Young birders/bird watchers NZ

[Amber Calman]

It was mid june 2013

sorry that is wrong. it was feb-june that I would have seen it.

[Amber Calman]

Now I've got the date!!!!!!
6th of February 2013. Dad was doing a bus run to Picton so I went with him and a long the wairau I saw a Black falcon flying parallel with the road.

[Amber Calman]

To get back on topic
I'm a 12 year old homeschooled young birder in the Tasman region. I have a live list of 92 if you don't include birds I saw when I was not a birder. The next bird I'm aiming for is Red Knot.
I love wolves and I am vegetarian.
My favorite place to bird is either Nelson Sewage Ponds or Wash Bridge along the Wairau River.
I have a dog (Shadow), a House Rabbit (Bidibid), house cat(Blackie), a Rooster (Friendly) and two hy-line brown hens Peep and Plover.

[Michael]

Young Birder, might I ask you what your criteria is to become a lifer? Oh, and by the way, I am on 180-Something worldwide, though 95 for New Zealand with the non-mainland island idea and 105 with mainland sanctuaries and islands.

[Amber Calman]

My Criteria is the bird must be able to survive with out humans and have been living the the wild for 3+ plus months.
(A rose-ringed parakeet that had been out for two weeks would not count)
I include Island and mainland sanctuaries.

We don't Travel much so mainly bird Tasman, Nelson, Marlborough and Wellington.I have never been on a airplane.

[Clinton9]

Hi Young Birder,
When I was at your age (13), I were been a birder, during my teenage, there are no young birders of my age, in 1980s.
None of my schoolmates were interested in birds.

Even today, there are no female young birders of your age and Kokakola's age., and never a single young female birder in NZ.
I been single all my life and I know other young male birders as Paul Cuming...He is single all his life too.

I only found a dead dunnock once my life in Napier, in early 1990s, it was a less than 1 year old, as it had juvenile flight feathers.
then I never seen dunnocks in Waikato. They properly lives south of latitude 38 oS.
I had never seen dunnocks in Auckland, Northland, Hamilton, Far North, Thames.

[Amber Calman]

Even today, there are no female young birders of your age and Kokakola's age., and never a single young female birder in NZ.

I am. I thought it would be unlikely.

[zarkov]

I'm sure there are a lot of young people in NZ who are actively interested in birds, as well as other flora and fauna.

It would be a natural consequence of living in families that enjoy making the most of the outdoors.

What's probably unusual, is the way you've brought your interest to a specialist Birding internet forum.

However, you've come to the right place, some of New Zealand's best birding experts post here regularly.


Most people such as myself get an interest later in life, and some of us struggle with the technological challenges of learning associated computer and photographic skills [as well as failing eyesight].

You have an advantage over most of us, I wish I'd taken up an interest in birds when I was your age.

[Amber Calman]

I have failing eye sight. gets worse every year

[Michael]

Young Birder and Kokakola, why don't we, the younger members of the Birding New Zealand group, start a little project? We could perhaps start up like a ten page monthly magazine, costing just above the price of stamps, completely focused on birds? The one thing about KCC and Junats etc. is that it gets a little boring when they don't talk about birds, or miss facts or aren't accurate. It could be advertised by messaging schools around the country to get word out, perhaps we could get a bit of a boost on OSNZ numbers too through doing this. I don't know if there is anything like this out there, so perhaps its time there was?