Upcoming Events
The mission of the Education Committee is outreach through programs outside the regular Hampshire Bird Club programs and events. This is accomplished by targeting populations such as non-members, children, seniors, and those with accessibility issues. We also offer workshops on topics of interest to club members.
Book Club
Jeremy Spool and Meghadeepa Maity, two members of the HBC education committee, are facilitating a book club. Find out more here.
Forget the pandemic for a while and write a Haiku to share!
Haikus are Japanese poetic forms of three lines, arranged as 5-7-5 syllables.
The strength of these short poems is “brevity, immediacy, spontaneity” reflecting the natural world.
Here are several by the master poet Matsuo Basho (1644-94)
The temple bell stops
but the sound keeps coming
out of the flowers.
sweeping the garden
but letting the temple keep
the willow’s droppings.
By Kobayashi Issa (1763 -1827)
This line of back ants –
maybe it goes all the way back
to that white cloud!
We hope you will write a Haiku about a bird, or birds to share with other members of the Hampshire Bird Club.
When you submit it to us at [email protected] we will number the Haikus without your name. We will then send the group of submitted poems to some committee members to vote on giving each a 1, 2 or 3 rating. Poems with the most 3’s will receive third prize, 2’s second prize, and 1’s first prize. We will then post the poems under these prizes.
Here is a Haiku by a member of the committee:
at my garden’s edge
clouds of sparrows dust bathing
plumage maintenance!
List of HBC Education Committee Members
Please spread the word about our events and contact us at [email protected].
Educational Scholarships
We offer scholarships for young people to attend birding or natural history camps and conferences. Applicants are 12-18 years old. Applicant or a family member is a member of the Hampshire Bird Club. You can download an Education Scholarship Application here.