Jon Dunn finished a very successful Second Spring tour Friday night–then, rather than hop on the plane for some well-deserved rest, got up early Saturday to meet a group of young Arizona birders in upper Madera Canyon.

Jon’s companions, boys, girls, and young adults, were all eager and enthusiastic birders, all of them poised to take maximum advantage of a relaxed morning afield with one of the continent’s–the world’s–most knowledgeable birders.

WINGS feels strongly that our commitment to the birding community doesn’t end when the tour comes to a close. Jon and other WINGS leaders regularly volunteer their time to local and regional birding groups, offering them the opportunity not just to rub shoulders with well-known birders but also, more importantly, to talk, to ask, to learn. And isn’t that what it’s all about?

Part of Saturday's group, with Jon Dunn and Rob Payne. Photo: Rick Wright.

If you know a young birder, why not encourage her or him to get in touch with the nearest Youth Birding Program? Here in southeast Arizona, Rob Payne (Jon’s co-leader Saturday morning) and Scott Olmstead are leading a group of young birders up Mount Lemmon on July 24.

Chris Wood and Jessie Barry are the primary leaders for the 2010 Young Birders’ Event August 12-15 in Ithaca, NY.

Applications are due April 15. You can read more about last year’s exceedingly successful meeting on line at the Cornell Lab’s website.

WINGS is proud to help support the Puget Sound Bird Observatory’s 2009 Banding Camp for Teens.  We hope that this year’s scholarship recipients have as good a time and learn as much as last year’s, Tayler Brooks.

Pass the word on to the aspiring young ornithologists you know!

Senior WINGS Leader Chris Wood and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology announce the 2009 Young Birders Event, August 6-9 in Ithaca, NY.

Orchard Oriole, courtesy John K. Cassady

WINGS congratulates the Georgia Ornithological Society on its scholarship program for young birders! Once again this year, teenagers can apply for significant support to attend a national conference, this time in San Diego, California.

Programs like this work. I’ve been privileged to meet some earlier recipients of this scholarship–an experience that more than any other has given me hope for the future of North American birding.

Let your young friends know about this great opportunity. Applications are due March 16.

Our wide assortment of birding destinations world-wide means that WINGS deals with a large number of ground agents and local leaders–and an equally broad array of world currencies. As most of you know, the past months have seen significant fluctuations in international exchange rates; happily for WINGS clients, the trend at the moment is towards a stronger and more stable dollar.

Please note that at invoicing we recalculate the prices of all of our international tours, notably including those organized by our British company, Sunbird. We use the exchange rate in effect on the date of invoicing, meaning that–if the current trend continues–our prices will actually be lower, in some cases signficantly lower, than the prices originally published in summer 2008.

For example, the WINGS website, relying on the exchange rate in effect in July, would show a price of about $8,000 for a tour costing GPB 4,000–but if we were to invoice that same tour today, using the current exchange rate, the actual invoiced cost to our clients would be more like $6,240.

Obviously, given the day-to-day variation in exchange rates, we cannot continuously post new tour prices on the WINGS website. But rest assured that any advantages of exchange rate will be passed along when your tour is invoiced.

Ornithomedia reports the discovery of a “significant” colony of Ivory Gulls in Siberia’s Kara Sea. The birds were found on the Geiberg Islands, in the Vilkitski Strait between Severnaya Zemlya and the Taimyr Peninsula. There’s no word yet on how large this new colony is, but with a rapidly declining population estimated at only about 11,000 pairs, this charismatic species needs every bit of help it can get.

This adult Ivory Gull was a highlight of our 2007 tour to Newfoundland; we’ve also encountered the species at Gambell.  Photo: Bruce Mactavish.

Tayler Brooks is the recipient of a WINGS-sponsored scholarship to attend the Puget Sound Bird Observatory’s 2008 Cascades Banding Camp. Tayler is a recent high school graduate and an alumna of Seattle Audubon’s admirable BirdWatch program for young birders.

Congratulations to Tayler, and who knows, maybe we’ll hear more about her experiences here on The Wingbeat!