The scholarship will help students take advantage of the unique opportunities that Washington College offers in birding and ornithology at Foreman’s Branch Bird Observatory. The only observatory of its kind on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, Foreman’s Branch is one of the few places where undergraduate students can receive long-term, hands-on training in the technical skills needed for ornithology studies.
Since 2008, the station has provided paid internships to 26 students, who are closely taught the precise skills needed to band, identify, and record data about songbirds. Student interns spend an entire semester (and often much more) at the station learning these skills while being closely mentored by master banders. Scholarship recipients will get priority status for these internships.
Located on the College’s 4,700-acre River and Field Campus (RAFC), Foreman’s Branch is an Audubon-designated Important Bird Area. The expansive habitat at RAFC, and the fact that the observatory is not located at migratory bottleneck, draws an enormous diversity of species.
On average, the station bands about 15,000 birds of about 130 species every year, and as of January 2018, it holds North American age records for 10 species, including orchard oriole (11 years), American goldfinch (10 years, 11 months), hermit thrush (10 years, 10 months), and grasshopper sparrow (9 years, 1 month). Last September, the station, which celebrated its 20th anniversary in March, banded its 250,000th bird, a common yellowthroat.
The Washington College Ornithology Scholarship, which is funded by the College’s Center for Environment & Society, is being launched during the Year of the Bird, designated by the National Audubon Society, BirdLife International, National Geographic, and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology to mark the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
For more information about the Washington College Ornithology Scholarship, visit www.washcoll.edu/centers/ces/ornithology-scholarship/
Learn more about Foreman’s Branch Bird Observatory at www.washcoll.edu/birds
For more about Year of the Bird visit www.audubon.org/yearofthebird
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Founded in 1782, Washington College is the tenth oldest college in the nation and the first chartered under the new Republic. It enrolls approximately 1,450 undergraduates from more than 35 states and a dozen nations. With an emphasis on hands-on, experiential learning in the arts and sciences, and more than 40 multidisciplinary areas of study, the College is home to nationally recognized academic centers in the environment, history, and writing. Learn more at washcoll.edu.