeals to the mind, it warms the heart and brings us joy and fires the imagination.

And that's how I feel when I see birds.

(gentle music continues) - [Announcer] Fleet Feet is on a mission to inspire the runner in everyone and is proud to sponsor Crosscut's Out & Back with Alison Mariella Desir.