By Jerry Berrier | From BayLines Express, March, 2025 A couple of months ago, Martha Steele, an expert blind birder from Massachusetts, approached me and asked if I might be interested in collaborating with her on planning a bird-a-thon for birders who are blind. We then reached out to Donna Posont, a blind birder from … Read more
By Jennifer Harnish | From BayLines Express, November, 2023 On March 8, 2023, my daughter Celia and her boyfriend Jasper began their 2,198 mile thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail (A.T.). In A.T. lingo, they were doing a Nobo (Northbound) thru-hike, beginning at Springer Mountain in Georgia with the goal of ending at the top of … Read more
By Nona Haroyan | From BayLines Express, September, 2023 This summer I tried kayaking for the first time. How hard could it be? Sit in a little boat with an experienced guide and paddle around a lake. Well to my complete disgust, I learned pretty quickly, that I had deluded myself into thinking that I … Read more
By Cindy Wentz | From BayLines Express, October, 2022 Cold and wind make me long for my bed – or at least my couch bundled up in an afghan. Flying, buzzing, biting critters give me the creeps. And I am not particularly interested in exercising to the point of heavy breathing and copious perspiration. Isn’t … Read more
By Martha Steele | Reprinted with permission from Bird Observer October 2022, Volume 50, Number 5:350-352. www.birdobserver.org. Recently, Bob and I birded with Jerry Berrier, who has been totally blind from birth due to retinopathy of prematurity, where the infant receives too much oxygen following birth. Our morning walk along trails in the Middlesex Fells … Read more
Mostly by James Murphy | From BayLines Express, April, 2022 Dear BSCB: On Saturday October 2nd, after last year’s baseball season ended, the Central Mass. Chapter of BSCB took a tour of Worcester’s shiny new Polar Park, the new home of the Red Sox Triple-A team, the Worcester Red Sox (WooSox). They are the highest … Read more
By Jerry Berrier | From BayLines Express, March, 2022 When I signed up to take a bus trip with my chapter of the Bay State Council of the Blind to Boston to see an audio described theater performance, I never dreamed it would lead to a chance to experience ice fishing. We had arranged to … Read more
By Bill Henderson | From BayLines Express, May, 2021 I love to swim and have been doing this regularly all my life. When it is cold, I swim indoors in pools. When it is warm, I prefer to venture outside in the ocean and lakes. Losing my vision in my 40s posed some swimming challenges. … Read more
By Jerry Berrier | From BayLines Express, March, 2021 I am an Access Technology Director at the Perkins School for the Blind. I have been an ACB member since 1982. I have been learning, and often re-learning bird sounds since I was 19 years old. I have used professionally recorded training guides, lists of mnemonics … Read more
By Barbara Black | From BayLines Express, January, 2021 I live in western Massachusetts. A retired early childhood educator and public school administrator, I am totally un-athletic, and something of a wimp. Also, I have Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP) and haven’t had any usable vision for at least 25 years. So, why am I writing about … Read more
