Birding as a Hobby or a Passion

By Kimberly Zewatsky Kalamazoo Nature Center

If you simply bought bird seed for your backyard feeder, you contributed to the 20 billion dollar a year eco-tourism industry. Active birders spend on the average between $1,500 and $3.400 a year with travel being the major expenditure. Some ardent birders will head out to various parts of the country with southeastern Arizona being a highly favored hot spot.

But locally, you can go birding and discover a great variety of species at little cost and minimal effort. The best time for bird watching is during migration in the spring or fall. “If you live in Kalamazoo, try the Kalamazoo Nature Center or Kleinstuck Preserve.” said Kalamazoo Nature Center’s Research Project Coordinator John Brenneman, who conducts a daily bird survey at Kleinstuck Preserve.

“The best way to get started is to go on local bird walks with Kalamazoo Audubon Society or other birding groups. Binoculars are a good first step in equipment and even the cheaper ones are better than they used to be.” said John Brenneman. Technology is a game changer for birders everywhere with free online app’s that assist bird enthusiasts with access to the Internet. eBird is an online database of bird observations from around the world. The information gathered is helpful for scientists, researchers and citizen scientists. Merlin is another app that birders use that gets into more detailed species information based on data from eBird.

Brenneman said 20 years ago, when he started out, birders relied on bird books and used a rare bird alert telephone hotline to report rare sightings. He said information would be three or four days old. Now, the word would get out to fellow birders almost immediately.

Birding is for everyone. The latest survey on birdwatching, conducted in 2016 by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, indicated that the average age for ‘Away-From-Home’ birders was 49 with 47 percent under the age of 45. The average age for ‘Around-The-Home’ birdwatcher was 54, with 33 percent under the age of 45. Brenneman indicated younger folks are becoming more interested in part, because of the competition element, and the fact that almost everyone carries a computer, (cell phone) with them, in their pocket or purse. Birds are practically everywhere. In every type of habitat, there’s some sort of bird in there. They fill every niche, said Brenneman. It’s how and where you find them and what extent. He also offers this wardrobe suggestion for birders, “I never wear what I call swishy clothes like down vests. I usually wear a hooded sweatshirt with layers underneath. You know, quieter clothes.” He does a lot of bird identification by sound and walking is noisy enough he added.

“Birding is as challenging as you want it to be. It’s how far you want to go. Go out and enjoy the songs and identify a few things. You don’t have to be hardcore about it. Or, you can go out and try to find every single species and learn the nuances or the differences,” Brenneman said, “It is part of the passion or obsession or just a hobby.”

Learn more about birding and get involved at NatureCenter.org

By Dave Person david.r.person@gmail.com

The skies are always blue at Kalamazoo’s iconic State Theatre.

Sure, the 96-year-old entertainment venue has seen its dark days, but designer John Eberson wanted to make sure it wasn’t because of the theater-goer’s surroundings, so he created a theater that resembles a Spanish courtyard.

With a sky blue ceiling and “stars” that appear when the lights go dim in the “atmospheric theater,” as it is called, visitors have the sensation of being outside during performances.