Satellite Event for 2022 Berkeley Bird Festival: October 19th, 2022
While California I CAN hosted bird speakers and arts and crafts and information and action tables, at the David Brower Center, UC Berkeley gave tours of facilities and the Golden Gate Audubon Society led bird watching field trips and garden events all over town, California I CAN also partnered with Pegasus Books on Solano Avenue to host a family-friendly event, “Becoming Birds”.
Becoming Birds utilized recycled and readily available materials–cardstock, old craft feathers, pencils–to create beaks and bird masks of a wide range. Both actual bird species and invented bird species were represented!
The craft activities were held in an outdoor parklet that was decorated with Berkeley-based artist Annie Hallatt’s giant hand-made papier-mache bird masks and puppets. An inspiration table full of reference books and Audubon Society educational information provided participants and their families with reading material and gave young birders an opportunity to look closely at the diverse features and adaptations of birds’ morphology. After taking inspiration from the curve of a certain beak or the color of a feather, participants began decorating their masks and cutting their beaks out of cardstock. The youthful masked “birds” went on to draw chalk-art with Berkeley sculptor and painter Sarita Waite and browse a collection of bird books inside Pegasus Books.
Around 20 young bird-people and their families participated in the event. Some had been anticipating it after seeing our handmade posters in local businesses on Solano and others were drawn to the parklet by the lively pigeons, toucans, ravens, pelicans and seagulls that populated the parklet. This event opened up opportunities for participants to practice “becoming birds”, ask bird-informed questions and learn with birds rather than about them. We kept various lessons from birds in mind including:
Birds are creative. We’ll work with found materials to create feathers, tails, wings, nests and puppets.
Birds are wise. What will becoming birds help us notice?
Birds fly together. We’ll come together and then fly apart like a flock.
