Info Burung Kicauan

In the spring of 2008 when I walked into Salem-Liberty Elementary School, and into daughter Phoebe's 6th grade classroom, it was the highlight of my professional career. That was the day that I handed all the 6th graders their own copies of The Young Birder's Guide to Birds of Eastern North America—a book they'd helped me create over the previous two years.

I felt such pride because the book had been a true collaboration. The kids really helped me to get the content, design, and format just right. I was also proud because I knew the book would help aspiring young birders to enjoy bird watching—to connect with the feathered part of the natural world in a meaningful way. It's the book I wish I'd had when I first noticed birds in 1968. And my hopes for the book were realized. Since it came out in early 2008, many thousands of copies have made their way into the hands of young birders (and into the hands of new birders of all ages, too). I've given talks to and led walks for young bird watchers all over the eastern half of North America.

Yesterday I got to repeat this very special event when I took son Liam's classmates their copies of the The Young Birder's Guide to Birds of North America, which they helped me create. The new book, which I've blogged about before, was created by expanding the eastern guide, and adding 100+ western species, to cover all of North America. Now young birders in the West have a book to get them started birding.

Yesterday afternoon, just as the school day was winding down, I gave the Salem-Liberty 6th graders their books, signed most of them, then we went out in front of the tiny rural school and snapped a photo for posterity (above). All of these kids are in their last days at Salem-Liberty. Next year they will all attend Fort Frye High School on the other side of the county. I thought back on the many dozens of birding walks we'd taken around the school grounds since 2006. I feel so lucky to have been a part of these book projects with these young folks. We've always had fun.

I believe that birds are the easiest way to connect young people to nature and that's been my mission with these two books. It will continue to be my mission for the rest of my life. But there's no way I could have done it without the great minds and enthusiastic helpers at Salem-Liberty Elementary School.

I'll be forever grateful to those amazing Salem-Liberty kids and their dedicated teachers.

Well, it's finally here and I'm really happy about that. It's my latest book, the book closest to my heart, and the book that I really wish I'd had as a young bird watcher: The Young Birder's Guide to Birds of North America. That's right, this baby covers the entire continent, not just the East, as the earlier version did.

Writing a book is like baking a cake. You gather the ingredients, mix them all together in the proper order, and pop it in the oven. Then you wait. And 45 minutes and you have a cake! Or, in the case of a book, you wait a year while it bakes to perfection.

This new YBG has 300 of the most common, most commonly encountered, and most awesome North American birds in it. That's 200 species from the original eastern version of the book (158 of which have at least some distribution west of the Midwest) with 100 additional western species added. It's 368 pages and retails for less than $16. If you want one personalized for yourself or the young birder in your life, here's the place to make that happen.

What makes me really happy is that now young (or new) birders in the West have a book expressly written for them—a book that was conceptualized by their peers (my kids' elementary school classes worked on both books. This one is arriving just as Liam is about to leave elementary school and start high school!).

My hope is that this book, which is intentionally NOT comprehensive in its coverage of North America's avifauna, will be a great starter guide. Any young bird watcher who gets into our wonderful hobby will then be able to step up to a full field guide of his or her choosing.

I'll be hitting the road in a few weeks to promote the new Young Birder's Guide, heading to South Carolina, West Virginia, central and northwest Ohio, Alaska, North Dakota, Maine, and Florida to give presentations on it and, whenever possible, to go out birding with some young folks. If you've got a young birder in your orbit, I hope to see you out there with the birds. Trust me, we'll have fun!

Thanks to my good friends at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for allow me to be a part of the legendary Peterson Field Guide Series. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine this...

What might inspire a young birder as much as placing a live bird in their hands? [That's my daughter Phoebe with a baby bluebird in her hands.]

Placing a brand new, high-quality binocular in their hands would probably be on top of the list.

When I think about the optics I used for the first 10 years of my bird watching, it gives me a headache (or brings back unpleasant memories of the headaches my old binocs gave me.) I've said this many times before, we are living in The Golden Age of Birding!

Think about it:

• You can buy excellent starter binoculars for about $100.
• You can walk into any bookstore anywhere in North American and buy a field guide to the birds (or mammals, butterflies, moths, reptiles, etc).
• You can get bird seed and a feeder at any number of retail stores in your town.
• You can listen to any bird song in North America on your ever-present cellphone.
• You can get up-to-the-second info on bird sightings on the same device.
• You can brag INSTANTLY to all your birding friends about the Bachman's sparrow at your bird bath, via social media.

I remember the first time I look at a bird through a pair of really nice binoculars. And I also am regularly reminded about the power of good optics when I loan out my extra binocs to young bird watchers on the dozens of trips I lead each year. Hearing the gasp and "WOW!" when they get a really good look at a bird—well it's a special moment because it might just be opening their eyes to a whole new world.


That's what happened to me. And if you remember the moment you sparked on birds and birding, maybe you want to help someone else enjoy that same experience.

Our friends at Leica Sport Optics have joined up with us at Bird Watcher's Digest to find a worthy young bird watcher in the United States to whom Leica will be giving a new pair of Trinovid binoculars. If you read our magazine you know that this model is a top-rated binocular, so it's no small thing to give away. It's NOT a $100 starter binocular. That's why we're calling this giveaway Leica's Great Leap Forward for a Young Birder. We think it could provide that very thing for a deserving young person who is interested in birds.

If you know a young birder who would really benefit from some new (and really nice) binoculars, won't you consider nominating them?

The winner and five runners up will also receive an autographed copy of my new book The Young Birder's Guide to Birds of North America.

Thank you!

The Den of Blogniquity at MBS

This fall's Midwest Birding Symposium has given me tons of reasons to be excited, but one of them is our line-up of official bloggers. These men and women have already been writing about the MBS prior to the event, but during the weekend they will spend part of their time in the Den of Blogniquity. What is the Den of Blogniquity, well, it's like a giant comfy bloggers' cave with all the comforts of home, including WiFi and a large projection screen streaming all the updates from our band of bloggers and other MBS attendees. This is going to be pretty cool!



Oh, and you can join the bloggers inside the Den of Blogniquity, or you can stand outside the large windows of Wesley Lodge (location of the DOB) and watch them through the safety glass—like some rare species at the zoo.



West Virginia Fall Birding Weekend

My pals who run the New River Birding Festival have put together a fall birding event that's smaller and more personalized than their May gathering (which is an annual favorite of mine). I'm one of the leaders for this weekend, which is limited to 12 people. West Virginia is always beautiful, but we'll spend much of our time searching for migrant raptors in the sky and looking for migrant warblers in the fall foliage. Details are here. Nothing but fun.







The Big Sit!

Late on the night of Saturday, October 8, I'll be racing back north from the New River to my farm in southeastern Ohio for our annual Big Sit on Sunday, October 9! The Big Sit has been called many things, including "the world's most sedentary birding event", and "a tailgate party for bird watchers." A big mess of our birding pals (and even some folks who don't know it yet that they are birders) will come by the farm and join us in the Indigo Hill birding tower for The Big Sit. Basically we stay in the tower for as much of 24 hours as we can stand and have fun watching birds—trying to rack up a big list. Many comestibles are consumed and there is much jocularity in the crisp autumn air.



You can have your own Big Sit. Here's a link for the inside dope on The Big Sit! (which is a registered trademark of the New Haven Bird Club, in case you were wondering).







The NEW Young Birder's Guide to Birds of North America

My next book, due out early next spring (late March/early April), is actually an expanded version of a previous book. The Young Birder's Guide to Birds of North America has 100+ western bird species incorporated into the 200+ species that the original Young Birder's Guide to Birds of Eastern North America had. The result is a book that (I hope) will turn young people on to the beauty, joy, and utter ossumness of birds. This is the book I wish I'd had when I started watching birds in Iowa in the late 1960s, but I'm as thrilled as can be that it's here now and that I get to share my love of birds with others in this way.



It's going to be 320 pages of fun and it will cost just $15.95. Now, you can order it from Amazon.com et al and save a few bucks maybe. OR you can pre-order it from us at Bird Watcher's Digest and I can add a personalized autograph for the young birder in your life. To pre-order, call us at 800-879-2473 and ask for Susie.



I could keep going on and on about other things I'm revved up for, but I'd better stop now. I just saw a migrant warbler shoot by the door here at my home office, reminding me that it's time to get outside for some bird watching.