Students from across the western US shared their stories and experiences while interacting with their peers and with professionals in the field at the 48th Annual WFO Conference in San Diego. With cool, foggy mornings and sunny afternoons, San Diego offered the perfect location for the students to explore the mountains, deserts, and open ocean on field trips. This year, 34 students attended the conference. WFO gave 10 scholarships through its regular program and, for the first time, 5 to students and young professionals from Mexico. For some, San Diego wasn’t too far from home, but for others the conference field trips resulted in substantial additions to their life list.

In addition to joining field trips and attending conference sessions, students enjoyed two student-specific activities: a workshop on specimen preparation at the San Diego Natural History Museum and an evening taco party, sponsored by Harris & Associates.

Philip Unitt, curator of the Department of Birds and Mammals at the San Diego Natural History Museum, and Lea Squires, field biologist at the museum, demonstrated how to prepare bird specimens for museum collections and discussed how specimens are used for research. They emphasized the importance of recording data on specimen tags in indelible ink so it won’t be lost over time, as the data on many historic tags has been, rendering the specimens effectively useless for most research purposes. “The Pigma Micron Pen,” Phil proclaimed, “is one of the greatest advancements in ornithology.”

Over the three-hour workshop, Phil prepared a Burrowing Parrot and a Common Poorwill, and Lea prepared an American Kestrel and a Belted Kingfisher. Phil and Lea gave an expert demonstration, making tiny incisions and deftly manipulating delicate bones and feather tracts, all while sharing information about the museum collection, their career paths and professional experiences, and how museum collections are an important research and conservation tool. The young birders, an attentive audience, asked many questions as Phil and Lea processed the specimens. Phil and Lea offered tools and tricks of the trade, like the amount of cotton needed to fill out each specimen once the organs and muscles are removed. “Our department policy is pleasingly plump,” said Phil. “Rubenesque.” He later qualified his remark: an important consideration is that specimens need to fit in the museum’s storage drawers.

As the conference wrapped up, attendees at the Saturday night banquet heard a presentation from two former WFO scholarship recipients, Teodelina Martelli and Santiago (Santi) Tabares Erices. Both shared how receiving scholarships to previous conferences has shaped their academic and personal growth. (Check out the 2014 San Diego Conference Highlights for pictures of Teodelina!)

Teodelina, who serves on the WFO Board, presented research at this year’s science sessions, and also was on the photo ID panel. She is a 2024 graduate of Pomona College. Selected as a 2025 Fulbright Scholar, she will be conducting outreach to isolated and underserved communities in the Chilean Andes. Santi, an undergraduate at Cornell University, is majoring in environment and sustainability with a concentration in environmental biology and applied ecology. He also works as a seasonal field technician monitoring grassland birds to inform bird-friendly mowing practices, and as an assistant at Cornell’s Macaulay Library.

Their speeches gave perspective on how impactful the WFO student scholarships can be on the personal and professional growth of the next generation of field ornithologists.

Interacting with and learning from students at the annual WFO conference is a highlight for the Board, staff, and members. We look forward to continuing this program in 2025!

—Maci MacPherson and Lauren Smith