Audubon Society to feature ‘Spirit Birding’ presentation

Photo courtesy Lili Pearson
The Weminuche Audubon Society will feature a presentation on “Spirit Birding” by Stacey Couch on May 20. Couch will share how she shifted from being a professional ornithologist (bird researcher) to becoming a shamanic practitioner and how birds were a key catalyst for this transformation.[/caption]

By Becky Herman

Special to The PREVIEW

On May 20, the Weminuche Audubon Society (WAS) will feature a presentation on “Spirit Birding” by Stacey Couch, who is a certified shamanic practitioner, the author of a memoir titled “Gracious Wild: A Shamanic Journey with Hawks,” a Colorado native and a current resident of Pagosa Springs.

Couch has worked in the field studying seabirds, songbirds, waterfowl, shorebirds and raptors all across the western U.S. She is a published scientific author and avid student of mysticism.

Couch describes her presentation with these words: “Bird watchers spend a lot of time out in nature focused on small movements and variations in color, but sometimes an encounter with a bird becomes more than a number on a count list. There is a quality to the sighting that haunts us for days or even years. Sometimes we can’t seem to understand why that exquisite rare bird was there at that moment or why watching that bald eagle take a green teal on the wing was so riveting. Ever wonder if there was a message in the experience?”