Nature Conservancy finally notices tech-savvy birders

From The Nature Conservancy:

Adrianna Zito, an intern for The Nature Conservancy, was unsure of what to expect when she accepted a seasonal position at New Jersey’s Cape May Migratory Bird Refuge [also known as The Meadows -akh].

“I didn’t have much experience with birds or birders. My mental image of birders consisted of people with British accents sporting tweed hats, matching khaki outfits, tattered field guides and binoculars!”

Spare me from the outdated stereotypes. Fortunately, the article improves.


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“So imagine my surprise” continues Zito “when a group of birders rushed the gates waving around Apple iPhones instead of the tattered, dog-eared field guides and notebooks I was expecting!”

One of the birders hurriedly explained to Adrianna that he had just received a tweet that an elusive black rail was spotted about 50 feet into the main trail. With that, the birders disappeared down the trail. Sure, some wore khaki, all had binoculars, and one even wore the obligatory tweed cap. But these are not your parent’s birders.

Birders definitely range in their age, attire and adoption of technology. Gobs of birders adopted the World Wide Web years ago and eagerly embrace new high-tech gadgets and software that might make identifying and finding birds easier and more enjoyable.

The article also includes words of advice from Don Freiday, who writes the Backyard Safari articles in each issue of WildBird:

“I’d like to think that increased access to bird reports will inspire more people to go out birding more often, and get away from technology for a while! However, there is a tendency for people in any activity to behave like sheep and follow the herd — meaning, follow someone else’s discoveries rather than make their own.

“So yes, go see a bird you’ve heard about, but enjoy the whole experience of birding, too — it’s about the bird in front of you, what it’s doing, where it’s going and how to identify it the next time you see the same species.”

Twitter can curate bird photos

Are you familiar with Twitter, the 140-character communication tool that's becoming more popular? (I still feel silly referring to "tweets," the micro-blogging messages.) Many birders have adopted it, and I haven't regretted signing up last year.

One of the recent additions to the free service is the ability to create Lists where we can group together similar "tweeters" based on topic, region or any criteria of your choice. I created a birding list and really enjoy being able to read, respond to and "retweet" birders' posts more efficiently. The list also includes organizations that are not birding-specific but deal with nature and conservation.

Today, the value of the list crystallized again after seeing three tweets in quick succession with the phrase or "hashtag" Wordless Wednesday. Some bloggesr and tweeters who take bird photos like to share their photos via Twitter with that hashtag (which serves as a hyperlinked search tool of similar tweets).

Here are the three tweets:
LadyWoodpecker: New blog post: Wordless Wednesday http://bit.ly/7XvrTj

blobbybirdman: Blobbybirdman's Peregrinations: Wordless Wednesday http://bit.ly/6mchdi

LRockwellatty: Today's Wings on Wednesday #wordlesswednesday http://twitpic.com/tppvq

If you've resisted Twitter as one of those silly online time-sinks, perhaps you'll reconsider after enjoying the constant supply of bird photos and news provided by other birders and nature-minded tweeters.

48 million birdwatchers put $36 billion into the 2006 economy

A new report from U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service says one in five Americans watches birds, putting the number of birdwatchers at 48 million. The most recent economic data shows that birders contributed $36 billion to the U.S. economy.

"Birding in the United States: A Demographic and Economic Analysis," a 20-page addendum to the 2006 national survey of fishing, hunting and wildlife-watching recreation, clarifies that the national survey considers a birder to be an individual that has "taken a trip 1 mile or more from home for the primary purpose of observing birds and/or closely observed or tried to identify birds around the home." That excludes, for instance, someone who notices a gull in a store's parking lot and calls it a "seagull."

What do you think of that definition? USFWS calls it a conservative definition. I wager that some birders consider it too broad.

Is birding a team sport?

Are birdwatchers truly different than other hobbyists, always sharing details of birds' locations? Do all birders help strangers while participating in this avian scavenger hunt? How often have you encountered reticent birders?

In Morning Sentinel, George Smith writes:

Birders themselves are a very special breed. We would sidle up to a couple of obvious birding experience (judging by clothes and equipment), and ask a simple question: "What do you see?"

A quick answer, tossed our way in a excited whisper, often led to an invitation to see the bird through their much-better binoculars and the opening of a bird book for a lengthy discussion about the bird's attributes, its plumage, where it wintered, the amazing journey it was now on and how to distinguish it from similar birds. Many of these birds are migrating north now and the Texas coast is their first rest stop after a long flight over the Gulf of Mexico.

I thought about how different birders are from anglers. An angler wouldn't share a hot fishing tip or spot with his or her mother. Birders will tell you everything, eagerly. Birding, apparently, is a team sport.

Altamira Oriole courtesy of John and Karen Hollingsworth/U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

Birding + business travel = good

From a New York Times article, "On Business, but Checking Out the Local Airborne Fauna" by Liz Galst:

Day trips like Mr. Rosen’s — either on company time or, as is probably more usual, on weekends before or after scheduled work travel — are common among bird-watching business travelers. In fact, business travel, reviled by many forced to endure it, is frequently a boon for the nation’s 20 million birders, and their employers as well.

To begin with, bird watchers are often more eager to hit the road than their nonbirding colleagues. Cyndi Lubecke, a birder from Prospect Heights, Ill., said she had to travel 46 weeks one year for her work as a leadership training consultant. “I looked at it as an opportunity to see a lot of birds.” Some of her nonbirding co-workers, by contrast, balked.

Do you share Lubecke's perspective on business travel? I definitely do.

I have to wonder about the 20 million birders cited by the reporter. Where did that number come from? It differs from the 41.8 million bird observers cited on page 39 of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's 2006 survey. Granted, both numbers raise eyebrows within the birding industry.

I also have to chuckle at this comic's reticence to admit to birding. He's certainly not alone.

And some say the practice may also help them become more proficient at what they do for a living. “It has made me more observant,” said Bob Smith, a stand-up comic and novelist from New York who describes himself as an openly gay comic but a closeted bird watcher. (“Bird watching has a real nerdy image,” he said.)

“To really see something is a great thing for an artist, and bird watching teaches you that,” Mr. Smith said. “That focus has translated into everything I do, including into writing more interesting jokes.”

I admit to expecting birders to observe better, to really see details. When birders say or do something oblivious, I sigh internally. Do you expect birders to watch the world more closely?

Birding in Iraq

From The Columbus Dispatch, an article about Major Randel Rogers, an Ohio Army National Guard member who became a birder in his Galloway, Ohio, back yard and shares his natural bent via an online newsletter:

Rogers, a logistics officer with the 371st Sustainment Brigade, was sent to the largest air base in Iraq in July. Although the country is only a war zone to many people, it represents something else to Rogers. He sees it as an opportunity to study species he's never seen.

Within a month, he had published the first of his online newsletters to educate (and entertain) fellow troops and people back in the United States about the plants, animals and insects he and others spot in Anbar province.

Rogers publishes "Al Asad au Natural" every few weeks.

From the base northwest of Baghdad and near the town Khan Al Baghdadi, Rogers works with Nature Iraq, a nongovernmental environmental group. Back in Ohio, the Ohio Ornithological Society is raising funds for cameras, binoculars and books about birds, plants, trees and flowers for Nature Iraq.

Birders in the News

I like tracking the newspaper articles or online news stories that mention birders. The short announcements of an upcoming bird walk or presentation, printed in a small community paper, are nice, but the articles about larger events in mainstream news sources give me hope.

The more often that larger outlets mention birders, the better. With more of a presence in this nation, maybe birders and birding will seem like less of a quirky subculture (or not).

This week's roundup of Birders in the News:
Fairbanks, Alaska: Nancy Gigliotti, Susan Sharbaugh, Judy Williams, John Wright

Loveland, Colo.: David Bonter, Connie Kogler (a Birder of the Year candidate! Details in the right-hand sidebar), Deana Walker

Dublin, Ga.: James Tomberlin, Marshall and Laurie Jackson

Jekyll Island, Ga.: Gary Smith, Lydia Stone

Which birders did you see in the news this week?