May 9, 2024 • 14 mins
Annette Leishman, involved with Blind Sports and Recreation Victoria as well as Parks Victoria, encouraged all to try "Birding By Ear" communing more with nature, for physical and mental health
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S1 (00:15):
On Vision Australia radio. This is Vision Xtra with Peter Greco.
S2 (00:22):
Well, it's always great to tell about new initiatives, different
initiative initiatives, and this one has got a really clever
name too. Let's chat about it with Annette Leishman. Annette.
Lovely to catch up with you again. Thanks so much
for your time.
S3 (00:34):
Thanks, Peter. Lovely to catch up with you again too.
S2 (00:37):
Now tell us about this. As I say, the the
name of the program or project or initiative is fantastic.
Maybe we could start with that, I think. Was your
idea to come up with the name?
S3 (00:47):
Uh, not really on my own. It was a joint
decision between Nita from Parks Victoria. She's a parks parks
manager of program manager. And, um. So I met Nita
through a walk that I was doing with Blind Sports
and Recreation Victoria. They offer quite a few different walks
at different times, and some of those are in conjunction
(01:09):
with Parks Victoria. And so when I was at a walk, uh,
at Plenty Gorge, Nita, um, was chatting to me and
asked me if I'd like to do a volunteer walk
as a sensory guide, and I thought that would be
really great. I wasn't sure what it was going to involve, but, um,
(01:32):
the idea, um, between us came up for birding by ear. Um,
Westgate Park sensory walk, uh, birding by ear. And so
that's how it all started.
S2 (01:43):
And I guess it's fairly self-explanatory. What, uh, birding by
ear is.
S3 (01:47):
Well, it is Peter. Um, I'll tell you about Westgate Park, though. Yeah. Um,
the reason it's at Westgate Park, and it may seem
a very unlikely place for those who know Victoria, but, um,
Westgate Park is actually almost under the Westgate Bridge. And, uh, so, um,
(02:07):
the reason I, Nita actually gave me a list of
different parks that we could do this project in for
birding by ear and Westgate Park seemed to be the
one that was closest to where I live. And so
that's why I chose that one. I had never been
there before, but Westgate Park, um, as I said, um,
(02:28):
it's under almost under the Westgate Bridge, which is a very,
very busy bridge which leads in and out of the CBD. And,
you know, it's packed with cars and trucks at nearly
all times of the day, but particularly peak hour. And
so it's quite noisy when you arrive in the car
(02:49):
park at Westgate Park. And the first time you go there, well,
I thought, oh, gee, I don't know if there'll be
any birds here. We probably won't be able to hear them.
But once you start walking into the park, into the woodlands,
it's just unbelievable. There are so many birds there, different
sorts of birds you've got. Uh, I'm trying to think
of some of the moorhens, um, coots, different types of
(03:12):
herons and magpies, other small birds, such or small birds
such as willie wagtails and fairy wrens. And it's just
so lovely to be there amongst all that birdlife. And
you can't become completely oblivious to the, uh, you know,
the fact that you're almost in the you're at Port Melbourne,
but almost, you know, probably only a few minutes away
(03:35):
from the CBD. It's very unusual. And the, uh, Westgate
Park was originally a salt mine in the 1930s, and
then it became a, a building site for the Westgate Bridge.
And then it wasn't until about 1984 it was declared
a park. And then, um, between 1984 and 1999, friends
(03:59):
of um Westgate Park, a group of people got together,
thought they'd tidy it up, and they planted 300,000 species
of native flora there. And. Yeah. So that's, um, you know,
lots of birds because of their work there. Lots of
birds have gone there to make that place their home,
which is just fantastic.
S2 (04:21):
We've chatted you in the past and you've often spoken about, uh,
sort of health and fitness, and I guess this is
kind of part of it as well, but it's kind
of maybe a bit more mental health related, if we
could say.
S3 (04:31):
Oh, absolutely. Because the outdoors, as we know, um, being
in the outdoors can give us a I think I'm
not sure what it's called. Serotonin lifting the brain. I
think that's what it is. And I have actually witnessed
that firsthand because, uh, sometimes when you start a walk,
many people are, you know, not very happy. They've had
(04:53):
a bad morning, they've knocked about 16 things over in
their house. And, you know, lots of different things happen
if you're visually impaired and it takes a while to
get going. But from the. Beginning of the walk until
the end of the walk, I have noticed a shift
in the mood of people, including myself, and it's just fantastic.
(05:15):
But Peter, I must also point out that this walk
is an inclusive walk. So it's not just for people
who are visually impaired, but it's for everyone. And NATO
advertises advertises it on Eventbrite, um, for everyone. And then
Rachel from Blind Sports also advertises it on our website.
(05:37):
And so we get a real mix of people and
it's just fantastic. And everyone just really gets involved and
just enjoys listening to the birds. And it's it's fantastic.
It really is a mood lifter.
S2 (05:51):
You got the fresh air plus the social interaction as well.
S3 (05:53):
Yes. Yeah that's right. Yeah.
S2 (05:56):
And I believe you run some rather, uh, unique uh
shall we say competitions or uh, games.
S3 (06:02):
Oh yes. Yes. We just started uh, so I don't
do this on my own. Of course. So I lead
the sensory part of the walk. So we always have
a volunteer. So that's me volunteer. And we also have
a park ranger. This is the same for any walks
offered by Parks Victoria. They always have a park ranger
(06:22):
and a volunteer. And, uh, so with this one, MIP
came up with the idea MIP grant is the park
ranger who, you know, we work together and MIP, um,
just loves birds and he knows all the birds sounds
and was introduced to them by his family, I think,
when he was quite young. And so he came up
(06:42):
with this initiative to make it a competition. So the
last walk we did, which was only last week, we
tried the, uh, the bird quiz. So it's a bird quiz.
So he plays a bird song on his audio, and
then the park visitors have to try and guess what
it is. Some people are really good at that, but
(07:03):
I'm certainly not. I'm still learning. So the way that
we do it, when people are registered for the the walk,
they receive an audio file of about. I think there
are about a dozen birds, and for those who can see,
they can actually see their images of the birds as well. Um,
but it gives the the name of the bird and
(07:24):
an audio little, a short audio file of the bird
sound as well. And that's just fantastic. People love that.
So some people try and the younger ones in particular,
I found they will listen and try and remember those sounds. Um, yeah.
So it's it's really good. And the other initiative we had,
we incorporated a mindfulness session as well because, um, Westgate
(07:49):
Park is fairly small as compared to other parks. It's
only 40 hectares in all. And so an hour to
an hour and a half, um, you can complete the walk.
That's why we just added a couple of other things.
But the other thing is, um, little mindfulness sessions. So
we walk into this little sheoak grove, and, um, I
(08:09):
lead that where I just get people to, um, just
close their eyes, you know, so there's no light in
and just breathe slowly and then start to listen to
the bird sounds. And then we do that for a,
you know, half a minute to a minute, and then
people have the opportunity to share if they, you know, um,
(08:32):
heard a bird that they, their focus was on more
than another bird. They might want to share that and
why they, um, enjoy the sound of that bird. So
some people will actually know what the bird is. But, um,
when we did it last week, we didn't, um, really
get that far. But yeah, so that's a couple of
other things that we do. What's the sort.
S2 (08:54):
Of thing that we could all do ourselves in our
own backyard, or when we're going for a walk anyway?
I mean, I guess, you know, it's kind of, well,
not necessarily smelling the roses, but, uh, birding by ear. Yes.
S3 (09:06):
Yeah. Well, I have to say, I have been doing
that more around my house. I live, um, not that
far from Melbourne city. I live at a place called
Glen Huntly, and it's lovely around here because there are
a lot of trees and there's a lot of bird life,
but I think it's mainly magpies around here. And, uh,
that's why The Magpie is my favourite bird song. So
(09:30):
the listeners are not sure what a magpie sounds like.
They should go online and have a listen. It's just
a really lovely sound. Some of the birds don't have
a nice song. There's one. I can't think what it is. Um,
it might be a heron or I can't really remember,
but it has a real growly kind of sound. So
(09:50):
they all have their unique voices, and, uh, you can
get the feeling that they're actually chatting to each other
sometimes when you're just really listening. And, uh, it's just
a lovely thing to do, kind.
S2 (10:03):
Of get yourself. Lost in it all.
S3 (10:04):
Yes, yes. But we also there are also some other
sensory offerings as well. So when we go to the
Sheoak Grove we also feel the leaves because the sheoaks
have really unusual leaves. They're more like um, long needle things,
but there's it's a soft, feathery kind of feel. And, um,
(10:26):
then you've got the, uh, black Oaks. I think they're called.
Maybe that's not right. Um, black something and they have
a unique, um, smell. And that's really nice, too. So
we get immersed in those other sensory offerings as well.
S2 (10:42):
Uh, this birding by ear. It's, uh, offered on a
fairly regular basis, and that it has.
S3 (10:48):
Been we've done three so far. And then as a
matter of fact, we had a meeting this morning. And
so the next one, we're going to have a little
break now until the 14th of June. So our next
one will be on the 14th of June at 10 a.m..
So 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.. And then if people
want to stay longer than that, we, you know, we
(11:09):
stay longer and chat to people. They'll see it on
the website if they're interested in birding or, you know,
a friend of Parks Victoria, and then they can, um,
enrol either by going, um, into there'll be a link
to enrolling for or registering on Eventbrite, but also they
can email Parks Victoria and um, the other way to
(11:33):
register for that walk is to go onto Blind Sports
and Recreation Victoria, because we put it up on our
website as well. So and the other thing I just
wanted to say is that if people who are visually
impaired want to go on the walk, but it's a
good idea to have a support person with you, but
if you don't have one, you can actually, uh, contact
(11:55):
Parks Victoria about that and they will provide someone as well. So.
Oh that's fantastic. There's no excuse, you know, for people
not to go. It's it's no great a really great
thing to do. It really is.
S2 (12:07):
Free. Is there a cost for it.
S3 (12:08):
Yes. No cost. And yeah it's free and it's just
a great thing to do. Well, you know.
S2 (12:13):
It's funny when you did your little mindfulness, uh, snapshot there, Annette,
I found myself doing exactly what you were saying, closing
my eyes and just, uh, kind of, uh, listening to
your voice and. Yeah, it was, you know, taking a
few calm breaths, so I think you'd be. Or you
are the perfect person to lead something like this.
S3 (12:32):
Oh, thank you, Peter, I appreciate that.
S2 (12:36):
If I wasn't on air, I probably would have just, uh,
drifted off. But I got to bring my focus back
to what I'm doing.
S3 (12:42):
And that could be because I'm boring you as well? No.
S2 (12:46):
Absolutely not. No, no, it's relaxing and have a nice. We, uh,
can't relax enough in this day and age. And what
we'll do is we'll put a couple of those links
that you gave us on our Facebook page, so people
have missed it. They can go there or they can
always call you at the radio station. And, um, you
touched on it, but it should say a very big
shout out and thank you to, uh, MYP and also
(13:07):
Nita for their, uh, arrangement of, uh, us having to
chat to you because it's such a wonderful initiative and
deserving of, uh, more people joining you. And if you
want to kind of improve your, your mental health and
just kind of feel a bit more refreshed and revived
after doing something like this, it sounds like, uh, we
can highly recommend it.
S3 (13:25):
Absolutely. I think a walk in the morning like that
is insurance that you will have a really nice day
because it really boosts the mood. Yeah. It's good whatever.
S2 (13:36):
Time people listen to this, you've boosted our mood. Thank
you so much for sharing that with us tonight. We
wish you well and, uh, it's always great to catch up.
S3 (13:43):
Thanks so much, Peter. I really appreciate that. Thank you.
S2 (13:47):
Tell me about that wonderful initiative. Uh, so maybe if
you'd like to get involved, go to our Facebook page.
But birding by ear. What a tremendous idea.
S4 (13:55):
Thank you for listening to Vision Extra with Peter Greco.
You can find this interview on the Focal Point Podcast.
This show was produced in the Adelaide studios of Vision
Australia Radio.
On Vision Australia radio. This is Vision Xtra with Peter Greco.
S2 (00:22):
Well, it's always great to tell about new initiatives, different
initiative initiatives, and this one has got a really clever
name too. Let's chat about it with Annette Leishman. Annette.
Lovely to catch up with you again. Thanks so much
for your time.
S3 (00:34):
Thanks, Peter. Lovely to catch up with you again too.
S2 (00:37):
Now tell us about this. As I say, the the
name of the program or project or initiative is fantastic.
Maybe we could start with that, I think. Was your
idea to come up with the name?
S3 (00:47):
Uh, not really on my own. It was a joint
decision between Nita from Parks Victoria. She's a parks parks
manager of program manager. And, um. So I met Nita
through a walk that I was doing with Blind Sports
and Recreation Victoria. They offer quite a few different walks
at different times, and some of those are in conjunction
(01:09):
with Parks Victoria. And so when I was at a walk, uh,
at Plenty Gorge, Nita, um, was chatting to me and
asked me if I'd like to do a volunteer walk
as a sensory guide, and I thought that would be
really great. I wasn't sure what it was going to involve, but, um,
(01:32):
the idea, um, between us came up for birding by ear. Um,
Westgate Park sensory walk, uh, birding by ear. And so
that's how it all started.
S2 (01:43):
And I guess it's fairly self-explanatory. What, uh, birding by
ear is.
S3 (01:47):
Well, it is Peter. Um, I'll tell you about Westgate Park, though. Yeah. Um,
the reason it's at Westgate Park, and it may seem
a very unlikely place for those who know Victoria, but, um,
Westgate Park is actually almost under the Westgate Bridge. And, uh, so, um,
(02:07):
the reason I, Nita actually gave me a list of
different parks that we could do this project in for
birding by ear and Westgate Park seemed to be the
one that was closest to where I live. And so
that's why I chose that one. I had never been
there before, but Westgate Park, um, as I said, um,
(02:28):
it's under almost under the Westgate Bridge, which is a very,
very busy bridge which leads in and out of the CBD. And,
you know, it's packed with cars and trucks at nearly
all times of the day, but particularly peak hour. And
so it's quite noisy when you arrive in the car
(02:49):
park at Westgate Park. And the first time you go there, well,
I thought, oh, gee, I don't know if there'll be
any birds here. We probably won't be able to hear them.
But once you start walking into the park, into the woodlands,
it's just unbelievable. There are so many birds there, different
sorts of birds you've got. Uh, I'm trying to think
of some of the moorhens, um, coots, different types of
(03:12):
herons and magpies, other small birds, such or small birds
such as willie wagtails and fairy wrens. And it's just
so lovely to be there amongst all that birdlife. And
you can't become completely oblivious to the, uh, you know,
the fact that you're almost in the you're at Port Melbourne,
but almost, you know, probably only a few minutes away
(03:35):
from the CBD. It's very unusual. And the, uh, Westgate
Park was originally a salt mine in the 1930s, and
then it became a, a building site for the Westgate Bridge.
And then it wasn't until about 1984 it was declared
a park. And then, um, between 1984 and 1999, friends
(03:59):
of um Westgate Park, a group of people got together,
thought they'd tidy it up, and they planted 300,000 species
of native flora there. And. Yeah. So that's, um, you know,
lots of birds because of their work there. Lots of
birds have gone there to make that place their home,
which is just fantastic.
S2 (04:21):
We've chatted you in the past and you've often spoken about, uh,
sort of health and fitness, and I guess this is
kind of part of it as well, but it's kind
of maybe a bit more mental health related, if we
could say.
S3 (04:31):
Oh, absolutely. Because the outdoors, as we know, um, being
in the outdoors can give us a I think I'm
not sure what it's called. Serotonin lifting the brain. I
think that's what it is. And I have actually witnessed
that firsthand because, uh, sometimes when you start a walk,
many people are, you know, not very happy. They've had
(04:53):
a bad morning, they've knocked about 16 things over in
their house. And, you know, lots of different things happen
if you're visually impaired and it takes a while to
get going. But from the. Beginning of the walk until
the end of the walk, I have noticed a shift
in the mood of people, including myself, and it's just fantastic.
(05:15):
But Peter, I must also point out that this walk
is an inclusive walk. So it's not just for people
who are visually impaired, but it's for everyone. And NATO
advertises advertises it on Eventbrite, um, for everyone. And then
Rachel from Blind Sports also advertises it on our website.
(05:37):
And so we get a real mix of people and
it's just fantastic. And everyone just really gets involved and
just enjoys listening to the birds. And it's it's fantastic.
It really is a mood lifter.
S2 (05:51):
You got the fresh air plus the social interaction as well.
S3 (05:53):
Yes. Yeah that's right. Yeah.
S2 (05:56):
And I believe you run some rather, uh, unique uh
shall we say competitions or uh, games.
S3 (06:02):
Oh yes. Yes. We just started uh, so I don't
do this on my own. Of course. So I lead
the sensory part of the walk. So we always have
a volunteer. So that's me volunteer. And we also have
a park ranger. This is the same for any walks
offered by Parks Victoria. They always have a park ranger
(06:22):
and a volunteer. And, uh, so with this one, MIP
came up with the idea MIP grant is the park
ranger who, you know, we work together and MIP, um,
just loves birds and he knows all the birds sounds
and was introduced to them by his family, I think,
when he was quite young. And so he came up
(06:42):
with this initiative to make it a competition. So the
last walk we did, which was only last week, we
tried the, uh, the bird quiz. So it's a bird quiz.
So he plays a bird song on his audio, and
then the park visitors have to try and guess what
it is. Some people are really good at that, but
(07:03):
I'm certainly not. I'm still learning. So the way that
we do it, when people are registered for the the walk,
they receive an audio file of about. I think there
are about a dozen birds, and for those who can see,
they can actually see their images of the birds as well. Um,
but it gives the the name of the bird and
(07:24):
an audio little, a short audio file of the bird
sound as well. And that's just fantastic. People love that.
So some people try and the younger ones in particular,
I found they will listen and try and remember those sounds. Um, yeah.
So it's it's really good. And the other initiative we had,
we incorporated a mindfulness session as well because, um, Westgate
(07:49):
Park is fairly small as compared to other parks. It's
only 40 hectares in all. And so an hour to
an hour and a half, um, you can complete the walk.
That's why we just added a couple of other things.
But the other thing is, um, little mindfulness sessions. So
we walk into this little sheoak grove, and, um, I
(08:09):
lead that where I just get people to, um, just
close their eyes, you know, so there's no light in
and just breathe slowly and then start to listen to
the bird sounds. And then we do that for a,
you know, half a minute to a minute, and then
people have the opportunity to share if they, you know, um,
(08:32):
heard a bird that they, their focus was on more
than another bird. They might want to share that and
why they, um, enjoy the sound of that bird. So
some people will actually know what the bird is. But, um,
when we did it last week, we didn't, um, really
get that far. But yeah, so that's a couple of
other things that we do. What's the sort.
S2 (08:54):
Of thing that we could all do ourselves in our
own backyard, or when we're going for a walk anyway?
I mean, I guess, you know, it's kind of, well,
not necessarily smelling the roses, but, uh, birding by ear. Yes.
S3 (09:06):
Yeah. Well, I have to say, I have been doing
that more around my house. I live, um, not that
far from Melbourne city. I live at a place called
Glen Huntly, and it's lovely around here because there are
a lot of trees and there's a lot of bird life,
but I think it's mainly magpies around here. And, uh,
that's why The Magpie is my favourite bird song. So
(09:30):
the listeners are not sure what a magpie sounds like.
They should go online and have a listen. It's just
a really lovely sound. Some of the birds don't have
a nice song. There's one. I can't think what it is. Um,
it might be a heron or I can't really remember,
but it has a real growly kind of sound. So
(09:50):
they all have their unique voices, and, uh, you can
get the feeling that they're actually chatting to each other
sometimes when you're just really listening. And, uh, it's just
a lovely thing to do, kind.
S2 (10:03):
Of get yourself. Lost in it all.
S3 (10:04):
Yes, yes. But we also there are also some other
sensory offerings as well. So when we go to the
Sheoak Grove we also feel the leaves because the sheoaks
have really unusual leaves. They're more like um, long needle things,
but there's it's a soft, feathery kind of feel. And, um,
(10:26):
then you've got the, uh, black Oaks. I think they're called.
Maybe that's not right. Um, black something and they have
a unique, um, smell. And that's really nice, too. So
we get immersed in those other sensory offerings as well.
S2 (10:42):
Uh, this birding by ear. It's, uh, offered on a
fairly regular basis, and that it has.
S3 (10:48):
Been we've done three so far. And then as a
matter of fact, we had a meeting this morning. And
so the next one, we're going to have a little
break now until the 14th of June. So our next
one will be on the 14th of June at 10 a.m..
So 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.. And then if people
want to stay longer than that, we, you know, we
(11:09):
stay longer and chat to people. They'll see it on
the website if they're interested in birding or, you know,
a friend of Parks Victoria, and then they can, um,
enrol either by going, um, into there'll be a link
to enrolling for or registering on Eventbrite, but also they
can email Parks Victoria and um, the other way to
(11:33):
register for that walk is to go onto Blind Sports
and Recreation Victoria, because we put it up on our
website as well. So and the other thing I just
wanted to say is that if people who are visually
impaired want to go on the walk, but it's a
good idea to have a support person with you, but
if you don't have one, you can actually, uh, contact
(11:55):
Parks Victoria about that and they will provide someone as well. So.
Oh that's fantastic. There's no excuse, you know, for people
not to go. It's it's no great a really great
thing to do. It really is.
S2 (12:07):
Free. Is there a cost for it.
S3 (12:08):
Yes. No cost. And yeah it's free and it's just
a great thing to do. Well, you know.
S2 (12:13):
It's funny when you did your little mindfulness, uh, snapshot there, Annette,
I found myself doing exactly what you were saying, closing
my eyes and just, uh, kind of, uh, listening to
your voice and. Yeah, it was, you know, taking a
few calm breaths, so I think you'd be. Or you
are the perfect person to lead something like this.
S3 (12:32):
Oh, thank you, Peter, I appreciate that.
S2 (12:36):
If I wasn't on air, I probably would have just, uh,
drifted off. But I got to bring my focus back
to what I'm doing.
S3 (12:42):
And that could be because I'm boring you as well? No.
S2 (12:46):
Absolutely not. No, no, it's relaxing and have a nice. We, uh,
can't relax enough in this day and age. And what
we'll do is we'll put a couple of those links
that you gave us on our Facebook page, so people
have missed it. They can go there or they can
always call you at the radio station. And, um, you
touched on it, but it should say a very big
shout out and thank you to, uh, MYP and also
(13:07):
Nita for their, uh, arrangement of, uh, us having to
chat to you because it's such a wonderful initiative and
deserving of, uh, more people joining you. And if you
want to kind of improve your, your mental health and
just kind of feel a bit more refreshed and revived
after doing something like this, it sounds like, uh, we
can highly recommend it.
S3 (13:25):
Absolutely. I think a walk in the morning like that
is insurance that you will have a really nice day
because it really boosts the mood. Yeah. It's good whatever.
S2 (13:36):
Time people listen to this, you've boosted our mood. Thank
you so much for sharing that with us tonight. We
wish you well and, uh, it's always great to catch up.
S3 (13:43):
Thanks so much, Peter. I really appreciate that. Thank you.
S2 (13:47):
Tell me about that wonderful initiative. Uh, so maybe if
you'd like to get involved, go to our Facebook page.
But birding by ear. What a tremendous idea.
S4 (13:55):
Thank you for listening to Vision Extra with Peter Greco.
You can find this interview on the Focal Point Podcast.
This show was produced in the Adelaide studios of Vision
Australia Radio.
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