Nebraskaland

April 2025 • Nebraskaland 37 Young Birder Camp, spending a week watching birds on and around Delaware Bay in Delaware and New Jersey. On that trip, his life list grew by 26 species, including pelagic birds such as a Cory's shearwater, a brown booby — rare even for that area — and a curlew sandpiper, a bird native to the other side of the world. "It was really cool to see a bird that wasn't even supposed to be on this continent," Eli said. "Probably the coolest thing for me was getting to meet people my age who are as into birds as I am," Eli continued. "Before that, it was pretty much just my brother, who has not been that interested in it the last few years, and a few others who have either moved or got disinterested." While forming friendships with older birders has been rewarding, it can be hard to relate. "I can't just hang out with a 40-year-old outside of birding," Eli said. In hopes of fi nding others with an interest locally, Eli started a birding club at his school and dubbed it the Central Flyway. "If there were more people my age, it brings a little bit of competitiveness to it … just having someone to compare yourself to, I guess." Andi doubts Corey and she would've become so interested in birds if it weren't for the boys. "It was kind of a nice marriage of our love for being outside and hiking and then Eli wanting to be birding on top of that," she said. That, in turn, has led to other interests, including native plants, mushrooms and foraging. "I think it was a really good springboard for all of us to really get more interested and more in tune with what was going on around us when we were outside." "I just love being outdoors in nature, and it kind of gives me an incentive to get outside," Eli said following a family outing on the riverbottom last spring at Fontenelle Forest that yielded, among other birds, a northern perula, a migratory warbler more common to the east, and a hybrid cinnamon/blue-winged teal. "It's almost like treasure hunting, sometimes, because you never know what you will fi nd. A morning in May, there could really be anything. You could have a chance to fi nd something pretty interesting and special." Silas agreed, to a point. "But when you don't fi nd anything it's frustrating. But then you have like that perula we had today, and it makes it better when you don't see anything else." "If he was guaranteed to go out and see a bunch of stuff , he'd go all the time," Eli said. "But it's never guaranteed." What is guaranteed? Perhaps a life-long appreciation of nature for two young men that began with family time outdoors and a book. N When the Webers bumped into fellow birders Colleen Childers of Grand Island and Boni Edwards of North Platte last spring during an outing at Fontenelle Forest in Bellevue, Eli showed them a photo of a bird he captured. The women gave their old cameras to Eli and his brother, Silas, when they upgraded. ERIC FOWLER, NEBRASKALAND

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