Camp TALON (Teen Adventures Learning Ornithology and Nature) is a five-day event for young birders (ages 12-16) who are interested in birds and nature. Sponsored by GOS, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources (GA DNR), and the Atlanta Audubon Society, the camp is based each June at Epworth by the Sea on St. Simons Island. From that launching point, participants experience daily field trips by bus to some of the premiere birding spots on the Georgia coast including Wassaw Island NWR, Ft. Stewart, Harris Neck NWR, Blackbeard Island NWR, Sapelo Island, Altamaha WMA, Little St. Simons Island, St. Simons Island, Jekyll Island, Cumberland Island NS, and Okefenokee NWR. The instructors for the camp are professional biologists, ornithologists, retired professors, and camp counselors representing federal and state agencies, as well as universities and conservation-oriented non-profit groups.
The Camp TALON concept was hatched in the fall of 2008 as a result of discussions within the GOS Executive Committee concerning youth education, as well as those between GOS’ Bob Sargent and GA DNR’s Tim Keyes (creator of the Youth Birding Competition [YBC]). GOS was attempting to build another floor on the strong foundation that is the YBC, by offering a field ornithology and ecology course to teenagers who are serious about birding. Camp TALON’s goals include: 1) Get young people into the outdoors; 2) Provide formal ornithological training, including instruction about habitats, conservation, census techniques, photography, and journaling; and 3) Educate future scientists, teachers, and voters. If young people can learn to identify birds by sight and sound, then we felt that they will be more interested in birds and nature in general. And if they are interested in birds, then there is a greater probability that young people will recruit friends to birding, and they may even go the extra mile by becoming teachers or scientists, or perhaps choose to help scientists with research and conservation efforts. Of course, these goals do not just benefit birds; they also help to ensure a healthy environment for all of us, birders and non-birders. The first camp was held in June 2009, and, with the exception of 2010, has been offered every year since.