The program has encouraged more young people to become involved in birding with outstanding results. Birders age 10-18 from the United States, Mexico, and Canada participated in the competition, which entailed writing an essay at the beginning, keeping a detailed notebook of their birding activities in the field all year long, and writing a final essay to describe what they learned. A panel of well-known birders judged the field notebooks and essays for improvement of observation skills, writing ability, and sketches. One winner form each age category (10-12, 13-15, 16-18) was selected for the most outstanding and improved work. The winners were Jennifer Wygoda (age 10-12), Jenny Brumfield (age 13-15), and Paul Johnson (age 16-18). The three have won a birder's dream prize package from Leica which includes a pair of Leica 8 x 32 BA Ultra binoculars, sponsorship to a field ornithology camp, and $250 towards travel expenses to encourage them to become better birders. Leica gives sincere thanks to all the young people who participated in the program.
| From Leicaview, Spring 1999. Submitted to LOS website by Donna Dittmann. |
Jennifer Wygoda, the youngest birder of the group at 10, is from Lake Charles, Louisiana. Her interest in birds is evident in her field notebook, which documents her birding activities in areas around her hometown, from her schoolyard and neighborhood to the marshes of Louisiana. Her field notebook shows how much she learned during the year from the detailed descriptions of birds she observed, carefully drawn sketches, and maps of areas where she birded. An excerpt from Jenmferts field notebook gives an example of the types of descriptions she recorded:
1-3-98, Sea Wall. We went to the sea wall again today. We saw the Laughing and Ring-billed gulls eating bread the people were throwing. The American Coot was swimming in the lake. The Snowy Egret was catching fish near the boardwalk. Snowy Egret: yellow eye, yellow patch around eye, white body, black bill, black legs, yellow feet.
By the end of the year, Jennifer was teaching her grandparents what to look for in the different birds and about their calls; and by encouraging Jennifer and others in her age category when they are young to develop good field skills, Leica has helped provide the foundation for good recording habits that they will appreciate as they mature to adult birders.
