CA Senior Considered Nationally-Ranked Birder

He interrupted himself mid-sentence and turned in the direction of the sound. “That was a Red-breasted Nuthatch; hear that? There it is again.”  

 

When it comes to birds, Colorado Academy senior Alec Hopping knows – a lot. Though he downplays its importance, Hopping is considered a nationally-ranked birder by the American Birding Association.  ABA rankings are based on reported sightings of different bird species.  Among birders under 20 years of age, Hopping occupies the number one spot in Colorado. “On this day,” he says casually, “I’m actually number two.”

 

Hopping photographs birds to confirm his sightings. He uses a practice called “digiscoping”  -- a kind of photography using a digital camera and a field spotting scope, and photographs are accompanied by written descriptions and then reported on a website called eBird. His bird photographs were also the topic of his senior Portfolio Show. Hopping says in the birding world, just like everywhere else, integrity, honesty, and reputation matter.

 

Hopping points out that it is the start of migration season, and as one blogger/birder on the ABA website says, “birders are staring into the precipice of the Great Spring Arrival.”  Hopping’s sunburnt face underscores his birding avocation (not to be confused with bird watching), and he admits that some days, senioritis has given way to a trip to nearby birding hotspots, where, with his near-celebrity status, Hopping says people will show up simply because they know that he will be there.

 

An absolute treasure trove of information, Hopping can tell you the number of endemic species per country (20 endemic species in the Congo), local historic data for bird counts (In 1974, there were 800 Franklin’s Gulls counted at Marston Reservoir; more recent counts go only as high as 88), and environmental practices that contribute to sustainable birding habitats (do you know about the planting of Shade Coffee where coffee plants grow under a canopy of trees?).

 

It is not surprising that Hopping will attend Cornell University and be a student at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, but not before he takes a gap year to go birding in Guatemala, then to work as a resident bird guide for a couple of months in the fall on Little St. Simons Island – a private barrier island just off the Georgia coast, then to travel to New Zealand, and possibly to conduct bird research for the Smithsonian Institution using bird data from Papua New Guinea.

 

His plan is to study environmental science and sustainability, and when asked what he wants to do he says, “I pretty much know exactly what I want to do – basically, save the world.” He’s not kidding. Hopping says the key is modern alternatives to traditional conservation strategies.  “The traditional practice of land conservation doesn’t work,” he says. Hopping thinks educating people about sustainable practices no matter where they are is what matters, not simply setting aside spaces that can’t be touched.  He says fairly dramatic evidence of climate change is showing up in migration patterns, in birds that would normally have left Colorado that now stay throughout the winter, and in the numbers of birds we’re seeing.

 

He says his interest in birding developed just by watching the birds that would show up at the feeder outside his window.  Hopping has attended CA since kindergarten and says he can remember being in fifth grade looking at ducks along the South Platte River. Over time, the quality of the birding experience began to drive where his family would vacation.  “A lot of people think my dad taught me everything I know,” says Hopping. In fact, Bill Hopping’s interest followed that of his son.