“Evans! There’s a tern over there!”
“Señor, my binoculars don’t focus.”
Me: “Here, Alvaro, you need to turn the-”
“Evans! Evans! Evans! Ev-”
Me: “Qué?!”
“There’s a tern flying over there!”
Me: “Ah nice job, Ismael! How did you know it was a
tern and not a gull? Jared, don’t go so far!”
“Its beak is orange.”
Me: “Right! And what color is the beak on-”
(Tug on arm) “Evan, I’m scared that it’s going to
rain”
Me: “ Ok, Monce, we’ll head back soon. Ismael! Why
are your binoculars covered in sand?!”
“Jared pushed me!”
Our first bird walk on the beach
Thus went my first bird walk with seven children in
El Cuyo last Wednesday. After my last-minute plan to
return to the sleepy village on the north coast of the Yucatán Peninsula to give my first bird class to a group
of kids, my trip became quite a bit more interesting. I spent the week
preparing for classes, teaching the kids as much as I could about birds, and
doing a lot of learning on my feet.
On our way to go birding
The class I gave was great in some ways and not so
great it others. The not-so-great part was its organization, which was pretty
hard to work with at times due to logistics out of my control. The great parts were
that at least a few kids got a kick out of watching birds for the first time
and that I learned a LOT about how to better organize a class. Unfortunately,
Chucho, the man who leads the two kid birding groups in El Cuyo and who was
going to help me lead the class, had to go out of town several times that week because
of the government elections, including on the first day. Consequently, only
three of the six kids he had invited showed up to the first class. We talked a
bit about birds and went to the beach to look at some Brown Pelicans,
Double-crested Cormorants, Royal Terns, Laughing Gulls, and a Black-bellied
Plover.
Birding with Chucho and the kids
Things weren't too much better the second day.
After setting up the classroom, I waited for almost an hour before the kids
started arriving. I had been expecting six, but nine showed up, and a dog.
While the six kids who were originally invited already had a year of experience
with birds, the three new ones had absolutely none. The class' age ranged from 5 to
11 years old, and I struggled a lot that day to give an organized,
entertaining, and educational class to such a mixed group of kids. There were a
lot of things I had forgotten about how kids act. For one thing, they don’t
seem to understand that you simply cannot listen to two, three, or even four of
them talking at a time. I did manage to teach them some groups of birds and the
basic parts of birds that day, and at the end Chucho and I took six of them birding
outside of El Cuyo, were we saw Black-capped Tityra, White-collared Seedeater,
Northern Jacana, and other birds.
Birding outside of El Cuyo
After two days of mediocre activities and
enthusiasm, it was time for me to step things up. Fortunately, by the third day
I started to get a better sense of how to control a group of energetic kids and
keep a class moving. The number of kids also lowered to about 7, which was a
relief. I think a couple of the original six dropped out, but it was
encouraging to see that all three of the kids new to birding had returned with
enthusiasm. I started the class by listing some of the birds from the day
before and helping them find them in the field guide, which the kids really
enjoyed. I had also realized that it was important that I myself had concrete
teaching goals for the day. Through a few games and activities, some adapted
from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s BirdSleuth curriculum, the kids were able
to list and explain the four main components of habitat and order the six steps
of reproduction by the end of the day. We concluded by birding for a while on
the beach, seeing mostly the same birds as the day before. For some, like
Mario, this was an opportunity to employ his birding experience by finding
Ruddy Ground-Doves for the group in the beach vegetation. For others, like
Yalila, this was their very first time going outside with the purpose of
finding and watching birds with binoculars. One of the most gratifying moments
of the class for me was when Yalila turned around and excitedly pointed out the
Brown Pelican that had just dove into the ocean. We all got great looks at a
Golden-fronted Woodpecker pecking for insects on a wood fence, and I was amazed
when the next day Alvaro, five years old and the youngest in the class, fluently
repeated its name (carpintero frentidorado) and what we had seen it doing. In
the last class we played another entertaining game about habitat, did a
migration obstacle course, and habitat treasure hunt. I concluded the class
with a bird walk to the other side of the village and a splash in the water.
Exploring La Ría on a bird walk
As I stepped out of the car full of kids after our last birding field trip and said my goodbye, they started chanting, "Que no se vaya! Que no se vaya!" We don't want him to go! I knew then that as crazy of a class as it had been, I had made positive impact. Trying to organize a class in a rural village can
be quite a challenge as I discovered. People generally have an extremely
relaxed sense of punctuality and obligation, especially the kids. Classes are
likely to start an hour late, kids may decide not to come one day, or they may
invite friends to the next class. On the other hand, there is a startling
amount of enthusiasm towards birds. Maybe it's because there's so little else to do in these small villages, but I've found that the kids here are way more excited to start birding than I've seen in the U.S. In El Cuyo and several other villages I
have heard stories of how kids rallied together to form birding groups after a Niños y Crías workshop. While I
may have gone into this class overestimating an 8 year old’s ability to
articulate deep thoughts on conservation, Chucho explained to me before I left
some of the exciting ripple effects teaching kids about birds he's already seen. Take a look at the video I put together of the highlights of the class as well as a part of my interview with Chucho:
Precioso!
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