On Saturday, Rosy Davis led a group of more than 20 on a birdwatching adventure at Plymouth Bluff, part of a Birding 101 course sponsored by the Columbus-Lowndes Public Library.
Davis, a wildlife biology major at Mississippi State University, demonstrated some best-practices for spotting and taught the group how to use mobile apps, such as eBird, to identify species.
Most birds they saw were common species to the area – robins, chickadees and mockingbirds. But a visiting group of pelicans, as well as a bald eagle, served as the day’s highlights.
“Going into it, I knew there were people interested in birds and getting outside, but I wasn’t sure how many folks would actually show up,” she said. “It’s hard to make time, especially on a Saturday. It was an incredible group of people who were excited and brought a range of knowledge. By the end of the trip, it felt like a group of friends going on a hike together.”
Saturday’s outing would have seemed unlikely for Davis at different times, for different reasons. For one, she began her studies in a completely different scientific discipline before changing her major. And a car accident almost three years ago forced her to relearn how to walk.
A Jacksonville, Florida, native, who had moved to Tupelo, Davis first planned to major in ecology. As luck would have it, that interest led her to the Mississippi Delta to study soil as part of Delta Wind Birds, a nonprofit that protects wetlands.
“I was interested in mushrooms specifically,” Davis said. “I was doing a research project in the lake areas around the Delta, around Belzoni. The mycology professor leading the trip was also an ornithologist, and he was really interested in birding. … There was this giant pack of cormorants, these giant fish-eating birds. We had brought canoes and went out to the middle of the lake, and they were just going down and getting fish really close to us. It was incredible. I had never seen anything like that.
“… I was like, ‘Oh, this is my actual passion,’” she added.
Suddenly, she couldn’t get enough. Birding is also, as she put it, “the closest you can get to Pokémon in the real world.”
“Birds and their behavior is fascinating to me,” Davis said. “Getting to observe what are essentially our current dinosaurs is neat to me. But it’s also just being able to get out there, enjoy the quiet, try to listen and find. You’re looking for the smallest amount of movement.”
Creating community
Shortly after moving to Starkville in 2023 to study at MSU, Davis survived a car accident that broke both of her legs and her right wrist, leaving her hospitalized with a lengthy recovery ahead of her.
“I couldn’t walk for a while, and I wasn’t allowed to put weight on my legs,” Davis said. “Then I was in a wheelchair for months, and I had to go to physical therapy to learn how to walk again.”
Her recovery took time away from the field, but she was determined to get back on the trail.
“The first actual hike that I went on was probably last April,” she said. “It’s been almost a year, but the first couple of trips were not so fruitful. The distance I could go wasn’t great. I was in a lot of pain, but it’s been good since I finished physical therapy.”
Davis settled in Columbus during her recovery. While working at Friendly City Books, she learned there was both a lack of a birdwatching club and an interest to get one off the ground.
She had experience with university clubs and saw an opportunity to put that experience to practice in the Friendly City.
“Colleges have a lot of groups and clubs already. Moving here, there was nothing like that,” she said. “We have places like Plymouth Bluff, there are other good places to go. Talking to people in Columbus while working at the bookstore, there were a lot of people interested in learning more about birds. I think it’s beneficial. It gets people outside and interested in what’s around us. I think it’s a good way to form community and a good way to just get people interested in conservation.”
Davis plans to continue her work in Columbus, leading a nature journaling event on March 21 in conjunction with the library. She plans to use the conference center building at Plymouth Bluff to pair birdwatching with journaling and documenting the trip. She also has hopes of getting a local Feminist Bird Club off the ground. It would be the first Mississippi chapter, which means a lot to Davis as she continues making a home in the Magnolia state.
“I love Mississippi, and I love Columbus,” she said. “I think there’s great people here and the fact that we had our very first event and had a good turnout of people and everybody had a good time, I think it’s already pretty great. So anything I can do to help bring community together is something I feel grateful to do.”
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 24 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
