Love for bird-watching takes flight
With the backdrop of chirps and sing-song calls, around a dozen people peered through binoculars, hoping to spot and call out as many birds as they could as they traversed Spring Creek Nature Trails in Tomball on Saturday.
A great blue heron, a great egret, and black-crowned night herons settled in the marshy waters. Carolina chickadees chirped as a red northern cardinal fluttered by.
“It freshens the soul,” said Joanne “Jojo” Bradbury, a guide for the bird-watcher group. “It charges your battery.” The bird-watching walk was the kickoff event for the second annual Houston Bird Week. Hosted by the Houston Audubon and local conservation partners, this year’s bird week features a host of virtual and small, in-person events, including Facebook Live virtual bird walks and classes in hopes of bringing out bird-watchers, also
known as birders, of all backgrounds and levels of expertise to explore a world of bird species.
And the timing is perfect. Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has forced many to stay home, bird-watching is having a moment, with more and more people participating in the hobby in Houston and beyond.
“It’s allowing people to be home more and they’re seeing the nature in their backyards,” said Anna Vallery, a Houston Audubon conservation specialist, of the pandemic.
The Houston Audubon has received increased web traffic and more phone calls and emails about birds, Vallery said. More people have been walking on trails, especially during the week, and data IDing and describing birds that people have seen has also gone up. Becky Martinez, conservation director of Bayou Land Conservancy, reported that usage of the TravelStorys app for birding increased by 700 percent between March — when the pandemic struck the Houston area — through June.
Jessica West, 60, a Woodlands-based therapist, said she has upped her birdwatching quota since the COVID-19 pandemic started. Now, she bird-watches nearly every day of the week, an active and engaging alternative to the gym.
“The beauty is just so healing and wonderful,” West said, adding that “the movement and nature together are so amazing for mental health.”
Miles Duboise, 10, and his father John, 48, who both learned how to identify birds using e-Bird, a mobile app chock-full of information of birds of all species, have also increased their hobby and are closing in on nearly 200 sightings of different bird species. Royce Daniels, 32, of Montrose — who’s been birding since receiving a pair of binoculars, a book about birds, and a bird-feeder for his birthday in the third grade — has decided to pick up the hobby again after some downtime, and recent retiree Elly Hard, 65, of Kingwood, decided to try out birding for the first time this week.
Globally, bird-watching has also seen a surge.
Birdwatchers set a new world record on Global Big Day on May 9, with birdwatchers reporting 2.1 million bird observations and more than 6,400 species to the eBird program and mobile app, according to the New York-based Cornell Lab of Ornithology, an organization that studies and educates the public about birds.
The app, which uses the data to assist science and bird conservation efforts around the world, received more than 120,000 submitted checklists — an increase of 30 percent of the same day last year — as well as photos and audio recordings submitted to the lab’s media archive, according to a release. Such submissions and downloads of its free bird IDing app, Merlin, were all up by at least 50 percent.
And as birds face threats to their population and diversity due to environmental challenges — a 2019 study in the Science journal noted that North America lost about 3 million birds or 30 percent of its bird population since 1970 — there’s also been a shift in how people think of bird watching. The hobby is more than the stereotypical nerdy clothes and binoculars, and birds are “not just a pretty thing that occurs in habitat but an important aspect of habitat as a whole,” Vallery said.
Many birders, while enthusiastic about the act of spotting birds in their natural habitat, also acknowledge the importance of birds, the benefits they provide to the ecosystem, and often times hope to help with conservation efforts, said Vallery and Zineera Seth, Houston Audubon marketing and events manager.
“We like the citizen science aspect of it,” John Duboise said, reasoning that every submission about a bird sighting helps conservationists.
Vallery added that the Audubon has aimed to make this year’s bird week more diverse, with kidfriendly events for the many birders who are parents and events that appeal to birders of all levels, including those newer to the hobby. This year, Bird Week features introductory courses like “Birding 101” and a beginner’s bird photography course.
“It’s a great way, even in an urban environment, to get in nature,” Vallery said.
To learn more about Houston Bird Week events, visit the Houston Audubon website.