Friday, January 18, 2013

The Young Birders Club is up and running!

As 2013 begins Michigan Audubon announces the launch of a Michigan Young Birders Club (MYBC). With the assistance of Sarah Toner and advice from the staff at Black Swamp Bird Observatory (BSBO), MYBC joins 12 other state and five regional Young Birder Clubs in the country.

MYBC membership is for youth ages 12 – 18. It is a club run by young birders, for young birders, and focuses on educating young birders about birds and conservation. An Advisory Board, who will decide on the schedule of programs and the division of tasks amongst the members is currently being created. Meeting dates will be announced soon.

Members will create their own online newsletter and administer the club’s social networking sites. Planning a conference with presentations given by members and other young birders will also be on their agenda in the near future. The Club will be overseen by Program Coordinator Wendy Tatar.

MYBC membership is $15 and $10 for additional members of the same family.

For more information or to join, go to http://www.michiganaudubon.org/about/mybc/

Friday, January 11, 2013

Grosse Pointe Audubon Winter Newsletter

Here is our winter newsletter. Hope to see you at our next meeting on Jan. 28!

Grosse Pointe Audubon Winter 2013 Newsletter by BRapai2213

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

New resource for young birders.

This email came over the transom today. All I can say is we old folks wish we could have had something this cool when we were young!

New Young Birders Network Aims to Fledge Teen Birders
Online info hub connects young birders with peers and resources across country

For release: January 8, 2013

Ithaca, NY—Teen birders now have a place to go online to connect with peers and drill down into a wealth of birding resources, as well as explore college and career opportunities. The Young Birders Network (www.youngbirdersnetwork.net), launched by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Ohio’s Black Swamp Bird Observatory, serves as a hub for the many young birding clubs sprouting up across the country, while providing an online community for teens to share information and learn more about birding. "Teen birders are often unsure of how to turn their hobby into a meaningful career," said Cornell University biology junior Hope Batcheller, who is also a Young Birders Network coordinator. "This site answers many of their frequently asked questions." The Young Birders Network aggregates everything a teen needs to plug into their local birding scene, meet their birding peers, and delve deeper into the world of birding: A directory of young birding clubs, blogs and Facebook groups, events, and conferences across the country; Articles and links to resources about the many ways a passion for birding can turn into a college major and career, from ornithology and conservation biology to art and computer science; and, A custom eBird portal for easy online management of birding checklists and access to all the birding tools eBird offers. Articles on the Young Birders Network home page are written by a mix of middle school and high school students, Cornell University students, and eBird and Black Swamp Observatory professionals, creating a forum for teens to interact with college and adult birders. And for teens who don’t find a birding club near them, the Young Birders Network offers a toolkit for starting their own club. "Since Black Swamp Bird Observatory launched the Ohio Young Birders Club in 2006, much of our efforts have focused on providing information and assistance to other groups interested in starting a similar program for youth," said Kimberly Kaufman, executive director of the Black Swamp Bird Observatory. "The opportunity to work with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology on the Young Birders Network (YBN) is a dream come true. Our combined knowledge, enthusiasm, and additional resources will allow us to encourage, educate, and empower more young people than we could have ever reached on our own. These are exciting times for anyone with an interest in getting more young people outside and connected with birds!" "I certainly wish I had a central resource hub like this during high school. Until now there was really nowhere to find all this information about young birder happenings in one place," said Batcheller. "I’m excited to share this site with new birders and introduce them to the awesome world of birding and ornithology."

p.s.: Michigan Audubon will soon be announcing that they are joining the Young Birders Network, as it is in the process of forming a group. Expect an official announcement soon.

Monday, January 7, 2013

Jan. 28 meeting

We are still one speaker short of being able to announce our entire winter meeting schedule, but we can say our speaker for our Jan. 28 meeting will be Mary Bohling, an extension educator from Michigan Sea Grant. Bohling will present "Great Lakes Habitat Restoration: Stories from Sea Grant projects in the St. Clair–Detroit System." The Huron-Erie Corridor includes one of the busiest navigation centers in the United States and is an international trade route with Canada and overseas markets. Over $80 billion a year in trade between the U.S. and Canada is carried out across the Huron-Erie Corridor. More than five million people live within an hour’s drive of this corridor. It is also a major source of drinking water for Michigan, Ohio and Ontario.

Habitat in these waters is used by over 65 species of fish, and is home to 16 threatened or endangered fish species. The corridor is also part of the central Great Lakes flyway for millions of migratory waterfowl, and it contains some of the largest and most diverse wetlands remaining in the region.

Conflicting uses of HEC waters for waste disposal, water withdrawals, shoreline development, shipping, recreation, and fishing have resulted in a number of environmental changes to this system. Michigan Sea Grant and its partners have been working to restore wildlife habitat in the corridor. In this presentationBohling, will highlight some of the projects that are leading to wildlife recovery and environmental sustainability of our region.

Don't forget that our January and February meetings are held on the fourth Monday of those two months to avoid conflict with federal holidays. See you on Jan. 28!