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New Grant for Operation RubyThroat




21 March 2002

"OPERATION RUBYTHROAT: THE HUMMINGBIRD PROJECT" RECEIVES MATCHING 
$35,000 GRANT FROM PHILLIPS PETROLEUM & NATIONAL FISH AND WILDLIFE 
FOUNDATION

For immediate release


Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History in York, South 
Carolina, has received a matching grant in support of "Operation 
RubyThroat: The Hummingbird Project." The $35,000 joint 
award--$17,500 each from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation 
(NFWF) and Phillips Petroleum Company--will enable the Center to help 
public and private school educators incorporate Operation RubyThroat 
activities into their standards-based teaching curriculum.

Operation RubyThroat is a cross-disciplinary initiative that uses the 
Ruby-throated Hummingbird as a tool to excite young people about 
learning in the sciences, mathematics, humanities, and other subject 
areas. Through the project, K-12 students establish hummingbird 
observation areas, collect data about hummingbird behavior, and share 
their findings with peers in the U.S. and Canada. During Operation 
RubyThroat's Year One (2001-2002) start-up, the Center is especially 
targeting teachers and schools in the Carolinas and New York and 
making site visits for special hummingbird presentations.

NFWF and Phillips Petroleum jointly award matching funds in support 
of conservation projects worldwide, including the "Phillips Flyway." 
Their collaborative grant brings the total funding for Operation 
RubyThroat's Year One (2001-2002) to $78,000.

Operation RubyThroat was created by Bill Hilton Jr., a hummingbird 
researcher who in 1982 also founded Hilton Pond Center 
(http://www.hiltonpond.org). He has studied Ruby-throated 
Hummingbirds for nearly 20 years and is one of a small group of 
scientists permitted by federal and state governments to capture and 
band wild hummingbirds.

"We have many goals for Operation RubyThroat," Hilton said, "not the 
least of which is to open the eyes of students to the wonders of 
nature in their own backyards. Everybody loves hummingbirds, so we 
can use them as a 'hook' to stimulate learning in virtually any 
discipline, especially science. Through the project, students also 
will become more aware of environmental factors that affect 
hummingbirds and this, in turn, will lead them to establish or 
protect habitats needed by hummingbirds, other wildlife, and even 
humans themselves."

Hilton said that in Year Two (2002-2003) the project will expand to 
include all 38 states in which Ruby-throated Hummingbirds occur 
during migration or the breeding season. Then, in Year Three the 
project goes international by involving schools in Canada (where 
ruby-throats also breed) and Mexico and the seven countries of 
Central America (where these hummingbirds spend their non-breeding 
winter months).

Operation RubyThroat was first unveiled in 1999 as centerpiece of its 
own Web site at (http://www.rubythroat.org). The photo-rich site is a 
compendium of information about hummingbirds, including 
teaching/learning activities, hummingbird facts, and hints on 
feeding, planting for, and attracting hummingbirds. The Web site has 
won several wards and has been recognized for content excellence by 
USAToday, The Washington Times, Academic Press, and Eisenhower 
National Clearinghouse for Math and Science Education.

Operation RubyThroat is affiliated with The GLOBE program, a U.S. 
initiative sponsored by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 
Administration (NOAA), National Science Foundation (NSF), National 
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the Environmental 
Protection Agency (EPA). GLOBE (http://www.globe.gov) provides a 
Web-based mechanism for receiving student-collected data about 
atmosphere/climate, hydrology, soils, and other natural phenomena. 
Operation RubyThroat's Special Measurement protocols align with those 
of GLOBE, and allow students in GLOBE schools to observe and report 
several categories of data on Ruby-throated Hummingbird ecology, 
behavior, and migration. They'll also be on the lookout for 
color-marked hummingbirds and with unusual plumages (albinos, etc.), 
and watch in the central and eastern U.S. for vagrant winter 
hummingbirds species from the western U.S. and Mexico.

The joint grant from NFWF and Phillips Petroleum provides a partial 
match to funds already received from The Christensen Fund, Foundation 
for the Carolinas Impact Fund, Perky-Pet Corporation, and individual 
and small business donors across the U.S. For more details about the 
new grants and other support for Operation RubyThroat, visit 
http://www.hiltonpond.org/GrantAwards01.html .

#####

-- 

BILL HILTON JR., "The Piedmont Naturalist"
Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History
1432 DeVinney Road, York, South Carolina 29745 USA
hilton@hiltonpond.org, (803) 684-5852, eFax: (503) 218-0845

Please visit our web sites (courtesy of Comporium.net) at 
http://www.hiltonpond.org and
http://www.rubythroat.org

"Never trust a person too lazy to get up for sunrise or too busy to
watch the sunset."					BHjr.