Birdwatching Newest Outdoor Craze
Filed in archive Adventure by Terah Shelton on September 25, 2007
Do you consider birdwatching an outdoor activity? No? Well you should. Just a few short weeks after the announcement that the number of hunters was trailing off, comes another shocking announcement: birdwatching is a growing hobby. Could it be we are going more sensitive?
According the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, birdwatching is a "hobby of 47.8 million Americans, with wildlife watching up 8 percent from 2000 to 2006. With numbers like that, it's amazing that I don't know one birdwatcher. Have you been birdwatching? If so, I would love to hear about it.
More than 20 states have created "birding trails" since 2000 to guide newcomers to good spots to watch fowl. Outfitters that once specialized in hunting expeditions or horseback riding are branching out to offer trips focusing on feathery critters, too.
Rapp wants to help the Chesapeake region cash in on the trend. A former zookeeper, Rapp heads Delmarva Low-Impact Tourism Experiences, a nonprofit that aims to boost ecotourism in Delaware, Maryland and Virginia.
Rapp is beginning work on a "Cape to Cape Trail" from Cape May, N.J., to Cape Charles, Va., to show off the region's bountiful bird population, including one of the nation's highest concentrations of bald eagles. Peregrine falcons roam the skies around the Chesapeake Bay, and the marshes along the Atlantic coast attract migrating waterfowl in the fall and spring.
Standing on the bed of his truck in the Deal Island Wildlife Management Area, Rapp spies plenty of birds despite the hot weather.
"I see one, two, three, four, five different species of birds right now," he says, pointing his binoculars toward a marshy copse of trees in the distance. Herons and egrets seem not to mind the attention, but rarer black ducks fly away in groups when Rapp's truck rumbles down the gravel.
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