Birding Area - RedJellyfish.com

FEATHERED FUN

Birding is one of the fastest growing leisure activities in the United States! Almost one in three adults in the country consider themselves birders, and 16 percent of their children participate. There are now more than 10,000 clubs associated with watching birds and wildlife.

Birders are also making themselves felt in the marketplace, where they spend tens of billions of dollars on birding paraphernalia each year. The birding industry is almost as big as Major League Baseball!

So why are so many people getting up at dawn, bushwhacking through marshes, and buying birdhouses and binoculars of every description? A few of the reasons are that all ages, skills and physical levels can be involved. You don’t need anything besides good eyes and maybe a good pair of binoculars to watch birds, and the hobby can be done looking out the window, driving down the road, in your backyard, and in urban areas as well as in the wild.

Another reason may be that birding is a great way to connect to nature, something many of us are starved for, and birding can give a purpose for getting outdoors and taking a walk in a park.

There are several well-known seasonal and regional “hot spots” for particularly spectacular birding. For the spring migration try Tortugas, FL; High Island, TX; Point Pelee, Ontario; and Cape May, NJ. In May. The Cape May event is called The World Series of Birding, and 116 teams come from all over the world to participate and raise money for conservation.

For watching the fall migration try Cape May, NJ; Hawk Mountain, PA; The Goshutes, NV; and Vera Cruz, Mexico.

The American Birding Association provides listings of conventions and other hot spots in their Birding and Nature Festivals Directory, as does Birding Conventions, on their website.

For those who want to learn more about observing birds , BirdWatch is a series dedicated to North American birds and bird watching that airs on PBS stations nationwide. Click here for a list of host Dick Hutto’s 10 Best Places to go Bird Watching in America.

What are the coolest birds that birders like to see? The hardcore birders will tell you that the coolest birds to see are the ones you have not seen yet! However, most people have their favorites: hawks, owls, hummingbirds, eagles and warblers.

How can we help the birds? Join HomeEarth--the source of much of the information for this article and buy a birding product. Participate in and join your local birding club or Audubon Chapter. Something really fun to do is to join in the

The Great Backyard Bird Count (sponsored by Audubon and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology)! Not only will you learn about the birds in your backyard, but help with a large community effort that is working towards protecting birds by tracking changes in North American bird populations.