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Apr 6, 2011 | by Kevin Loughlin
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| PA Young Birders at the John Heinz NWR. |
The leaders at Wildside Nature Tours not only have a passion for nature, but also a passion for introducing kids to nature. We understand how important it is to get kids outside to see our world’s beauty and discover birds, frogs, salamanders and anything else that we may wander past.
In 2009 Kevin Loughlin founded the PA Young Birders Club and along with Wildside leader Adrian Binns and gracious volunteers Debbie Beer and Edie Parnum, we continue to do all we can to get kids outside. We hope that some of our kids will strive to be top birders and naturalists, but most important is their enjoyment of nature.
The American Birding Association (ABA) offers youth programs for those who want to share their passion nationally through their field journals and artwork. Each year the ABA accepts applications for the Young Birders Awards Program and this year’s top winner is Rachael Butek.
Rachael is a recent homeschool graduate from Colfax, Wisconsin. She became fascinated with birds in 2008, when she decided to count the visitors to the backyard bird feeders and was amazed at the beauty and biological diversity in her own backyard. Something as simple as a couple of backyard bird feeders sparked what appears to be a lifelong passion.
One of Wildside’s own leaders, Lena Samsonenko, is a past recipient of a couple of ABA’s Young Birders Awards for both her artwork (which later appeared on the cover of an ABA publication) as well as for her incredible field journals, full of sightings, poems, thoughts, descriptions and, of course, artwork.
Lena was a young birder whom I met when she was just 14. Even at that age I was impressed with her skills. Now in her mid 20’s she is working hard toward her PhD at Princeton! She has co-led Wildside trips to Alaska, Puerto Rico, Panama and Mexico. Next year she will co-lead our new Kazakhstan tour where her native language, Russian, will be a great asset along with her other skills!
Nature Deficit Disorder (NDD), as described in Richard Louve’s excellent book Last Child in the Woods, is a growing concern in today’s society… so get your kids, your grand-kids and your neighbor’s kid’s outside!
Click below for more reading:
2010 ABA Young Birder of the Year: Rachael Butek
Wildside leader profile: Lena Samsonenko