- [Baratunde] This is Dudley Edmundson,
a renowned photographer, author and public speaker.
For three decades, Dudley's been capturing
the natural beauty of this place.
In particular, it's birds.
- We are on the Mississippi flyway.
There is a central flyway for birds.
- These are like major routes that birds take?
- [Dudley] Yeah, major routes that birds take.
- Like bird highways.
- Correct.
Basically what happens is the birds
are coming out of the Northwest.
They come to the edge of Lake Superior.
Birds will not fly out over the lake
because there's no thermals,
so make a hard right and fly down the shore.
And that's what happens.
Birds kind of pile up here in their effort
to not fly out over the lake and drown.
- They have a sense of survival, self-preservation.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- Dudley's love of the outdoors
is rooted in his own sense of self-preservation,
going back many years ago.
Were you an outdoors type person?
Did you enjoy just being in nature like this?
- I did.
Part of it comes from my childhood.
You know, some issues in the family home
with parents that had some issues with alcohol
and I found that getting into nature
and getting into the out of doors was really,
sort of a respite place for me to escape all of that.
- It was your hideout.
- Yeah, it was my hideout.
- Yeah.
For Dudley, the outdoors was a place of refuge at first,
but it became something more after a high school teacher
introduced him to bird watching.
What hooked you about that experience?
Why were you like, "I need more of this."
- It was his ability to identify birds
that he didn't even see.
Maybe they were a quarter-mile away.
That is amazing! I want those skills.
(birds chirping)
So there are birds calling.
We're not seeing a lot.
- No.
- But we're hearing birds.
There's things like black-capped chickadee,
red-breasted nuthatch.
Oh! New bird.
Rose-breasted grosbeak.
(Baratunde giggling)
(gentle music)
- Even I can tell that Dudley has mastered
some pretty advanced techniques.
Skills that extend far beyond bird watching
into a way of life known simply as birding.
How does one bird?
- Well, there's a lot of ways to bird.
You can bird by ear.
You can do visuals.
But I've learned that you just simply need
to have access to the out of doors wherever you are.
- Dudley agrees to give me a tutorial
on how to spot the most striking birds.
That's not always possible with the naked eye.
I just, I have not looked through a set of binoculars-
- [Dudley] Yeah.
- I think since I was a kid.
- [Dudley] Okay.
- These are very good.
I feel like I'm inside a video game.
- Yeah, yeah.
Very 3D.
- Yeah. - Very 3D.
- It's like the best VR I've ever.
- Yeah. (both laughing)
- I hate that I just said that,
but, that's how I feel.
- Yeah, yeah.
- [Baratunde] Glimpsing elusive birds, that's one thing.
Hearing them?
Well, that's another.
- When you're birding by ear
you really have to focus and concentrate
'cause you gotta be able to separate.
Sometimes the bird, the cacophony of song is,
it's so dense that you have to pull birds out
and isolate them.
Chickadees have a...
(Dudley mimicking a chickadee call)
That call from a black-capped chickadee
tells every other bird,
"Something about to go down.
You got to get yourself together 'cause-
- They coming. - 'Cause they coming, exactly.
(gentle music)
(birds chirping)
- What I'm picking up on is that
you're listening and you're understanding,
so it's not just a visual thing.
Even hearing the bird,
isn't merely about identifying the bird,
it's also about understanding
what the bird is trying to communicate.
Listening to nature and learning from it
seems to give Dudley the safe space he's always wanted.
A place where he can feel he belongs.
- The more you can identify things, then the fear subsides,
the uncertainty of what is that!
And, it's like, okay.
I can identify that butterfly.
I know that species of plant.
I know what bird that is.
So all of this stuff is super familiar to me
so I'm very comfortable in this space.
(gentle music)
- Today, Dudley lives right by this reserve.
So he has access to it whenever he feels he needs it.
But sometimes access can be a complicated thing.
So I'm gonna ask you a very direct question Dudley.
- [Dudley] Yes sir.
- Black people, where are they?
- Yeah, they're not here.
Yeah, so--
- How did you adjust to that when you came here?
- Yeah, you know, for me, I've always been a person who
my connection to nature is so strong that that's priority.
(gentle music)
- [Baratunde] A few years ago, Dudley wrote a book
about outdoor enthusiast titled "The Black and Brown Faces
in America's Wild Places".
It featured inspiring people of color who like Dudley,
have found solace and meaning in the outdoors.
- I think that as people of color we have been,
I'm gonna use the word relegated to urban spaces.
But I have found that in outdoor spaces,
white people, for whatever reason, feel threatened.
I know two African-American males this year who were fishing
and were shot at several times in their boat.
Someone shot at them as they were fishing multiple times.
- So that's an extreme example.
- It's an extreme example.
I mean myself in this community,
I have not had those kinds of things happen.
I have had them happen on camping trips
where I've had people calling me the N-word.
What I get in that green space is so helpful to me,
I'm willing to take ownership for that space
and I might also be willing
to challenge people who challenge me.
Because that space is so important to me,
to my mental health.
(gentle music)
(water sloshing)
- [Baratunde] Do me a favor, close your eyes.
- [Dudley] Okay.
- Listen, tell me everything you hear.
- First thing I hear is insects.
Some kind of cricket or locust.
I hear water dropping on leaves and in the creek.
- What do you feel?
- I feel calm, very relaxed, very much at home.
Which is typically the way I feel in the outer doors.
I feel more at home standing here
than I would even standing in front of my house.
I feel like when I'm in the manmade world,
you have to perform, act a certain way, think a certain way,
engage people in a way that makes them know
that you're a safe black person to be around.
But when I'm in this space,
I don't have to do any of that stuff.
(gentle music)
'Cause the birds and the crickets
and the minnows in the creek don't care.
They just don't.
To me, that's the de-stress
that you can only experience in the outdoors.
And if you've never put yourself in a position
to where you can let that happen,
you have no idea how therapeutic it can be.
(gentle music)
- I think you just described freedom.
- Yes.
I agree.
It is very much freedom.
(gentle music)
- Thank you for watching.
If you want more, check out these other videos
on our playlist.
And if you want even more,
go to the PBS Video app
or PBS.org to watch full episodes
of America Outdoors,
with me!
(gentle upbeat music)