Young birders

Young birdersA couple weeks ago we ran our Audubon Bird-a-thon. It’s a typical “-thon” in most ways, but instead of collecting pledges for how many miles we walk, people pledged based on how many bird species our various teams saw. Here in northwest Connecticut, with among the highest diversity of breeding birds in the country, we can often accumulate quite a list.The Audubon Bird-a-thon also provides an opportunity to get outside and enjoy a good day of birding with friends, old and new. The group that I went with consisted of my wife, Laurie, and me; an Audubon staff member; a couple of local birders; and a mother and her 8-year-old son, Caleb. Now I must admit that when Caleb’s mother called the night before asking if they could join us, I didn’t know quite what to expect. I have led nature hikes and gone birding with lots of kids and it’s always great to watch their natural sense of discovery in action, but when the goal is to keep moving and find as many species of birds as possible, could this boy keep up?He could! Our group met early on a Saturday morning at the Audubon Center and our first stop was the front lawn, where we spotted a black-throated blue warbler, a northern parula, a Baltimore oriole and maybe a half dozen other species. Caleb kept right up with us, training his binoculars on each bird to try and get a good look — which is not always possible, even for the most experienced birder. We all knew he was serious when he asked if the Baltimore oriole we were looking at could possibly be an orchard oriole (this is an 8-year-old boy!).And so the morning went. Spotted sandpiper, great blue heron, black-throated green warbler, great looks at a barred owl in our scope — all fairly common birds but fun to see nonetheless. Every once in a while Caleb would yell out “Yellowthroat!” as he pointed to a beautiful common yellowthroat (warbler) flitting by or “Crow!” as the raucous corvid squawked in the distance. I encouraged Caleb to continue to learn bird songs as that can be a satisfying and easy way to know what birds are around you. He agreed and proceeded to list the ones he knew already. Where he got his interest in birds none of us really know. His mother thought it started with the purchase of a birdfeeder; you never know, it just happens. The trick is to continue to nurture the interest and keep it going. It is obvious that his family does, and we will do what we can to help. Any other young birders out there should give us a call. And thanks to all for a great day of birding! Scott Heth is the director of Audubon Sharon and can be reached at sheth@audubon.org, (subject line: Nature Notes).