Great News About Young Birders

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From Oak Harbor, Ohio, Kenn and Kim write: This past weekend, the Ohio Young Birders Club -- a group that has been very important to us since its inception -- had a fine field trip, seeing a wide variety of early spring migrants with the bonus of some rare Smith’s Longspurs. The bad news was that both of us were swamped with work (preparing for the month of May, which we call May-hem around here) so that we personally couldn’t go on the trip. The good news was that the field trip went fine without us, since the Club has a lot of adult support now, and a lot of keen young members.

At the end of the weekend, we had another piece of most excellent news from another state: our friend Kevin Loughlin wrote to tell us about the successful second meeting of the new Pennsylvania Young Birders Club. Kevin, who runs Wildside Nature Tours, is a world traveler, professional photographer, and accomplished birder and naturalist. It’s inspiring to see that someone of his stature is taking the time and effort to help organize and run a birding club for kids. Well done, Kevin! You can read about the new Pennsylvania club by going to http://blog.wildsidenaturetours.com/ and reading the entry for April 19.

The next generation of birders is coming along, and they’re the most outstanding young people you could ever hope to meet. Any time we start to feel discouraged about something, we just think about all the young birders we know, and that's enough to restore our hope for the future.

Comments

  1. Jason KesslerApril 22, 2009 at 1:03 PM

    Also check out The New York State Young Birder's club, at http://www.nysyoungbirders.org/

    Some of these teens are doing this year's World Series of Birding. Perhaps some of your readers might consider a pledge for the event (email hope.batcheller AT gmail DOT com) to help their nascent organization to fledge.

    In an era of almost relentlessly bad news regarding species and habitat preservation, stories like this make me thrum with renewed hope for the future.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Kenn KaufmanApril 22, 2009 at 5:22 PM

    Thanks, O.C. -- We've watched with considerable interest as the New York State club developed. I didn't personally have any direct involvement there, but Kim did. She met with the young founder of the club and then spent hours on the phone and on e-mail answering questions from the organizers as that club was being formalized. It's fair to say that the Ohio Young Birders Club served as a model for the New York group. But I also have to say that a very impressive teenaged birder, Hope Batcheller, showed remarkable initiative in getting things rolling in New York. I'm lucky to be acquainted with such effective people!

    ReplyDelete
  3. EricJamesKingApril 24, 2009 at 1:32 PM

    Nice post. I know that Cornell has been forming many young birding clubs in Central Park and other prime locales.


    *I Donated to Cornell Ornithology!*
    http://www.opticsplanet.net/cornell-lab-of-ornithology.html

    ReplyDelete

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