My name is Jane Lee. I've been a birder for about three years; I became a birder because my husband had a coworker who took us birding in Littleton, and she's at least 67 years old. She was able to sound-ID 30 different birds, and I was like, “Oh my god, that's so cool. I want to be you.” And ever since then I’ve just been…I want to learn everything about the birds. I’m a guide for the Feminist Bird Club, I also volunteer for the Denver Audubon. I currently work at Wild Birds Unlimited, and I just started my own bird tour company called Birding with Jane. I was a dietician for about ten years in Canada. I was pretty miserable for five of those years, but I didn't realize it, and it was during COVID. So the timing was also right, and so I moved here in 2020 and then became a birder. I grew up partly in Shanghai, and Toronto, and I was born in Hong Kong. I never thought I would live in the States; I just love it. 

So we're in Belmar Park, which is in Lakewood. We are on Kountze Lake, where there's a bunch of ducks that you can hear. When I look at the birds, it's a practice of mindfulness. I love to use an example: I think it was last year I got in a fight with my mom. So I walked to Sloan's Lake and I just looked at the ducks and I could feel my energy slowly getting calmer. One in five US adults have some sort of mental illness, so I try to normalize it. And on my bird tours, I specifically indicate it as two hours of mindful birding. Before I even did some research, I could feel it myself that I felt much calmer. When you go birding, you're outside and you connect with nature. You really have to focus on every detail of them, like the bill shape or their color, or their behavior, or what sounds they're making. Birding can also reduce stress levels, blood pressure, and heart rate. Birding has also connected me to the animals in a way that further strengthens my desire to be vegan. Eventually, with my bird tours, I want to offer vegan treats. 

The Feminist Bird Club I love because it's a very diverse group, very LGBTQ friendly, and we try to make it inclusive, because it feels like birding is mostly an old white people thing. And sometimes I feel a little bit uncomfortable, because I'm not white. And through my own bird walks, I'm hoping to attract more diverse people of different ages. I think it's important as human beings who took away their habitats to work together to bring it back. So I want to go fight for the birds. 

Oh my god, that's so cool! Oh, I'm so glad we got to see that together.