The story below is an excerpt from our July/August 2018 issue. For the rest of this article and more like it subscribe today, log in to read our digital edition or download our FREE iOS app. Thank you!
The young Virginia naturalist is on a quest to protect nature and inspire others to do the same.
Ezra Staengl was 10 years old on his first outing with the Blue Ridge Young Birders Club. It was a winter field trip in hilly country on the West Virginia border. “I remember feeling a little intimidated by the older boys, who were so skilled at bird identification,” Ezra says. “My seven-year-old brother was bored because he wasn’t that into birding yet, so he threw a snowball at the club’s vice president. I was already nervous, and that didn’t help!”
In the four years since that winter day Ezra has become a devoted birder, environmental proponent, active conservationist, and burgeoning young naturalist.
“I’ve always loved being outside,” he says. “When I was little, we lived in downtown Charlottesville [Virginia]. Even though we had a very small yard, we had a garden and chickens; and my parents planted as many native and food producing plants as they could. My mom got our yard certified as a Backyard Wildlife Habitat with the National Wildlife Federation. She took my brother and me out to a nearby park almost every day to play in the woods, creek, and pond. Then she organized a community nature play group for parents and kids.”
This is where Ezra met Devin Floyd, Founder and Director of the Center for Urban Habitats (CUH)—a nonprofit for advancing biodiversity education and conservation in the Piedmont.
“I credit part of Ezra’s success to his family,” says Floyd. “They foster and support an environment where learning and pursuit of passion go hand-in-hand. At CUH we want youth to be scientific experts in interpreting the environment and its processes. Place-based inquiry, knowledge-building, and knowledge-sharing—these components allow us to care for our fellow humans and show compassionate stewardship of the non-human world.”
At present, Ezra grows local genotype plants, conducts surveys, and writes for CUH. “He has a drive to explore, passion for learning, great imagination, an artful eye, and a knack for storytelling,” Floyd says.
Ezra’s efforts have recently been rewarded at the 2018 American Birding Association Young Birder of the Year Competition. Ezra’s works won a Silver Award in the writing and field notes modules. He also scored an Honorable Mention for the photography module; and his combined numbers earned him the overall Bronze Award for his age group. (To view Ezra’s various skills, visit his website—BirdsAndBuds.com.)
“Birding gets me outside and provides a window into the rest of nature. I choose local birding destinations based on my assessment of the habitats, and what birds could be associated with them,” Ezra says. Some of his favorite Virginia area spots include Rockfish Valley Trail system, James River State WMA, Ivy Creek NA, Rivanna Trail-Belvedere section, Ragged Mountain NA, Chincoteague NWR, Dutch Gap Conservation Area, and “the 17 acres my family now lives on. I’ve been to Costa Rica and Ecuador for their amazing bird diversity. On my trips I take binoculars, a spotting scope, digital camera with zoom lens, and way more field guides than any sane person should have.”
