tips for birding with kids (part 3 of 3)

Amy Simso Dean, birder for over 25 years, runs MYBirdClub, an after school bird-watching club for kids in south Minneapolis. In this series, Amy provides tips for birding with the young ones.

Field Etiquette

Respect: Ourselves, each other, nature.

• Always carry: binoculars or a field bag with pen and paper to sketch or take notes

• You can have a clipboard or a smart phone and have 1 kid track what you see. This leads nicely into citizen science projects (ebird, feederWatch, NestWatch, CBC etc).

• You do not rush ahead of the leader or running screaming to the bird you see (yes, you need to explain this).

• You do not jump in front of someone using their binoculars or a scope… Yes, this happens all the time.

A few other tips.

• Use the term Grown-ups rather than Mom and Dad to be sensitive to all situations.

• Every robin is interesting. With little kids, focus on the big birds and not something small like warblers that move around a lot. You’re there to guide not bird.

• Listen to all their bird stories.

• Ask what their favorite bird is. Or have them whisper this to each other.

• Work in gross facts or cool bird facts that grown-ups don’t know: vultures poop on their legs to stay cool, there’s no bird named “seagull.”

• Universe Bird: Good for older groups or groups you bird with more than once. This is something my mom and I started. It’s a bird you really want to see (doesn’t have to be a new bird, just something you want to see) and toss that name out to the universe. You do not get a new Universe bird until you’ve seen your current one. Best practice: don’t say penguin unless you’re heading to Antarctica soon.

• I work in conservation ideas: don’t feed bread to ducks, pick up 3 pieces of trash a day (being safe of course).

• I’m not strict about anyone birding. If they are with us and respectful they can just enjoy being in nature. We stop to look at cool bugs and plants.

• Talk about life lists, year lists, yard lists. Bird in a place with a playground (reward before and/or after).

• Don’t bird too long: If they’re done be done.

• Create games if you're around a kid a lot: My kids get a quarter for every red-tailed hawk they ID before I do.

• I read about one guy who paid a dime for each new species found on a road trip.

• Like life list: American Birding Association has life list pins for sale.