Hello, welcome to another episode of the American Burning Podcast.

I'm your host Nate Swick, and as you've heard, the ABA is in the middle of our big

nesting season appeal. We're trying to raise money

for our young birder programs, namely the ABA camps, which continue to grow in ambition

and in interest from burders every year, and the ABA's Young Bird of the Year contest,

which we host every year. So the episode is all about young birders and ways that we can support them. This is a topic

that is very close to my own heart as I was a young birder way back in the day, and I benefited

even back then from the ABA's strong dedication to giving young birders opportunities to grow

and to experience incredible things. I am trying hard not to use the term spread their wings or take under one's wing here,

but there's a reason those clichés get thrown around here.

There are a lot of easy metaphors to make on the subject, and they are all certainly appropriate.

I am constantly surprised when I run into burders of my generation,

which is sort of in that gray area overlapping between the

Generation X and the millennials, how many of us took advantage of these young bird of programs,

which were just getting started 25, 30 years ago, and how many of us were beneficiaries of

scholarships and sponsorships from the ABA to do that. This is particularly true of those who I'd

consider, you know, leaders in the community. By that, I mean, people who have gone on to make

birds a career in some fashion, be it through being a tour guide or an academic or a, or a

writer or an artist or any of those things that you can mean the birds kind of kind of find

their way into a lot of different career um i have my own story here in 1994 i attended camp

cherocau which was and still is a young birder camp in southeast arizona run by victor emmanuel

nature tours it was as you as you probably expect a real watershed moment for me as a

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