Birds Without Borders
With Vicki Piaskowski
Voices sat down with Vicki Piaskowski to talk about the intersection where her love of nature meets her mindfulness practice. After 22 years of pediatric cancer research at the Medical College of Wisconsin, Vicki reinvented herself to pursue a career as an ornithologist. It was a turn towards a lifelong love of nature that began as a child in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, and continued into her adult years.
Vicki and her husband, Larry Hopwood, have meditated for decades. While searching for a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) course in 2005, Vicki found RIM. She went on to take two MBSR classes at RIM with Jesse Foy, RIM’s guiding teacher.
These many years later, Vicki remains an active RIM member and participant in many drop-in sessions and retreats. She volunteers as a greeter and helps provide flowers for the meditation hall. As a member of RIM’s Nature Meditation KM group, Vicki led a wonderful hike through Havenwoods State Forest in 2024.
Voices: How did you make the mid-career change from medical research to ornithology?
I worked at Children's Hospital as a med tech and then I went right into research. It was such an exciting time. They were just discovering some of the cures for childhood leukemia. I loved the work, but I still had a keen interest in the outdoors.
I worked full-time at Children's and volunteered at a bird banding field station every Saturday in the fall. I volunteered at the field station for a long time; enough to know that it was truly what I wanted to do.
After a stint of working as a bird bander in the UP of Michigan, the station manager suggested I would be a good fit for an international bird research project.
I was hired to be the international coordinator of Birds without Borders-Aves Sin Fronteras, a bird research, conservation, and education project of the Zoological Society of Milwaukee and Foundation for Wildlife Conservation. We studied migratory and resident birds in both Wisconsin and Belize, Central America.
We got a grant from the US Fish and Wildlife Service to compile two beautiful manuals, one for Wisconsin and one for Belize, with many pictures for landowners and information on how they could manage their land to benefit birds.
I traveled, giving talks about birds, our research, and bird conservation, distributing copies of the manual free of charge. An e-copy of the manual can be requested at newsletter@rootedinmindfulness.org.
Voices: How is your mindfulness practice connected to your love of nature?
I find that being out in nature is such a feast for the senses. There are so many things to see, smell, notice, enjoy, explore and learn about. When in nature, I feel aware and find it natural to be mindful and appreciative of all that is around me.
That same felt-sense you get when you meditate is what you feel when you are in nature. It just happens. Meditating in nature and meditating at home are different. At home, I have to set aside time and set the stage. Meditating in nature just seems to occur without effort.
Learning to be mindful and aware when you're sitting and meditating leads to the awareness you bring into the world. I think my love of nature—birds and plants—enhances my awareness.
I love being here at RIM, too. Jessie says it's truly a refuge, and it is. When first walking through RIM's door, it takes me a while to settle my mind. In short order, I just feel different. I also love being at a retreat center, doing walking meditation outdoors, and trying different types of meditation.
I am still involved in community-based teaching about Ornithology, which involves being mindful of the people you train. I plan how I can utilize my loving-kindness practice to be a better teacher.
Voices: Do you have a particular bird on your list that you’d like to see?
I feel fortunate to have seen and observed many species of birds in Wisconsin, the US, and beyond. When I travel, I keep a trip list and then try to study and learn more about the bird species on that list. It's exciting, but it's also a learning experience.
I don’t really have any other birds that I would like to see, although I welcome the opportunity to see a species that is new to me when it arises.
I do get excited about seeing rose-breasted grosbeaks return in spring and seeing black-capped chickadees year-round. I did my thesis research on chickadees and learned a lot about them. I am amazed at how these small birds can survive our Wisconsin winters and how smart they are!
Voices: The ability of birds to travel and navigate such distances is fascinating. Can you tell us a little about bird migrations?
Migration is one of the most fascinating aspects of a bird’s annual lifecycle. The main reason birds migrate is food. In Fall, the change in seasons causes a decrease in food supply, and birds move to an area where food is more plentiful. In Spring, birds migrate to their breeding areas. About 60 to 80% of birds that breed in North America migrate between their breeding and nonbreeding homes. These journeys can be thousand miles or more. Even very small birds like an Ovenbird, which weighs only about as much as eight pennies, will make this journey twice a year. Some birds migrate to the southern US; others travel to the islands in the Caribbean, Mexico, and Central and South America.
Birds navigate using landmarks like rivers and coasts. Birds also use 3 types of “compasses.” They use the position of the sun during the day and the setting sun at night to know which direction to fly. They use celestial navigation (the patterns of the stars in the sky) and memorize the position of constellations in relation to the North Star. This allows them to use the stars to navigate. That's incredible. Birds have tiny grains of magnetite just above their nostrils so that they can sense the earth's magnetic field. This helps to know the direction of true north. Some birds travel over land, while others fly nonstop across large bodies of water or along coastal areas.
There are theories about why birds make these risky long migrations. The one most widely accepted now is that if birds stay in the tropics, due to food limitations, they only lay two to three eggs. If they migrate north (e.g., to Wisconsin) in summer, there are mosquitoes and so many other insects —all great bird food. Consequently, in Wisconsin, birds can now lay five to six eggs and have more young survive.
Voices: What are some of the inherent dangers for birds during the migratory process?
One of the major threats to flying birds is window and radio/tv tower collisions. Birds seem to be attracted to the lights. I just read an article about McCormick Place in Chicago, where thousands of birds were once killed by window collisions every year. They've now marked the windows, making the glass visible to birds, which reduces window collisions. You can reduce window collision at your home or office by marking the windows with UV strips or dots (featherfriendly.com).
Loss of habitat is a major factor in bird decline. One of the best things you can do for birds is to plant native plants in your yard. Native plants contain insects and caterpillars that provide food for birds and their young.
Another danger in migration is timing. The pineal gland in birds controls circadian rhythms. When light shines through their skin, hormones are released, which triggers a kind of migratory restlessness. Once triggered, they start the migratory journey.
Historically, birds have returned to areas like Wisconsin in spring to find buds and tiny leaves on trees loaded with insect food and caterpillars. Everything the birds needed to thrive was available. Because of climate change, springs are warmer. Plants are budding, and insects are emerging sooner. And so there's a mismatch between when the birds arrive and when the food arrives.
Voices: Can you talk to us about the declining bird populations? Is this general or specific to a species?
Many bird species are declining, and this is of great concern. In 2019, a large-scale analysis of wild bird populations in the US and Canada showed that all birds have declined by almost 30% since 1970. This means that more than one in four birds have been lost.
Grassland birds have been particularly affected. Even hardy birds like house sparrows are declining. I volunteer with ongoing bird research, education, and conservation projects emphasizing the importance of humans preserving, restoring, and not destroying bird habitats. We also document bird numbers at different times of the year.
Voices: Can you share your thoughts on environmental conservation?
When you appreciate nature, you want to do everything possible to help the environment and positively impact conservation.
Many people who love birds, or study birds or wildlife, learn about what is needed for wildlife to thrive and then realize that some of those necessities are threatened or no longer available. It naturally makes you more of a conservationist and to want to spread the word about the importance of conservation.
Larry and I have native gardens because they provide insects, spiders, and fruits for the birds. In general, we try to reduce our negative impact on nature. Having a conservation outlook just comes naturally to both of us.
There are so many small things people can do to mindfully to enhance the survivability of the living things that share the earth with us. Every effort makes a positive difference.