From the Classroom to City Hall: Inside Jenks Birding Club’s Tremendous Impact on the Tulsa Community
Photo Credit: Tej Beniwal
By: Andrew Scruggs
One student's passion for birding is actively changing the city's nightlife and saving local avian lives in the Tulsa community. Senior Tej Beniwal, who founded the Jenks Birding Club in 2023, promotes bird observation and conservation at Jenks High School and within the Tulsa area as a whole.
“I started this club out of my love for birding,” said Beniwal. “I’ve been birding since I was 9, and take my camera pretty much everywhere that my family and I travel.”
As Beniwal progressed within his love for birding, he felt compelled not only to document the species he came across but also to push to conserve them.
“This club has given me a platform to promote conservation of these local species,” said Beniwal. Over the course of his time leading the Jenks Birding Club, Beniwal has provided solutions for how we can do our part to help conserve our local bird species.
Recently, Beniwal has had the Mayor of Tulsa, Monroe Nicholas, endorse his ‘Lights Out’ initiative. The proclamation encourages Tulsa residents to dim or turn off any unnecessary lights between the hours of 11 PM and 6 AM during peak migration seasons.
“Birds' migration patterns are easily disrupted by city lights,” said Beniwal. “Having this proclamation approved by the Mayor is pretty awesome, because it’ll hopefully reach more people and make them turn their lights off.”
The bird pictured is a Verraux’s eagle-owl
Photo Credit: Tej Beniwal
Another initiative Beniwal and the Jenks Birding Club has taken towards preserving birds is by handing out reflective decals for Tulsa residents to place on their windows. A very common cause behind deaths of birds is by flying into windows that they cannot see.
“Placing these stickers on the windows prevents birds from flying into them by reflecting off UV lights,” said Beniwal. “With these decals, the birds can recognize that there’s not just an empty space in front of them.”
Apart from these city-wide initiatives that Beniwal and the Jenks Birding Club have implemented, they work alongside the Tulsa Audubon Society to maintain Jenks High School’s Flycatcher Trail.
Beck Schissel, Vice President of the Jenks Birding Club, spoke to me about what efforts go into maintaining Flycatcher trail.
“We have ‘work days’ at Flycatcher Trail, which is pretty much cleaning, and making sure that we have a good space for any species that come here,” said Schissel. “Our biggest concern is dumping out nests of invasive Sparrows to protect the Purple Martin species from them.”
Alongside work days at Flycatcher Trail, the Jenks Birding Club meets monthly to go bird watching, usually at places such as Oxley Nature Center, Turkey Mountain, etc.
“It’s a really nice way to get out in nature,” said senior Sahil Patel, when asked about why he enjoys birding.
I recently had the opportunity to go out birding with Schissel and Patel at Turkey Mountain. We hiked around for about an hour on a Saturday morning, and took pictures of birds as they came along.
The bird pictured is a Brown-throated Sunbird.
Photo Credit: Tej Beniwal
“I went into it thinking that it was going to be kinda boring, but it turned out to be a lot of fun,” said Patel. “It’s pretty much you get to hike around with your friends and observe birds.”
For those who are not currently involved with or have even heard of Jenks Birding Club, I would strongly encourage you to sign up. Being a member of the club not only lets you work towards a great cause but also gives you a way to enjoy our local wildlife with like-minded individuals.
If you are interested in the Jenks Birding Club, go follow their Instagram @jenksbirdingclub, and also check out @thewondersofcasualbirding.
