We are all aware of the importance of supporting and encouraging the next generation of birders and conservationists. ZEISS is proud to partner with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology to foster the next generation of ornithologists. Their Young Birders Weekend brings together young people who want to share and deepen their enthusiasm for birding.
Sixteen young birders from around the world gathered at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in June for its 2024 Young Birders Event. Some of the teens travelled from as far as India, China, and the UK to join their US counterparts, making it a truly international event. ZEISS was happy to provide a new pair of Terra ED 8×42 binoculars to each of the participants to heighten experience. One attendee who was blind received a recorder and microphone to enhance her birding adventures.
The young birders participated in a large range of activities to further their knowledge of birds and related career opportunities. Participants toured the Lab’s facilities, including the Macaulay Library and the Museum of Vertebrates, where they were able to see and touch bird specimens under the guidance of Cornell experts. They also enjoyed presentations from scientists and community leaders from the Cornell Lab and explored local birding hotspots.
Together with our partners – British Birds, the British Bird Rarities Committee (BBRC), the Cameron Bespolka Trust (CBT) and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology – we set up a similar concept at ZEISS for one of our other core markets in the UK involving young nature enthusiasts and birdwatchers in three age categories up to 18 years old. The youngsters are asked to submit their most impressive birding or nature experience as a description, photograph, story or drawing. The awards ceremony was held for the first time at the Global Birdfair in 2022, followed by 2023.
With these initiatives we aim to encourage young people to become more involved with birds and wildlife, hopefully leading to a lifetime as ambassadors for conservation.
The two winners of the past UK awards from 2022 and 2023 took part in the 2024 Young Birders Weekend in Ithaca, NY from June 26 – 30. We asked them about their motivation for birds and nature:
Rosie Johnson – 18
How long have you been birding? I think from when I was quite young. I think I was 7 when I got my first pair of binoculars. But before that I used go out on walks with my family and, especially my dad, he would let me borrow his binoculars and we’d go and sit in the bird hides. I think it started from quite a young age.
Did you always like nature and birds? I remember when I was really little sort of sitting in the garden and just looking at bugs wriggling around in the soil. Small parts of nature sort of captured my attention.
What are your future plans? Do your future plans involve birding? I’m unsure at the moment. I’ve been studying at Sixth Form so I’ve been studying A-levels. I just finished an Art A-Level and Geology A-Level which aren’t really necessarily bird related but for the next year I’m doing an art foundation course and after that I don’t have any plans yet. I’d be keen for birds to be involved but I don’t really know.
What kind of art do you do? I really enjoy watercolor painting but less realism and more abstracted forms of natural forms. Mixed media as well.
What’s your favorite subject for your art? It’s a bit random but I really like fungi, lichens and mosses and their sort of hidden worlds…
Is there anything else you’d like to say about this weekend? I’m just really, really grateful for this experience. It was wonderful to meet new people and broaden my links over the world with different people in the context of ornithology. It’s really exciting.
Esther Rumsey – 17
Where are you from? I’m from Gloucestershire, UK and it is my first time in the US.
I’m here for the Young Birders event at Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Meeting lots of new young people and getting to know the lab and what Cornell Lab of Ornithology is all about.
How did you get started in birding? I’ve always lived in quite a rural place so I always had that kind of connection to the natural world. And that I was really lucky to have that available to me but then I remember I was probably like 9 or 10 and my mum before the Easter holidays made me go on a walk with her every day. There was always a wren at the same place and she was teaching me how to ID the wren and what it was and I think I just watched for that wren every day. And it was like my first kind of experience of watching birds and it hit me then and since then I’ve been birding.
What is your life list? It is 190 something.
Are they all from your local area at home? Yes, other than the birds I’ve seen today they’ve all been from the UK but mostly from where I live because I’m really lucky to live by the Slimbridge Wetland Reserve which has so many birds and so I’ve got a really great patch to be able to enjoy the birds right on my doorstep which I’m really lucky to have.
Do you enjoy other types of nature? I’m into flowers and botany especially the wetland species that I have around me. I love trees. Really anything. I’ll watch mammals, any of the wildlife available to me I’ll make the most of.
What is your favorite bird? My go to answer is always Kestrel. I really like hen harriers too but I haven’t actually been able to see one yet, but I love Kestrels.
Are you still in school? I’m at college in my first year.
What are your future plans? Do they include birds? Whatever I do I’m going to incorporate birds into it because they’re just a big part of my life and one of the things I enjoy most. So, possibly like a conservation course at Uni but I also have an interest in art and writing and if I go down one of those routes I’m going to incorporate the natural world and birds into my art and my writing as well,
What kind of art? I do a lot of watercolors. I’ll often paint one individual bird in a painting in watercolor but I also do nature journaling and field sketches, so I have a lots of sketch books full of all my field notes and sketches.
How long have you been keeping a field journal? I started during lockdown, so I think for 4 or 5 years now.
What is a favorite subject of your art? It always birds, all of my art really is birds but particularly birds in flight I really enjoy doing. In my art I can incorporate quite a lot of movement that I create through watercolors because you can make them quite loose and use splashes and that kind of thing. So, I like to show the movement of birds in flight and their characteristics and behaviour.
What are you looking forward to this weekend? I’m really looking forward to being able to meet lots of new young birders and be able to share our passion with each other and learn off each other and be able to share this amazing experience but specifically I’m really looking forward to sound recording.
Anything else you’d like to share? I think it’s an amazing experience and that I’m really lucky to have been able to enjoy myself and connecting these young birder from all over the world is such an amazing thing to see and the work of the lab as well and being able to learn about it is such a privilege and what it’s all about, connecting people and technology and that kind of side of engagement is simply amazing.
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