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Bird-watching offers many rewards

“I’ve never regretted a chase.”

Julie Cramer-Le described her experiences as a bird-watcher in the Sun-Gazette’s Tuesday outdoors section, and she makes a compelling case for the hobby.

The last several days have also been an ideal time to consider bird-watching: As the Sun-Gazette and Associated Press reported in Thursday’s edition, the Backyard Bird Count was beginning.

The Backyard Bird Count, which began Friday and will end today, marshals volunteers to count species of birds, which helps biologists and conservationists research important trends. In 2019, the data reflected a decline of 3 billion birds in North America.

“The bad news is that the declines are coming out strong and hard in the data,” Becca Rodomsky-Bish of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology told the Associated Press. “The good news is if we didn’t have that data, we wouldn’t know. And that helps a lot of areas take direct action.”

So bird-watching can have a direct impact on conservation planning. But there are more reasons it can be rewarding.

Bird-watching gets families outdoors and learning about wildlife. It can teach young people patience and the value of research. Cramer-Le says the hobby has taken her to new places and introduced her to new friends, her fellow bird-watchers. And, as Cramer-Le notes, even when she doesn’t necessarily find the rare birds for which she’s looking, she still has a good time.

We hope the participants enjoyed their contributions to citizen science, and we hope more families will try out this past-time.

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