ABA Blog

Ladies and Gentlemen, LIVE from Camp Avocet...Pish & Twitch!!!

Pish & Twitch, Brendan Murtha (l) and Caleb Frome (r), rock the house ©George Armistead 

The ABA, with vital support from Leica Sport Optics and other generous donors, conducted two summer camps for young birders in the last month. I was truly fortunate to spend time with both groups and I wish the entire birding community could have joined us to see and feel the energy, excitement, commitment, and enthusiasm that the kids and their adult guides brought to these events. If you're ever feeling a bit down in the mouth about the state of the world, I recommend birding with kids as a potent corrective.

I started to make a list of just a very few highlights from the camps to give you a quick sketch of the range of experiences we all shared but soon abandoned the effort as there's so much material that mentioning some means leaving too much out. But I will say that the camps offered an incredibly diverse range of experiences from serious and cerebral to fun and physical, all centered around building the practice and community of birding. 

If you haven't looked at Bill Schmoker's post here from earlier today, do so. It has links to some wonderful photos and video that will give you a great overview of Camp Avocet.

There is one thing I do want to share one thing with you, that I hope you'll get a big kick out of. A couple of the campers at Camp Avocet, Caleb Frome and Brendan Murtha, surprised us one afternoon by telling us that they had formed a band and that they had written some songs about birding.

Billing themselves as Pish & Twitch, Brendan and Caleb, with assistance from William von Herff, proceeded to delight the entire camp group by performing 3 song parodies with the lyrics reworked to joke about the joys and travails of birding. They were so good that we demanded they do it again the next night and give us another chance at recording them.

They obliged, this time performing no less than five songs! Once again, they brought the house down. Below, I provide links to videos for all five songs. I invite you to watch them all and be as stunned as we were by the creativity of these young birders.

In posting these videos, I'm inviting you to share in a spontaneous event full of exuberant, goofy fun. Other than me captioning the songs, so you can better appreciate their astonishing word play, it's presented straight and unfiltered. So there are some very mild instances of salty language, as well as some affectionate jokes at the expense of us camp leaders, some famous birders, brands, and so on. It's all in good fun and should be heard that way. It's summer camp for teenagers, after all.

Without further ado, I present Pish & Twitch and their first song, "Chase Me Maybe."

 

Great stuff, huh? That's Brendan on the left and Caleb on the right.

For their next song, "Moves Like Jaeger," Pish & Twitch are joined by William von Herff.

 

Next up, "Flight Calls," an amazing encapsulation of the weird and wonderful practice of listening for and identfying nocturnal migrants.

  

And now, the epic "Migrants Go By."

  

And finally, to send you all home, here's "Bill Stewart!"

  

Ladies and gentlemen, that was Pish & Twitch! We hear that they've been hard at work on additional parodies in the days since camp. And camper Joe Hernandez just designed this beautiful logo for them.

You can like them on Facebook and keep up with all the latest P&T news.

To Brendan and Caleb, and William and all the fine birders who made the ABA's 2013 summer camps the wonderful experiences they were. Good birding to you all! See you on down the trail. 

And to Leica Sport Optics and all the members/donors of the ABA, thank you. The future of birding is measurably brighter and more vibrant because of your support.

2013 ABA Camp Avocet

I had the thorough pleasure of attending the ABA's Camp Avocet as a counselor last week.  The camp, based at the beautiful and birdy Cape Henlopen State Park, Delaware, attracted 22 keen young birders and a slew of bird experts who joined the staff for birding jaunts in Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and New Jersey.  Camp Avocet followed on the heels of the sold-out Camp Colorado a few weeks earlier- kudus to the ABA and its young birder program director Bill Stewart for getting so many kids in the field with each other!  I am so pleased to see the growing popularity and success of the ABA's camp program.  And the season isn't even over- check out the upcoming ABA Mid-Atlantic Young Birder Conference at Ashland Nature Center, Hockessin, Delaware, 14 September 2013.

Anyway, I'd like to invite you to peruse a slide show of highlight photos that George Armistead and I put together from Camp Avocet (we suggest folks double-click "Slideshow" in the upper right for best viewing.)  I also put a little video highlight reel together that I hope you'll enjoy!  Thanks again to the ABA for bringing me out to Delaware, and to Leica Sport Optics for their support of the ABA's Young Birder program!

  

2013 Camp Colorado: The Experience of a Lifetime

By Sam Brunson

Sunday, July 21, 2013, I landed in Denver, arriving with a group of young birders from Georgia to attend the ABA's Camp Colorado 2013. The moment the plane's landing gear touched the runway, a seemingly 144+ hour birding marathon began. I had never birded in the western bastion for birds of Colorado, and couldn't wait to start seeing all the birds, going to all the amazing locations, and getting to know all the leaders and my fellow campers. 

I knew before going that the trip was going to be amazing; however, it turned it out to be more than just amazing. Camp Colorado was the experience of a lifetime.

Camp Colorado was the experience of a lifetime for a plethora of reasons, but three things will always shine bright in my memory: the birds I saw, the places I went, and most of all, the people I met. 

Black-billed Magpie (Photo by Caden Haines)

The Birds I Saw
We woke up relatively early every morning, with some days having earlier starts than others. For some, waking up at 4 a.m. might seem a bit tedious and exhausting, but the thought of seeing all the new birds and exploring new areas always helped everyone get up and at 'em in the wee hours of the morning.

Usually we ate breakfast at the YMCA of the Rockies in Estes Park, Colorado, where we stayed for the duration of camp, but for the days when we had to get up early we dined on the go. Speaking of food, we had one of our best birds of camp while we were all stopped for a brief snack: the Black Swift. While most of us campers were snacking on granola bars and trail mix, Steve Howell, one of our fantastic leaders, called out a pair of Black Swifts circling high in the sky.

Right then I, along with my fellow campers, learned an important lesson: you are always birding. When you are in the field, you are birding. When you are taking a break, you are birding. When you are eating a snack, you are birding. If you lose you focus while birding, you might miss seeing an amazing bird, such as a Black Swift.

The Places I Went
One of my favorite birding spots of the week was high up in Rocky Mountain National Park at Medicine Bow Curve. After driving for a while through the park and making a few stops, we arrived at our destination to find one of the target birds of the day: the White-tailed Ptarmigan. 

We didn't have to wait long on our mini-hike along the tundra as we spotted the well-camouflaged birds lurking around a large hill. The ptarmigans were tough to see, but with our army of binoculars, spotting scopes, and birders, the entire group was able to get great looks at the elusive species.  

A group of us kept going in search of more ptarmigans, but only saw Mountain Bluebirds, American Robins, and a lone Horned Lark. As we headed back, we noticed that those in the group that had stayed behind were all looking intently around a wide-spread bush, and once we were within talking distance learned that an adult White-tailed Ptarmigan and her four chicks were walking around the bush. Everyone rushed as fast as they could (making sure to stay quiet and not disturb the birds), so that they could look at the birds.

Earlier in the week, we had an amazing experience seeing a Golden Eagle. We driving on the highway on the way to the Pawnee National Grassland in northeastern Colorado, and spotted a raptor sitting on a fence post 5-10 feet from the road. From far off we campers assumed that it was some type of hawk, but it turned out to be much more than just "some hawk." As we got closer and closer to the raptor, everyone realized at the same time that the bird wasn't a hawk, but an eagle. A Golden Eagle. A mad scramble for binoculars and cameras soon ensued as all the campers plunged to the right side of the vehicle trying to get closer looks at the amazing bird.

Golden Eagle at Pawnee National Grassland (Photo by Marky Mutchler)

The van was able to get parallel with the massive bird, who proceeded to allow photos for only a few seconds until it flew off in the opposite direction. Thankfully, it didn't go too far off so everyone was still able to get to see the beautiful bird.

The People I Met
Without a doubt the leaders were one of the highlights of Camp Colorado. Camp Directors Bill Stewart and Jennie Duberstein did an extraordinary job keeping the week running smoothly and organizing every day of camp. Joining Bill and Jennie on staff were Jeff and Liz Gordon, Jeff Bouton, David La Puma, and Steve Howell. We also were able to bird with Ted Floyd, the editor of Birding Magazine, and many other great birders during the week. 

Common Nighthawk at Crow Valley Campground (Photo by Sam Brunson)

All of the leaders did a fantastic job of teaching us about birding and without them, camp would not have been the same. The numerous talks, pieces of advice, lessons, and tips given by each leader helped shape every single camper into a better birder

Another highlight of the camp was having the opportunity to meet other birders my age. I made life-long friends at Camp Colorado and can't wait to bird with them in the future. 

Finishing Up
Camp Colorado wasn't just about seeing as many new birds as we could. Camp Colorado was much, much more than that. It was about learning to become a better all around birder: learning how to identify birds better than before, learning how to fully utilize a field guide, learning about bird behavior, learning about the amazing world of radar ornithology, learning how to lead a bird walk, learning about the importance of bird conservation, learning how to digiscope, and learning about what it means to be a birder. 

American Three-toed Woodpecker in Rocky Mountain National Park (Photo by Ben Thesing)

If you ever have the opportunity to go to Camp Colorado, go! You won't regret it, I can tell you that for sure. Another thing I can tell you for sure is that I will never forget Camp Colorado, because without a doubt, it was the experience of a lifetime.

About the author: Sam Brunson, 17, lives in Savannah, Georgia and has really gotten into birding in the past four years. He and his cousin run their blog, Two Birders and Binoculars, a website dedicated to helping others become better birders.

This post is cross-posted at The Eyrie. 

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Birding a Fourteener

2013 Camp Colorado Dispatch

More from 2013 Camp Colorado!

Updates from Camp Colorado

This week, a group of teens from all over the ABA Area are convening in the ABA's home state of Colorado for the annual Camp Colorado. In addition to ABA staff, we're joined this year by our friends David La Puma and Jeff Bouton representing Leica, who have been generous sponsors of the ABA's young birder programs.

 

The young naturalists at Camp Colorado are often as into lizards as they are into birds

 

For regular updates on the happenings at Camp Colorado, and undoubtedly more reports following the camp's end, check out The Eyrie, the ABA's young birder blog. 

And be sure to check out other upcoming ABA events for young birders, including our 2nd Mid-Atlantic Young Birder Conference in September and Camp Avocet in August.