Photo by Scott Haber It's been a month since I got back from the YABC, but I have to catch myself talking about Ecuador as if I just got back yesterday. When I returned, I was able to spend almost the entire first week back distracting myself with some aspect of the trip. First I had to sort through my photos and finalize my list, and then there was integrating the trip list and photos with all the other lists and computer programs that we birders keep and update in order to re-live those exciting moments.
This trip seemed to give more than just lists and photos, however. For one, it was immensely educational. Traveling with guides who can teach you about the birds, the environment, and the culture is a luxury not many birders my age can afford. To be able to travel and bird with experts on the avifauna of a region is a special experience that many birders (no matter their age) never get at all. Although my daily entries may not highlight it, the trip was filled with lectures and discussions – particularly in the evenings – that allowed us to connect the birds we saw during the day with real issues, whether conservation, taxonomy, tropical ecology, or ecotourism. In the end, we were not just out birding every day; we were also participating in experience-based education.
Photo by Patrick del Pizzo The second thing the trip provided was a sense of community. A handful of people on the trip had been able to participate in youth birding events (including the ABA's much-loved youth camps and conferences), but most had not. To those of us who grew up as birders surrounded by peers 30, 40, or 50-years our senior, we had never had the opportunity to interact with other birders around our age. Personally, I had never been in the presence of more than four birders under-30 at one time, until I went to Ecuador. While the online young- (or young-adult-) birding community is lively and thriving, there is difference between knowing someone only by a screen-name, and hiking through the jungle with that person searching for trogons.
Photo by Lori Fujimoto I conducted an informal poll of the 16 participants on the trip, and all but 2 were either majoring or had majored in college in biology or the environmental sciences. Unlike previous generations of birders who sacrificed their passion to be doctors or lawyers, we represent a group who – as a whole – plan on bringing our passion for birds to careers in applied and research-based conservation and ornithology. I am confident, consequently, that for many of us, the community of peers built over seven days in Ecuador will be the most lasting and ultimately important result of the 2005 YABC.
Prologue – Day One – Day Two – Day Three – Day Four – Day Five – Day Six – Epilogue |
