Birding provides accessible, ‘grounding’ activity for Columbia residents

Sitting on his porch with a birding guide, a camp counselor was greeted by the scolding chirps of a Carolina chickadee.

After his close encounter with the chickadee, John Tjaarda said he knew birding would be a long-time passion for him.

Tjaarda now is an avid birder. He hosts a guided bird tour once a month at Historic Columbia’s Hampton-Preston Mansion Gardens.

He said sharing his passion is important to him.

“I want to make birding more accessible for everybody,” Tjaarda said. “If I can (offer) my services as a free expert, so to speak, then that makes birding more accessible to everybody, and maybe somebody else will get that spark.”

Tjaarda’s official title with Historic Columbia is “Resident Bird Nerd,” but that description also applies outside the mansion’s grounds.

Tjaarda also provides private bird walks to people who contact him at birdwalk.sc@gmail.com. He said he enjoys going to unique locations with small groups of people and teaching them more about birds.

He said one of the best things about birding is how quickly it builds a community. He said he has made a lot of friends through birding. 

“There’s a magnificent community of people that you get to know really well,” Tjaarda said. “You never have to really plan to go birding with anybody, because you’ll end up at a favorite bird spot and there’s two or three of your buddies.”

Tjaarda is also the South Carolina Area Director at the American Foundation of Suicide Prevention in Columbia and said birding is his side hustle and his form of self-care.

While every person has a different technique or hobby they can use for self-care, Tjaarda said the use of his five senses in birding is grounding. 

“It helps engage your mind,” Tjaarda said. “You learn something new on a couple different levels. … And that really helps kind of zone me in and calm me down.”

Bird walks are a great way for anyone to get involved in self-care techniques such as grounding, Tjaarda said. 

Some people, including Kristen Pazder, get into birding from the comfort of their own homes. The University of South Carolina student attended Tjaarda’s bird tour with her roommates and said she was impressed by his knowledge.

She said she and her roommates have bird feeders in their backyard and that’s what got them interested in birds.

“It’s honestly just like an escape,” Pazder said. “I love being able to come down in the morning or later in the evening and just see all my little birdies.”

She said they went on the bird walk just to expand on their love of birds. She said they loved the relaxing nature of the walk. 

“Just being able to do (the walk) is really, I guess, grounding and it reminds me that not everything is as serious as sometimes it feels like,” Pazder said.

Frankie Kuester, Pazder’s roommate, said she struggled with her mental health after starting college. She said her therapist recommended she get out into nature and observe the things around her. 

“Taking mindfulness walks, where you don’t listen to music or anything, you just walk and you look at things around you and stuff – birding is definitely a similar idea,” Kuester said. “You’re just standing there looking for birds. …  It’s just like this really cool moment where you just get to be a part of nature and just watch it go on around you. … You don’t really have to think about anything else.”

Tjaarda said there are many ways for people to get into birding at an introductory level. He said you can sit on your porch and use apps such as Merlin and Ebird to identify what you see. 

He also recommended students look into the Midlands Bird Society at USC. For non-students, Tjaarda said the Audubon Society is a great way to get involved. He said most birding events in Columbia are free to keep them accessible.

Tjaarda hosts free bird walks at the Hampton-Preston gardens from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. on the second Thursday of every month. The event is free but ticketed to limit the group size.