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ABA'S FIRST YOUNG BIRDERS' CONFERENCE

23-26 June 2000. Fort Collins, Colorado
Sponsored by Leica Sport Optics and WINGS

A Visit to Tomorrow

by Steve Howell

"I don't know," I found myself saying, and not infrequently. Perceptive questions from keen young birders (YBs) punctuate my memories of the weekend of June 23-25. Thirty-seven "kids" (YBs ranging from twelve to twenty years old) from across North America assembled in Fort Collins, Colorado, for the inaugural Young Birders' Conference (YBC), spawned largely by the networking of three YBs: Jenny Brumfield, Jessie Barry, and Alex Merritt. When asked to participate, I felt somewhere between honored and horrified. I've been leading tours, teaching, and writing for fifteen years - but always for adults. I knew little or nothing of dealing with younger age groups. But I needn't have worried; the YBs were great.

I flew into Denver, met Terry Moore (the indefatigable youth-program booster from Leica), and drove a van with four YBs almost to Wyoming before realizing that Exit 286 was meant to be Exit 268. I pulled off at Exit 288, and we all got out to stretch. It was sunny and windy, with nothing really "good" to look at, birdwise. But the YBs scanned around, saw what was there, and called out species quicker than I could look: Western Meadowlark, Horned Lark, Western Kingbird - even House Sparrow. Twenty back-tracked miles later, we arrived safely at the conference hotel and the fun really began. Lots of the YBs had met before, and their critical mass and energy carried the event along on the crest of a wave of enthusiasm.

ABA, with Leica and WINGS, sponsored the event, which was run in conjunction with the Colorado Bird Observatory's (CBO) "On the Wing" program (eleven of the YBC group went on to a CBO summer field ornithology camp after the conference). Instrumental to the success of the YBC were the organizational skills of ABA's Lina DiGregorio and CBO's Jennie Duberstein and Callae Frazier, who all kept things running smoothly. Jon Dunn and I were instructors for the event, and local birders Scott and Julie Roederer had scouted for days in advance to ensure that our field trips ran well. Scott and Julie, Terry and Judy Moore and Ron Cormier from Leica, and Gabe Shea and David Brumfield helped drive vans and provided vital behind-the-scenes help with logistics.

This was not an event aimed at maximizing one's life list (although great lifers were seen by most participants). Rather, the emphasis was on observation and learning - on ways to become a better birder. How can you identify a Hammond's Flycatcher when you don't really know what a Dusky Flycatcher looks like? Seeing birds for the second time, or for the two-hundredth, adds perspective and builds upon the first impressions from a "life encounter" (when you're often too excited to look critically at a bird).

Those new to the scene (such as Jon and me!) met and mixed during the first evening's ice-breaker, and then we all tried to get some sleep before Saturday's early-morning departure for Rocky Mountain National Park. There we concentrated on conifer woodland and meadows in two middle-elevation areas, where interesting birds included Williamson's and Red-naped Sapsuckers at nest holes, Rock Wrens singing, side-by-side nesting Tree and Violet-green Swallows, a female Broad-tailed Hummingbird on her nest, a trio of Empi-don't-ask<D> flycatchers (Hammond's, Dusky, and Cordilleran), and a well scrutinized, singing male Fox Sparrow of the subspecies schistacea (how many readers can describe the color of this bird's bill in midsummer?). We stayed out later than intended (no surprise), and so headed straight to dinner on our return. This was followed by Jon Dunn's sparrow identification workshop, emphasizing the all-important "learn the genera" approach. Jon successfully completed his talk despite increasingly loud disco music pulsating through the walls from an ONBC (Older Non-Birders' Conference) - the participants in which have undoubtedly lost the ability to hear singing Blackburnian Warblers! After an incredible and incredibly full day, I doubt anyone had trouble falling asleep (unless their roommate was an Olympic snoring champion . . . ).

Sunday morning saw us out early on the Pawnee National Grassland, where great studies of Burrowing Owls, Mountain Plovers, and Common Nighthawks set the stage for a fun day afield amid dry, rolling steppe and short-grass plains. At the Crow Valley Campground, we fanned out to look for anything that was there, hoping perhaps for a vagrant or rare migrant. A heard Least Flycatcher was the highlight in that regard, but Orchard Orioles, plenty of Brown Thrashers, Western Kingbirds, and Western Wood-Pewees offered more than enough to study. During the rest of the Pawnee trip, we had superb looks at Lark Buntings and both McCown's and Chestnut-collared Longspurs in song flights.

I was glad to get back in time to rest and read through the molt workshop talk I'd put together for the event. I had given the talk a month or so earlier, as a practice run, for biologists and birders in their 20s and 30s, and was a bit concerned about the level at which I would pitch the subject: after two days with YBs, I realized I would have to tone up the talk - they simply devoured the information and asked all sorts of penetrating questions, such as "how do you determine which plumage is 'basic' and which is 'alternate'?" (the question is more profound, and the answer much less simple, than you'd expect). Now I have to go back and re-write the workshop!

After dinner, Sunday evening (was it only the second day?) featured a panel question-and-answer session in which the YBs could ask us (Paul Green, ABA's Executive Director; Will Russell, founding director of WINGS; Scott Hutchings, a biologist with CBO; and Jon and I) questions about birds, birding, and careers in the field. We could also ask YBs questions, and I think a lot was learned on both sides from this get-together: for example, we got a first-hand perspective on the social and safety issues that pose obstacles for girls who are interested in birding. After the panel meeting, we announced the results of the photo quiz ("Make it a stumper," Lina had asked Brian Small, so he did). Neither Jon nor I got all five photos correct, and we tied for second and third places with several YBs - which means that, yes, one person identified all five correctly! Congratulations to Nicholas Pederson. (On a related topic, Jessie Barry stayed for the ABA Convention that followed the YBC, and she won first place in the "adult" photo quiz.)

For the YBC, we had with us a guest from the United Kingdom: David Chandler, from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) Young Ornithologists Club, of which I was once a member and which certainly helped my birding development. David noted that although the youth section of the RSPB has 39,000 members (!), he had never seen a gathering of the YBC's caliber in the United Kingdom. While we have a long way to go to match the size of the RSPB's outstanding youth branch, it's clear that we have a wealth of young talent that should ensure a bright future. One significant note: virtually all of the YBs - and this is true of Jon and I, as well - had a mentor, whether an adult or a slightly older friend, during their early years of birding. Yes, it's easy for kids to become interested in birds. But to go beyond casual interest demands something more, and every birder in ABA can help in this regard.

To sum it all up, my initial nervousness about participating in the YBC dissolved in the face of the learning and camaraderie that dominated the event. I certainly learned plenty, both from the YBs and from the birds. Birds, birding, and birders offer so much potential for inspiration and learning that they never grow old.

published in Winging It 2000