ZECO TRAVEL TALK

Many said it was the best ever of the New York State Ornithological Association’s sixty annual meetings and one of the highlights was the inspirational talk delivered by Peter Harrison. His presentation “Seven Years and Seven Continents”—the incredible story of how he gathered data and made preliminary sketches of hundreds of sea birds for his identification bible of the past twenty-five years, Seabirds: An Identification Guide, touched many hearts in many ways. However, it was his message to the members of the newly fledged Young Birder’s Club that reached to the core of everyone there and was perhaps the most significant event of the weekend.

When Peter arrived in Rochester from Seattle, with only one morning to go birding, his greatest avian interest was in seeing some of our confusing fall Eastern wood warblers. Soon he would be in his own garden at Land’s End in England hoping to see at least one vagrant from the colonies. His brief birding time along Lake Ontario would be a great warm up for the impending migration in Europe.

Upon entering the “Owl Woods” in search of warblers, little did we know that a chance encounter was about to occur with the nucleus of a new young birder’s club from around the state. When introduced to the teenagers and their leader it was pointed out that Peter had indeed himself been a member of his own country’s youth birding association which had great impact upon his life. Peter quickly picked up on that and was soon communicating to the student pioneers what an important step forward they had made in charting the direction of their lives. Hope, a brilliant sixteen year old with identification skills to be much envied, and who had asked help from NYSOA in forming a state young birders club, was enthralled with the opportunity to talk with one of the world’s most renowned birders and it was clearly a moment to remember in her young life.

That evening when Peter delivered his presentation to an audience of nearly two hundred he took special care to single out Hope and her young companions. While he spoke to them directly at times everyone there understood and identified with his message. It was a memorable experience.

Following his talk the kids made a bee line for him from their table at the back of the room and each had their opportunity to personally thank and interact with him. It was very rewarding for us all to see the respect and warmth between them and will surely encourage the organization to work diligently to assure that this very special youth movement is nurtured and grows.