Frankie Lewis, a 10 year old birder, is lucky to have a great home base. Frankie lives about 15 minutes away from the Crissy Field Tidal Marsh in San Francisco. He observes birds there at least once a week at the restored lagoon which is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Frankie writes a "Bird of the Issue" column for his school newspaper at Saints Peter and Paul School in San Francisco, where he is a fifth grader. He also wrote "Diary of an Oil Spill" for the paper after visiting several Bay Area beaches that were being cleaned of the spill in November 2007.

Frankie takes his family birding wherever they travel. His other favorite spots include Sea Ranch and Point Reyes in California; Walden and Sawhill Ponds in Boulder County, Colorado; and along the Fox and Sangamon Rivers in Illinois. "I like to go birding as often as I can. We try to squeeze some in between school work, sports and friends," says Frankie, who keeps a list of all species that he has seen.

Frankie even celebrated his 10th birthday with an early morning bird-watching party at the Crissy Field Marsh. Guests, who were equipped with binoculars and field guides, got great views of real water foul and also observed some not-so-real species including the rare "Great Sprinkled Donut" and the elusive "Hot Chocolate Sipper."

Frankie enjoys his local San Francisco birding sites. He says "I feel like these birds are my buddies. Birding is great because it gets you outside."