• Dudley Carlson’s Kids Bird Book Recommendation – Across the Pond

    Dudley Carlson’s Kids Bird Book Recommendation – Across the Pond
    By Guest Blogger Dudley Carlson
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    ​What is it that draws people to birding?  For some of us, it’s a single, unforgettable encounter; for others it’s more gradual, perhaps even accidental.  For Callie, in Joy McCullough’s Across the Pond, it’s part of the completely new life she discovers when her family moves from a small apartment in San Diego to a castle they have inherited in Scotland.

    ​​Shy and uncomfortable in new situations, Callie discovers that seventh grade (hers) at her new school will be “high school.”  Fearful of being an outsider among older students, she persuades her parents to …

    home-school her for the first year, which they agree to do on one condition:  she must find one social activity on her own that provides the chance to meet new people and make friends.
     
    At the village library, she meets a friendly librarian who mentions that a “twitching” club meets there, and as she’s found nothing else, she decides to try it, quickly discovering that it consists only of boys and a decidedly unwelcoming male leader. Told that seeing a new bird counts only if it’s a male, Callie rebels; and that marks the beginning not only of her birding adventure, but of her gradual transformation from shy outsider to can-do twitcher.  She’s helped along by evolving friendships with Raj, a boy whose small size and ethnicity have marked him as “different” and made him a target for teasing, and Sid, a girl whose family circumstances and an unusual disease make her seem less interested than she really is.

    ​Callie also finds an early diary of the castle’s former owner who, as a young girl, was sent away from home for safety during World War II.  Philippa Spence was also a “twitcher,” and in her diaries Callie learns more about birds and discovers another outsider faced with difficult circumstances.  As their parallel stories begin to intertwine, we see both young women finding their strengths.
     
    This is not a flawless book.  One of Philippa’s bird lists includes North American species that would not have been seen in Scotland, including a Black-capped Chickadee that eats from her hand.  But it nicely captures the joy of finding new birds and the challenges of developing new friendships, and there are important parallels with today’s need for inclusiveness in birding and elsewhere.

    SFBBO member Dudley Carlson, a biologist’s daughter, grew up in a family of birders and was Manager of Youth Services at Princeton (NJ) Public Library for 25 years. She believes that if children enjoy learning about birds and understand how important they are to our environment, then birds, nature and people will have a better chance at a healthy future. Check out all of Dudley’s book recommendations. 

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  • Why Play? A Conversation About the Importance of Play in Learning

    Why Play? A Conversation About the Importance of Play in Learning
    By Outreach Director Kristin Butler
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    ​There is more to play than meets the eye. Play forms the foundation for life-long growth and development. That’s the message educator Chris Pancoast shares with parents, teachers, and the community through his Why Play programs and books. 
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    The idea that kids gain valuable skills while …  

    having fun exploring the world around them is also the reason SFBBO offers hands-on science experiences to kids and their families. Participants in SFBBO’s youth and family programs get to play with bird banding tools, peer at nature through spotting scopes, create their own “binoculars,” test their bird observation skills, sketch local nature, and more!

    We met Chris at the Wildlife Conservation Network Expo in San Francisco a couple years ago and spoke with him recently to talk about the importance of play for kids’ education. During our chat he shared that when children have the time and opportunity to play they practice verbal and social skills, gain fine and gross motor development, and learn how to build relationships. We also know that when kids participate in activities like bird walks, hands-on experiments, nature journaling, and art, they develop their observation, science literacy and deductive reasoning skills.

    Chris has a master’s in Early Childhood Development and his research focused on play and inspired his book Why Play: The Role of Play in Early Childhood Development. Through both his research and his experience growing up with a learning disability, Chris said he discovered that no two people are alike and that play can help kids with any learning style thrive. He now shares what he has learned through workshops, online resources, and his book, Why Play: Learning Through Play. 

    He also shared that humans are not the only species that play! Many animals also engage in play as a way to learn and practice survival skills, including some birds. Learn more about the importance of play for people and animals by checking out our interview with Chris at the link below.
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    You can learn more about the importance of play in education at Chris’s website. To get involved in SFBBO’s hands-on youth and family programs, please visit our education web page or write to [email protected]. 

    Thank you to volunteer Arantxa Astudillo for editing this video!

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  • Dudley Carlson’s Kids Bird Book Recommendation – Books About Baby Birds

    Dudley Carlson’s Kids Bird Book Recommendation – Books About Baby Birds
    By Guest Blogger Dudley Carlson
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    Babies! They’re everywhere this time of year – on the ground, in the trees, in holes, and especially on the water, though we don’t get to see those born in the far north, whose parents migrate through here in spring or fall, until they’re past their babyhood. Pointing out fledglings at the feeder or water dish – especially during  the period when they’re still flapping and begging and clearly demanding food from their parents – is an easy way to get young children interested in watching …

    birds of all kinds.  So is reading about them together.

    ​Helen Frost’s poetic story, Hello, I’m Here! follows a Sandhill Crane chick from inside the egg as it peeps and struggles to break free, sees its mother for the first time, meets its sibling, and begins to explore the world. Crane chicks, like ducklings, are precocial; they’re born with feathers, can walk and swim soon after birth, and must learn immediately how to find food and avoid dangers (such as snapping turtles). Rick Lieder’s photographs fill the pages from edge to edge, so the listener is right there in the marsh with both adults and chicks. This brief poem covers only the beginning of a chick’s life – literally the first day; but the last page offers more information about their life cycle for the adult reader or the curious older child. This could be read to a very young child, and after one reading the pictures can be explored in detail. It’s a great conversation-starter for the very youngest. (Candlewick Press, 2019.) 
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    ​Loon, by Susan Vande Griek, takes somewhat older readers (4-8) into the nest of a Common Loon whose first egg is just hatching. Both parents are already out on the water, calling out to their two chicks to jump in and follow. But this book continues through the first summer, until the parents migrate, and into the fall, when the young birds fly out to sea, where they remain for three to four years until they are ready to return to the north to find a mate and a new home. Karen Reczuch’s paintings bring the loon family and their surroundings to life, and here again young readers can visually immerse themselves in the loons’ habitat or learn more from the back pages, which provide information on the loon’s life cycle and other loon species.  (Groundwood Books, 2011.)
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    For a completely different lifestyle, Paul Meisel presents My Tiny Life, by Ruby T. Hummingbird (illustrated by the author). This diary begins on May 15: “Today I poked my way out of this tiny egg,” and proceeds with entries about being fed, flying for the first time, finding food, and experimenting with the aggressive acrobatics that hummingbirds perform. Flying south to winter in Mexico, molting into adult plumage, migrating back across the ocean to his birthplace (yes, Ruby T. is a male), and finding a potential mate complete this story, which is told in short sentences for new readers or younger listeners. Endpapers and a back page provide a glossary, resources, and extended information for older children about hummingbirds in general and this species in particular. Though the Ruby-throated Hummingbird is outside our range, this book provides an easy way to introduce children to the hummingbird group.  Put up a feeder and help them learn about western species. (Holiday House, 2021.)
     
    All three stories put the reader in the center of the action, with pictures that amplify the text. If you have bird feeders or live near the water or near a park with trees, shrubs and flowers, these are stories that can help your children “warm up” to looking around, noticing what birds are present and what they’re doing.  Then you can visit the library for a field guide or use your phone to find an app to help identify what you’ve seen.
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    As I was thinking about very young children and the pleasure of reading aloud, I discovered to my surprise that our booklist, which has been growing for eight years, didn’t include the classic picture story about a bird family, which is eighty years old this year. Robert McCloskey’s Make Way for Ducklings follows a pair of Mallards who make their nest in the Charles River, near Boston’s Public Garden. When Mr. Mallard decides to “take a little trip up the river,” Mrs. Mallard is left to care for the ducklings on her own. A friendly policeman who has fed the parents peanuts sees her as she attempts to cross a busy street to reach the Public Garden, and it is his intervention – holding back oncoming traffic and calling for reinforcements to make sure that the ducklings reach their destination in safety – that saves the day (and the ducklings).  Despite its age (obvious from the cars in the illustrations), this is still a favorite among preschoolers and a pleasure to read aloud to a child in your lap or a group at your feet. And if you’re visiting Boston, you can take your children to see the Mallard family. Nancy Schön’s statues of Mrs. Mallard and the ducklings were placed in the Public Garden in 1987 in tribute to McCloskey.  (Original: Viking, 1941; 75th anniversary edition Penguin/Random House, 2016.) ​

    SFBBO member Dudley Carlson, a biologist’s daughter, grew up in a family of birders and was Manager of Youth Services at Princeton (NJ) Public Library for 25 years. She believes that if children enjoy learning about birds and understand how important they are to our environment, then birds, nature and people will have a better chance at a healthy future. You can see all of Dudley’s book recommendations here. ​

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  • Dudley Carlson’s Kids Bird Book Recommendation – Books for Younger Kids

    Dudley Carlson’s Kids Bird Book Recommendation – Books for Younger Kids
    By Guest Blogger Dudley Carlson
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    Sometimes we think the smallest children are too young to be introduced to birds. But from their first day, they’re learning by observation. My own parents claimed that my first real sentence came when I announced, from a highchair near the bird-feeder window, “Jaybird jump down!”

    In I Am A Bird, Hope Lim introduces us to a small girl who loves riding on the back of her dad’s bicycle.“Every morning,” she says, “I fly like a bird on Daddy’s bike. I sing …

    ​like a bird on the way to school. People wave and smile, and the birds sing back.” But one day she notices a woman who neither waves nor smiles, and her joy fades into discomfort. It takes another chance encounter for her to discover that the woman loves birds just as she does. Hyewon Yum’s expressive illustrations in colored pencil and gouache capture both the child’s and the woman’s delight in the birds and their surroundings. Whether or not children have noticed birds before, they will connect with this joyful bike ride and the birds on view.  This should work for any child old enough to sit in a lap and look at pictures, and older siblings can read it to them.
     
    For children beginning to read on their own, Elise Gravel introduces a show-off crow named Arlo (according to his small yellow-bird friend Pips) in Arlo and Pips: King of the Birds. This jet-black, comma-shaped crow wears a tiny yellow crown and claims to be the greatest bird in the world, gorgeous and incredibly smart, though his yellow friend is initially dubious. In three short chapters, the two explore the city and the beach, remarking as they go on the wastefulness of the humans who leave them plenty to eat.  The layout is that of a graphic novel, but the text is large and easy to read, with a smattering of words like “impressive” and “competition.” The digital illustrations, clever and energetic, carry the story effectively, and Gravel weaves in informative “footnotes” that give factual information about crows. Even parents may learn a thing or two about crows in this amusing tale, and the last page promises a sequel.
    ​For somewhat older siblings, there’s another new crow story from Cynthia Voigt. Little Bird, the title character, is the smallest of a flock of crows, charged with keeping an eye on fledglings and doing other tasks that older crows disdain.  When the crows are threatened by a hawk, a cat, and then a fisher, it’s Little Bird who discovers that the fisher has not only torn the nest but stolen Our Luck, a charm found by an ancestral crow and woven into the nest.
     
    Because she was on duty when Our Luck was stolen, Little Bird feels obligated to search for it, even though none of the older crows believe she’s capable. Encouraged by Brutus, a philosophical goat who lives on the farm near the crows, she sets out to find the thieving fisher. Thus begins a long and dangerous journey that leads Little Bird to discover her own strengths and abilities and to find not only the lost charm but her gateway to independence. Lynne Rae Perkins provides just enough black-and-white illustrations to bring the characters to life and encourage readers new to chapter books. Children 8 to 10 can handle this on their own, though it could easily be read aloud to a family with older and younger siblings.

    SFBBO member Dudley Carlson, a biologist’s daughter, grew up in a family of birders and was Manager of Youth Services at Princeton (NJ) Public Library for 25 years. She believes that if children enjoy learning about birds and understand how important they are to our environment, then birds, nature and people will have a better chance at a healthy future. You can see all of Dudley’s book recommendations here. ​

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  • Dudley Carlson’s Kids Bird Book Recommendation – Of a Feather

    Dudley Carlson’s Kids Bird Book Recommendation – Of a Feather
    By Guest Blogger Dudley Carlson
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    ​“What kind of owl is that?” asks my young neighbor, listening to the soft “coo-COO-cooo-cooo” of a Mourning Dove and reminding me how little many of our children know about the birds around us. Dayna Lorentz, in the recent middle-grade novel Of a Feather, introduces two characters, a young Great Horned Owl and a middle grade girl, both struggling to find their places in the world under challenging conditions.  

    ​The owl, Second (named for his birth order, and taunted by his older sister, who has already fledged) is timid, slow in learning to hunt and …

    not fully fledged when his mother is struck by a passing vehicle, leaving him to learn on his own. The girl, Maureen, has been transplanted to live with a great-aunt she has never met, who happens to be a veterinarian and uses falconry to train young hawks to hunt, increasing their chances of survival.  

    When Maureen helps her aunt Beatrice set a hawk trap, they accidentally capture Second, and Maureen is immediately fascinated by the owl. As she learns about owls and falconry, Second learns about humans from the Red-tailed Hawk that Beatrice is rehabilitating. Gradually, both owl and girl work their way toward strength and new knowledge, unaware of the greater challenges they’re both about to face.
     
    There’s a lot of solid information about owls and falconry folded into a story that is also about growing up under difficult circumstances. Maureen’s mother has been hospitalized with mental illness, and though she recovers and returns home, her daughter is always prepared for a relapse and the upheaval it brings.  Moving to a new school also means beginning again without friends and explaining why she doesn’t live with her parents. Second gains confidence as he learns in a protected environment, and his growing relationship to Maureen brings solace to both of them. In a time when so many children are troubled, it’s encouraging to find a story that combines growth and learning with warmth and comfort. And this very contemporary story may lead readers back to Mowat’s Owls in the Family, Jean George’s There’s an Owl in the Shower, and eventually to T. H. White’s The Goshawk, as well as to information books on owls.

    SFBBO member Dudley Carlson, a biologist’s daughter, grew up in a family of birders and was Manager of Youth Services at Princeton (NJ) Public Library for 25 years. She believes that if children enjoy learning about birds and understand how important they are to our environment, then birds, nature and people will have a better chance at a healthy future. You can see all of Dudley’s book recommendations here. ​

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  • Student Develops an Appreciation for Ducks in Waterfowl Workshop

    Student Develops an Appreciation for Ducks in Waterfowl Workshop
    By Guest Blogger Esmeralda Ramirez 
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    I was given the opportunity to be able to attend, for the last two Wednesdays, the San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory’s Waterfowl ID Workshop, through a scholarship fund. Going into the workshop, I truly had no idea, or any background knowledge about ducks.

    I was not a very informed person, and despite me being a beginner through this workshop, I really was able to learn a lot, as well as develop a new sense of fondness for ducks in general.

    ​I was able to     learn many different things, such as how to spot, and be able to tell which ducks are which, as well as learning about different types of ducks mating, and special characteristics that they have. 

    ​My favorite part to learn was about the “hybrid” ducks, and the ways that even ducks have evolved, and I very much enjoyed being able to see the diversity in the duck species, which I had never been exposed to before. I …

    also enjoyed being able to see what I myself can do in order to be able to help and conserve the duck population, not just in the Bay Area, but on a global scale as well.

    ​Overall, I very much enjoyed being able to partake in this workshop, I was able to learn a lot, and develop my passions further, and I want to thank the donors who supported my scholarship. 

    Esmeralda is a high school student interested in in nature who recently served as an intern with the California Academy of Sciences. ​

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  • Grad Student Learns the Finer Points of Bird ID at SFBBO

    Grad Student Learns the Finer Points of Bird ID at SFBBO
    By Guest Blogger Marie Cerda
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    ​It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that birding changed my life. I moved to San Francisco and ended up getting a job at Alcatraz Island, a National Park Site but also a bird sanctuary and colonial nesting site for hundreds of waterbirds.

    I was working in visitor services and had never felt that parks and the outdoors were necessarily places that I belonged. I was born in Houston, Texas, to very poor teenage parents and I am Mexican-American. Growing up, I didn’t see myself in the people who were in these spaces.

    ​Working on Alcatraz changed that, when my first winter there a co-worker and I discovered a Peregrine Falcon on the water tower – though we didn’t know that’s what she was at the …

    time. We just knew this big, beautiful bird of prey was there and I became fascinated. She was my spark bird and she returned every winter during my time there. I began learning all I could about birds and even started a short-lived blog about the birds on the island. After that, all I wanted to do was work outside and watch birds. I went back to college for a B.S. in Environmental Studies with a concentration in Natural Resource Management and Conservation. 

    My first job out of college was identifying dead birds for the California Department of Public Health’s West Nile Virus Dead Bird Hotline and it’s a job I’ve returned to every season since then. I love that my ability to identify birds can help keep people healthy! This year I began attending graduate school studying Fire Ecology and Management and my main area of research thus far has been looking at the benefits and dangers of fire for birds, especially in Western forests.

    The ability to attend both the Waterfowl Identification workshop as well as the Bird Sound workshop on scholarship has been so helpful for my personal enrichment, my professional work, and my studies. I’m entirely self taught and through these workshops I learned so much in a way that was both accessible and enjoyable. They gave me skills that were missing before – especially in areas of understanding bird sound and how to identify birds this way and the finer points of winter waterfowl identification.

    I am very grateful to all of the donors who made this possible. SFBBO’s commitment to creating an equitable landscape for birders from all races and backgrounds has made such a difference for me and I truly appreciate it. 

    Marie Cerda is a graduate student studying fire ecology and management with a focus on research to better understand the benefits and dangers of fire to birds. 
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  • Young Birder Learns the Secrets to Identifying Birds by Sound

    Young Birder Learns the Secrets to Identifying Birds by Sound
    By Guest Blogger Zane Watson
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    When I was eight years old, I became interested in songbirds. I enjoyed watching them fly and look for food. I began using field guides and Merlin Bird ID to identify birds. I felt proud when I found and identified a new bird that I had not seen before because I grew my knowledge of birds.

    My third-grade science teacher, Ms. Luby, at Woodland School liked birds too and she helped me start a brochure on birds. My parents noticed my curiosity about birds too and began taking me to local birding events. I’ve attended festivals, guided hikes, birding classes, and bird banding events. Currently, I am …     

    ​​in a class at outschool.com taught by Ms. Gerth on avian research and conducting a study on Dark-eyed Juncos and another class in photography where I choose projects each season. My present project includes making photographs of hummingbirds with a fast shutter speed. 

    I heard about the Bird Sound Workshop with Alvaro Jaramillo on February 8th and 12th this year and wanted to attend. This topic and workshop were valuable to me because I had always wondered about different sounds birds make and why they make them.

    I learned:
    • The difference between a California Scrub-Jay’s call and a Steller’s Jay’s call
    • More about spectrograms
    • That birds know their calls from instinct, but their song is learned from other birds
    • Songs are for declaring territory and attracting a mate

    Mr. Jaramillo had lots of knowledge about the songs and calls that birds make. I liked how he showed how certain bird songs were slightly different and compared them to each other.     Thank you to the donors who contributed to the scholarship fund to support a commitment to racial justice. I appreciate the understanding, need, and awareness for inclusion.

    Zane Watson is a 13-year-old middle school student at Ocean Grove Charter School and an avid birder who loves photography. He enjoys mountain biking, snowboarding, and the peace and solitude of the outdoors.

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  • Birder Steps into the World of Waterfowl in SFBBO Bird ID Workshop

    Birder Steps into the World of Waterfowl in SFBBO Bird ID Workshop
    By Guest Blogger Caressa Wong
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    My absolute favorite thing about birding is the ability to step into the private lives of birds. I’ve watched Acorn Woodpeckers squabble en masse and have spent long enough staring at a California Towhee to discover that it picks through the leaf litter with a sudden jump instead of a polite scratch. Meanwhile, on trails and city streets I watch so many people rush past without ever knowing that was going on a few feet from them. 
     
    But, observant as I am, there is so much I still don’t know about birds–one of those being how to identify waterfowl. Despite lots of experience with shorebirds, I never gave much thought to waterfowl. That’s why when I saw SFBBO’s Waterfowl Workshop with …

     Alvaro Jaramillo, I jumped at the opportunity. 

    I quickly found that I was among good company. Among the attendees there was a surprisingly wide range of experience: from seasoned birders to absolute beginners. Alvaro himself was always polite and clearly loved sharing his knowledge about the birds. Sirena also helped moderate the workshop very well, making sure that everyone in the chat was heard and that everybody had access to links shared. I felt absolutely comfortable, included, and welcome. As a nonbinary person of color, this was important to me. Some birding spaces can come off as a bit elitist, or in other cases can be a bit of a “boy’s club.” That was absolutely not the case here, and so the environment was very conducive to learning! 

    The workshop itself was extremely well rounded, and definitely went above and beyond a field guide. There were tips and tricks passed on that field guides don’t delve into, as well as more detailed explanations of behavior and direct comparisons of similar-looking birds. The ability to directly ask questions was also extremely helpful.

    To be quite honest, I think attending this workshop taught me far more than just how to identify waterfowl. It gave me tools that could be expanded to the identification of any bird. As a beginner birder, this was absolutely priceless to me. A lot of advice I had been given on bird identification was “just get out there and do it.” While that works, the workshop gave me a detailed crash course on what characteristics to look for and where. Alvaro is wonderful at explaining, and yet somehow easy to follow at the same time.

    Now, when I pass a nearby lake, no longer will I pass right by these birds like I did before. I’m now privileged to be able to step into the world of waterfowl. For that, I thank the wonderful donors who contributed to the scholarship and who made this possible for me.

    Caressa Wong is a biology major at Pasadena City College who plans to transfer in 2021. They have plans to pursue ornithology and currently volunteer on projects involving Western Snowy Plovers, Least Terns, and White-throated Swifts. When they’re not birdwatching, they like to spend time in the arts: photography, drawing, etc.

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  • Learning to Visualize the Sounds of Birds – SFBBO Bird ID Workshop

    Learning to Visualize the Sounds of Birds – SFBBO Bird ID Workshop
    By Guest Blogger Lara Tseng
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    ​My love of birds started from an early age. Birding allowed me to explore the diversity of birds and ponder their interesting behaviors and adaptations. It became a way to connect with and observe nature. When I discovered science, birds were not just a hobby anymore, but a passion and a career path. To me, science is a portal into understanding and advancing our knowledge of birds. 

    ​The Bird Sound Workshop was a nice blend of science and bird sound ID. I especially enjoyed learning about how birds sing and call (including how they produce two sounds at the same time), how and why sounds are learned or innate (and how this creates dialects of song), and the reasons for why a bird would call. This helped me better understand bird biology. When it came time to learn about individual species, understanding 

    why a bird sang a particular verse was helpful in remembering songs and calls.

    Many birders have told me that birding by ear greatly helps in identifying species that cannot be easily seen. In certain habitats, especially those with dense vegetation, the majority of bird species are counted by ear. I’ve always made an effort to try, but learning bird song doesn’t come easily for me. Before this workshop, the only way I learned bird sounds was when I saw a particular bird open its beak and sing. This is not a very good way to learn bird sounds—there are many sounds that are left a mystery and for the shyer birds, I might never learn about their sounds. In this workshop, I learned about how spectrograms could help me visually understand the song and “read” it. Now when I hear a bird, I imagine what the spectrogram of that sound might look like and connect those with spectrograms that I have learned during the workshop and on my own.
     
    Thank you to the donors who contributed to the scholarship fund so that I could learn about the science of bird sound and bird sound ID. This workshop has peaked my interest in bird sound and showed me a way that I could learn easily. Now when I go out into the field, bird sounds are not a source of frustration anymore because I could never remember them, but instead a way to peek into the complex and fascinating lives that birds lead. 

    Lara is an avid teen birdwatcher who has loved birds since she was 3. She has a passion for combining technology and conservation and hopes to study biotechnology. She has volunteered for the Cavity Conservation Initiative, Tree Care for Birds and Other Wildlife, Sea & Sage Audubon, Laguna Coast Wilderness Park, and other environment-related organizations. She is a Western bluebird monitor and is currently doing a research project on eggshell consumption during the breeding season on these birds with the help of the Southern California Bluebird Club and has done past studies on eggshell consumption as well.

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