The article referred to by Greg Anderson in the (online) Washington Post is
fun. If Birding Aus readers haven't looked at it I recommend they do so at:
http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1132-2001May8.html
Some of the figures cited in this article however sound unbelievable. The
suggestion that one in four Americans (around 70 million people) "watch
birds" seems either unrealistic or close to meaningless. The figure cited by
Frank Gill (Ornithology, 1995, p. 612) is that 300,000 Americans are
'serious birdwatchers' in the sense that they can recognise 100 species or
more -- this is closer to one in 800 than one in four. Of course the other
67.7 million might be 'non-serious' birdwatchers but the 'one in four'
figure (unless it includes people who just notice that birds exist!) sounds
unbelievable.
Thus the idea that a national culture is developing to protect birds is
optimistic at best.
The Web sites cited in this article on bird migrations are worth looking at.
Harry Clarke
33 The Righi, Ivanhoe 3079
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