Thanks to our BEN Bulletin
sponsor:
The Bird Education
Network (BEN) was created following the February 2007 National
Gathering, hosted by CEE. BEN is a CEE initiative that seeks
to connect and support a network of bird education
professionals. BEN has initially identified
five priority bird conservation problems facing us
today. These five priority bird conservation problems are:
habitat loss, modern industrial life, insufficient public
awareness, insufficient funding, and inter-American
concerns. Understanding and explaining each of these
five problems and recognizing that they are both
biological and non-biological are essential to crafting
an effective modern bird education movement. A
BEN Committee has been established to provide advice and
guidance for this important initiative, to advance "bird
conservation through education." Ultimately, we at BEN are
connecting bird educators at all levels to be more
effective.
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 Enter the "Spooky Birds"
Contest
Halloween is just a few weeks away, so the
Cornell Lab of Ornithology wants to see and hear
spooky things about birds! This is the latest
environmental challenge from the Lab's Celebrate Urban
Birds citizen-science project in conjunction
with the Encyclopedia of
Life website. The Lab calls this
contest "A Murder of Crows and Other Spooky Bird Tales."
(Believe it or not, a large group of crows is called a
"murder," but there's nothing really scary about it.
Crows are very intelligent, family-oriented
birds.) Still, sometimes birds do things that
seem pretty spooky and strange. So for this
challenge, the Cornell Lab wants you to take
photos, do a painting, write a story or poem, even shoot
a video showing crows, pigeons, starlings, an owl, or
any kind of bird doing something puzzling or strange to
you. Then the Lab can reveal what the
behaviors are really all about. There's usually a
perfectly natural, non-scary explanation! As
always, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology
has some great prizes, including binoculars from
Eagle Optics and Alpen, birdfeeders from
YourBirdOasis.com, CDs, books, posters, and more. The
first 50 entrants will receive a poster by Pedro
Fernandez showing various behaviors of crows, jays, and
other birds. Selected images and videos will
be posted on the Celebrate Urban
Birds website. The very best will be included in
species account on the website for the Encyclopedia of
Life! For more information about the Spooky Bird
Contest including how to enter click here.
Deadline
for entries is Halloween: October
31!
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 Conservation and Diversity Bring Us All
Together
Broadening diversity and reconnecting youth with
nature and outdoor recreation were the reoccurring
themes in two groundbreaking conference gatherings of
conservation and education professionals, volunteers,
activists, and youth in late September 2009.
The multi-day event, "Breaking the Color
Barrier in the Great American Outdoors," held in
Atlanta, GA and the one day event, "Diversity in Outdoor
Recreation: the Many Faces of Conservation," held in
Toledo, both showcased the broad diversity among
Americans who are participating in various ways to
protect our environment, conserve our natural resources,
and perform extraordinary feats of personal
accomplishment in the great outdoors. Both
conferences were not just a gathering of minorities, but
actually represented an inclusive mix of attendees eager
to discuss the issues of broadening participation in
conservation, the necessary development of youth
leadership and careers, and the importance of community
as a new organizing principle to help people rediscover
the outdoors. Both included bird education and birding
content. The next BEN Bulletin #20 will
provide a full feature story on the key themes,
strategies, and agency priorities to increase relevance
of conservation to a more diverse, emergent majority and
youth population. Thank you to Flisa Stevenson,
Flying WILD's Senior Manager, who attend the
Atlanta conference representing Flying WILD and
BEN and Paul Baicich, BEN Committee Chair,
representing the Bird Education Network in
Toledo. Please be sure to join the Facebook
conversation and see video from Breaking the Color
Barrier in the Great American Outdoors conference.
New
subscribers from diversity conferences-
Welcome to
BEN!
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 Latest Bird Education
Strategy Now
Available
The First National Gathering:
Birding Conservation through Education
event in February 2007 proposed the
development of a National Bird Education
Strategy to address
present-day opportunities
and the problems facing
bird education.
Ideally, a comprehensive bird education strategy
should remind bird educators where we have come from and
help indicate where we need to go, with a specific plan,
a roadmap, to arrive at a desired collective
destination.
Such a draft strategy has been composed and
assembled from the suggestions of hundreds of
bird educators. It has been posted on the Bird
Education Network site as new elements have been
collected and incorporated. The most
recent version of the strategy, combining the comments
and corrections to the draft strategy circulated last
year, is now posted as " Version
3.1." We welcome your comments. Please
send your comments to BENstrategy@BirdEducation.org.
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 The
Big Sit! Another Teaching
Opportunity
The Big
Sit! is like a Big Day or a bird-a-thon where you try to
see as many bird species within 24 hours. The big
difference is the intensity of the event. The Big
Sit! is mellow, not a frantic event. It has been called
"a tail-gate party for birders."
It's very
simple. Find a good spot for bird watching - with good
views of a variety of habitats and lots of birds. Create
a real or imaginary circle 17 feet in diameter. And,
finally, stay inside the circle for up to 24 hours,
counting all the bird species you see or hear. It's that
easy. Find a spot; sit in it for a while; have
fun.
Best of all, it's great for families,
visitors, and casual participants to learn about birds
and bird conservation. It's ideal for using "down time"
for discussion, a teaching opportunity: how to use
binoculars, how to go through a field guide, parts of a
bird.
Locations for The Big Sit! are often
parks, nature centers or wildlife refuges. (The event
overlaps nicely with national wildlife refuge week.) The
15th annual Big Sit! is scheduled for Sunday, October
11, 2009.
You can find details for
participating locations or register your own event and
site (for free) by CLICKING
HERE. | | |
For more
information visit:
