It’s For the Birds

IT’S FOR THE BIRDS 

September/October issue, 2006 The year was 1956, and the entire school – all 13 of us – wondered what our new teacher would be like. Little did I know when she walked into the classroom of that one room school, not far from where I live today, that she would be largely responsible for my current passion for birds, and nature in general. Her name was Marie Foster – of course, to us, she was simply, Miss Foster – and she constantly amazed us with her stories of backyard birds, and how they came to her hand for offerings of sunflower seeds. I lived on a farm, and her inspiration made me more aware of the birds that I saw regularly from the tractor seat. In those days, the majority of kids who attended our school lived on farms, and operated tractors when only 12 years of age. However, I seemed to be the only one in our rural school who was touched deeply enough by Miss Foster’s stories to make the study of birds a career choice.

Looking back, our teacher probably fell into the mental image that most people had of birdwatchers back then, and to a certain extent, even today. Birdwatching was considered a hobby primarily enjoyed by elderly spinsters, retired pastors and school boys on a hike. They were misfits of society, and while collecting balls of string, polar bear swimming and flag pole sitting were regarded as normal pursuits, regular people just did not watch birds, pure and simple. When boarding a bus, binoculars were routinely carried in a brown paper bag, so as not to attract unnecessary attention. And how embarrassing it was if some rare bird persisted in hanging around some public place, requiring the observer to expose himself to public view. Often there would be more people watching the birdwatcher, than birdwatchers watching the bird!

With birdwatching perceived to be a hobby enjoyed by so few, it was understandable that optical equipment continued to be of poor quality, and any available bird books were far too heavy and cumbersome to carry in the field. There were few newspaper columns devoted to the hobby, nature appreciation television programs were few, and most books on the subject were woefully incomplete. If you were interested in birds – well, you just sort of kept it to yourself and didn’t talk about it much. Birdwatching was regarded as both embarrassing and socially unacceptable.

How times have changed! Today, the hobby is the second most popular pastime in all of North America, surpassed only by gardening. Nomenclature has also changed. Today, those who pursue the enjoyment of birds are better known as birders, and they go birding – not birdwatching. Presumably the change in terminology is in a further attempt to eliminate the Beverly Hillbillies “Miss Jane” Hathaway mental image that usually comes to mind when the term birdwatcher is mentioned.

Here are some interesting statistics, some a bit outdated, but certainly confirming the popularity of birding as a hobby. In 1991, more than 24 million people in North America took trips for the express purpose of watching wild birds, versus 14 million hunters (3 million migratory bird hunters) and 35 million anglers who travelled. In the U.S., $5.2 billion dollars was directly spent on expenses related to watching and enjoying birds. These expenditures produced a total economic effect of $15.9 billion, including $300 million in direct state revenues, and generated 190,000 full-time and part-time jobs. In a 1990 survey, twice as many vacationers preferred to watch birds than play golf. In the U.S., $2.5 billion is spent annually on bird feed, feeders, baths, and nesting boxes.

The late Roger Tory Peterson, the dean of birders, was responsible for developing the “Peterson system,” a pictorial key based on readily noticed visual impressions rather than on technical features. His process of elimination method of identification resulted in millions of copies of his popular field guide to birds being sold. A visit to any book store will reveal not only his, but dozens of similar field guides by other authors, all having used the same proven method of identification, first adopted by Peterson. High on the list of popular field guides today is the Sibley Field Guide, released just six years ago. But the Peterson Field Guide remains near the top in a birder’s choice of field guides, but his efforts didn’t stop there. He either co-authored or played a major role in a series of other guides on wildflowers, insects, trees and shrubs, birds’ nests, reptiles and amphibians, mammals, even rocks and minerals, and stars and planets.

Similar advancements have been seen with binoculars, precision instruments specifically designed today to capture undistorted images of birds, so important in determining their identity. Gone are the old army binoculars that many of us were spawned on when we started this hobby. Serious birders who spend much of their time in the field, do not hesitate to spend over $1,500 for high end binoculars. Swarovski Optiks, an Austrian manufacturer, produces the creme de le creme of optical aids, and a good pair can set you back about $3,000. Spotting scopes with higher magnification to pull in distant waterfowl and shorebirds can run quite a bit more. And now, there’s “digiscoping”, the ability, by using an adapter, to mount a digital camera onto a spotting scope, providing the photographer with about an 800 mm zoom lens for those uncooperative birds.

Birders today spend thousands of dollars pursuing their hobby, and popular birding locations are starting to recognize the contribution they make to the economy. Birders at Point Pelee for example, drop close to four million dollars into the local economy each spring. Birding Festivals at such prime migration points as Point Pelee, Presqu’ile Park and Prince Edward County are luring the binocular brigade in by the thousands every year, and they are routinely arriving by trains, planes and automobiles from as far away as the United States and Europe in pursuit of their hobby.

Make no mistake. Birding is big business today. It has come a long way from the days when birdwatching was perceived as a namby pamby pursuit favoured by ladies of both sexes who spent their time tiptoeing through the toadstools and trilliums!