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Jaimee, if you have the Audubon app I'm guessing you have a smartphone. Most smartphones include a function to make a sound recording which would probably work to capture that elusive song you can't identify at the time. You can then have something to playback for a birding friend or to study later when you can compare it to other recordings.
Digital Bird Song Identification a Reality?
Even since the introduction of the smartphone app Shazam, which, when held up to nearly any piece of recorded music can quickly and seemingly miraculously name the song and artist, techy birders have been clammoring for something similar for bird vocalizations. Imagine a computer program that c...
Michael, I don't think anyone is suggesting that Matt doesn't deserve full credit for finding, identifying, and sharing this amazing bird. If you listen to the interview, I think Jeff does a good job of discovering that Matt had obviously done of lot of preparation and study on his own and he was "ready" to find this bird.
Of course, Matt had skills and resourcefulness prior to taking part in an ABA young birder program. "Hone" is the perfect word as it relates to putting a finer edge on what is already functioning as a cutting tool. No one is suggesting that the ABA created or is the sole source of Matt's abilities.
Your speculation is like reviewing the career of a successful athlete and suggesting if there is no evidence the training from one particular week ____ years earlier played a role in winning a race today, then that particular week of training should be set aside. Is it theoretically possible? Sure, but what's the point?
This IS the ABA Blog and it seems perfectly appropriate for the ABA president to refer to an ABA program, when appropriate. This does nothing to diminish Matt's accomplishment.
Does anyone else think it was inappropriate to point the ABA connection?
Meet Matt Daw, the Guy Who Found the New Mexico Rufous-necked Wood-Rail
Matt Daw at Bosque del Apache on July 7, 2013, a day he won't soon forget! Photo ©Jeffrey A. Gordon Word has been spreading quickly of a truly remarkable birding event: Matt Daw's discovery of a Rufous-necked Wood-Rail at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge near Socorro, New Mexico. Wha...
I look forward to seeing tons of postings on the Marketplace. And it it does become the Craigslist of the birding world, you might add some guidelines that encourage the use of photos for promoting equipment sales, birding spot rentals, etc. The visuals add to both the selling power and the fun of browsing!
Introducing Birders' Marketplace!
Birders’ Marketplace is here! With Winging It ceasing its run this year, we at the ABA were tasked with the question of what to do with all of those classified ads that used to fill the back pages of the newsletter. We’re happy to announce that we’ve created a brand new site where birders and pro...
Hey Matt, with regard to the MACU, when will our long national nightmare be over!!!
Fraker Takes On Florida at Listers' Corner
ABA Board Member Matt Fraker, of Bloomington, Illinois, recently made a big trip to Florida for some family time and birds, specifically a series of Florida-based nemeses that he had high hopes of nailing down at long last. I don’t pretend to see birds I have yet to see. I don’t think about wh...
Does Eagle Optics also still offer to send a portion of the purchase price as a donation to ABA? If so, I think you just need to mention the ABA at the time of purchase. Another great deal from Eagle Optics!
Buy Binoculars from Eagle Optics, Join the ABA
Our good friends at Eagle Optics are once again offering a fantastic deal for those interested in purchasing a new pair of binoculars. With the purchase of one of a select list of binoculars at a variety of price points, you can get an ABA membership - usually $45 - for the low price of $15...
Of Spark Birds AND People
Posted Feb 20, 2013 at ABA Blog
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Chad, our current e-newsletter mailing list is comprised of a mixed bag of email addresses from my personal contact list, various local birder emails I've collected basically one at a time, county conservation offices (there are 99 counties in Iowa), sign-ups from our website, and so on. But, nearly all of these are people over 18. We definitely are looking for ways to connect more directly with young birders and also get them engaged in designing their own programming and field trips.
The Rise of Young Birder Clubs
Much has been written of late about the decline of “joiners.” The problem is especially acute, it is said, with young people. To be sure, many commentators have remarked on the near absence of today’s young people from bird clubs, state ornithological societies, and bird conservation organizat...
First, thanks to Ted for starting this conversation. Second, thanks to Kimberly and Kenn and all the other folks (and its a long list) who have been pushing, pulling and just plain working hard to encourage young birders.
When we started Iowa Young Birders last year, we initially targeted 12-18 year olds which is an age range adopted by a lot of the young birder groups. At its second meeting, my board of directors encouraged consideration of reaching a younger audience. This was reinforced when our first field trip attracted seven young birders ALL of whom were age 12 or under! Since then, on six additional field trips around the state, MOST of the participants have been on the younger range (we changed our bylaws from 12-18 to ages 8-18 quite quickly.) So, to JB's point above about the need to go where the young birders are, at least at the current time, our "market" here in Iowa is a younger crowd.
So we don't seem to have a cadre of teen birders who could assume the leadership and design of their own young birder program as has happened in Ohio. At least we don't have them yet. Hopefully, we'll be "growing" just such as group as our current participants develop and as Iowa Young Birders gets beyond its first couple of years.
At this point, I feel like we (Iowa Young Birders) are primarily reaching out to the PARENTS and not so much directly to the young birders. I think that will evolve over time but we are working hard to figure out the best ways to reach our audiences. Right now, we are focusing on our Facebook and web presence as well as a regular email newsletter sent to 900 (nearly all of whom are adults and not themselves young birders.)
Regarding the question about how to transmit knowledge and wisdom, we received a grant from the Iowa Resource Enhancement And Protection (REAP) Conservation Education program ( http://www.iowayoungbirders.org/2012/12/04/iayb-receives-grant/ ) to use participant surveys on our 2013 field trips to assess and test whether the field trips are effective in raising conservation awareness and also whether we are successfully tying into the Iowa K-12 core curriculum standards for science inquiry. Our goal is to be testing and refining a field trip model that we can potentially share with other organizations. We will be consulting with leadership at the ABA, the Iowa Ornithologists' Union and Iowa Audubon on the development of this field trip model.
Regarding Ted's question, "How do organizations for “grownups”—including, if we’re honest about it, the ABA—interact with and nurture young birder clubs?", we are trying a few things. First, we received a grant from the Iowa Ornithologists' Union to purchase optics for sharing on field trips. Besides enhancing young birder field experiences, this has given us the opportunity to talk about the IOU to our young birders AND communicate with the IOU membership (via newsletter articles, etc.) about Iowa Young Birders. Second, at the upcoming spring meeting of the IOU in Cedar Falls, we are going to offer a dedicated young birder field trip alongside the traditional annual meeting field trips (which rarely seem to attract young birders.) We'll be encouraging the young birder field trip participants to stay for at least part of the afternoon presentations or even to register for the whole weekend.
Overall, we have a lot to learn and I hope this will turn into a lively conversation.
The Rise of Young Birder Clubs
Much has been written of late about the decline of “joiners.” The problem is especially acute, it is said, with young people. To be sure, many commentators have remarked on the near absence of today’s young people from bird clubs, state ornithological societies, and bird conservation organizat...
New blogpost idea: Fifty Shades of Yellow!
Long Live Lister!
It's been said that listing is the heart-and-soul of the ABA. The roots. The base. There's a lot of truth to that, even though the ABA is much, much more. Conservation efforts like Birder's Exchange. Education efforts like the Young Birder Program, and of course, the fine publications like Birdi...
Great work, Team ABA!!
Birding News Update: 8-29-12
We've now read—and replied to—all of the messages we've received from you over the past two weeks concerning Birding News. Having tens of thousands of beta-testers has helped us immeasurably in identifying and eliminating problems. We've also gotten some very good suggestions. Chief among these ...
Ted, at first I didn't recognize you in those groovy sunglasses...but the dance move AND the awesome writing and point-making gave you away!
Carl
Bird Records Committees: A Modest Proposal
“Great news, honey! I’ve found a doctor who can treat my infection. He practices medicine just as they did in the early 1920s—before that silly penicillin fad became all the rage.” “Mom, Dad: I’ve finally decided on a major. Anthropology. I love this department because all the profs use textbo...
I like Tom's Zeiss shirt combined with the Leitz bins; all that's missing is an ABA Bird of the Year sticker!! Seriously, these look like great additions to the staff. Congratulations to all.
New Blood at Birding
With the upcoming September 2011 issue of Birding, we welcome three new department editors. First, Amy Davis will be compiling our “Sightings” column, reporting on rare birds in Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. Davis, who studied comparative literature at the University of Pennsylvania, calls ...
These are GREAT ideas. I think the card is an especially powerful and easy-to-use tool.
If this is launched, I think it would be a good idea to simultaneously spruce up the Membership info on the ABA website to make the navigation a little smoother and the messaging more effective. For someone who is coming to the ABA site after having received a field card from an ABA member, this landing is the first impression of the ABA (actually second since the field card exchange is the first.)
The current Membership button leads to a very short paragraph with a vague description of the benefits of belonging. This could be expanded into a more specific list.
The Join Now button goes directly to an online membership form where the second item already asks for a decision on whether to subscribe to North American Birds. For most prospective new members, this won't yet have been explained and may cause some to just close the browser and think, well maybe I'll join later. Absolutely we need to prompt more to consider joining (via cards, shirt, etc.) but the fulfillment process needs to be as enjoyable and easy as possible. Think of Amazon's One-Click as the standard for ease of online ordering.
I look forward to seeing all the other ideas and suggestions.
How We Take the ABA to the Next Level: A Card, A Shirt, and Your Ideas
Below is a picture of my ATM card. Of course, I've sloppily cloned out a bunch of numbers from the photo of it, and it's bleached and nicked from (over)use, but I still wanted you to see it. I should say right up front that this is not the card referred to in the title that I think can help th...
Ted,
Nice post and right on target. I actually wrote a document for the Iowa Ornithologists' Union 25 years ago that is still being used as an outline for how local Iowa bird clubs could organize and host the statewide meeting. I think every element you described is in there!
By the way, I'll be at that Iowa meeting in August so will be among the three or four folks with whom you have an acquaintance. Northeast Iowa is a beautiful area and you should have some fun exploring it. For anyone else reading this interested in hearing Ted speak and exploring NE Iowa, here is a link to the meeting page: http://www.iowabirds.org/iou/current_meeting.asp
“The Club,” Take 2
Long, long ago, Pete Dunne wrote in American Birds about bird club meetings. His core message, as I recall, was that all bird club meetings are basically the same. He meant it in the best possible way: Bird club meetings are all the same in all the best ways. Call it the Anna Karenina Theorem of...
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