Steve,
It's absolutely irrelevant!
The story is on the economics of "bird watching" and not on an
individuals capabilities with or without bins, scopes, etc. Whether
they can tell a snipe from a goose is absolutely irrelevant (pun
intended):-)
Where it is useful is to show councils, such as Cairns, the benefits
of mudflats for example, the "economics of bringing bird watchers to
an area" and just what that is worth to them. Sometimes one has to be
subtle for the birds sake!
I would say there are more than 350,000 Australians that say such
things as " ooh you're a bird watcher then? You should come to my
garden.....". They may not belong to BOCA etc., but they can talk for
hours on loikeets, magpies, etc., even 7 year olds next door can!
Regards.
Alan
On 19/07/2009, at 15:10 , Steve wrote:
G'day Alan et al.
It depends on your definition of birdwatcher. In the USA there are
millions of folk who have feeders for birds in their backyard. Many
also put out Purple Martin nest boxes. I suspect these are all being
counted in the survey. Many would not know a Robin from an Owl and
wouldn't go elsewhere to watch birds. The bird seed feeding industry
is huge over there. I met many people in Texas state parks etc who
had no idea what birds they were looking at. I only bumped into a few
serious birders with binoculars and fewer with scopes.
In the UK the RSPB has over 1 million members. This is about 1 in 60
citizens. BOCA and Birds Australia would have to have 350,000 members
to be on par. Again though a lot of people who join the RSPB would
not really be what I would call birdwatchers - just citizens
interested enough in their environment to part with cash. I wish we
had more here.
Cheers
Steve
On 19/07/2009, at 2:48 PM, Alan McBride wrote:
Amazing numbers: can't imagine what Britain's numbers are like:-)
May be just useful too to fight the "gun lobby"!
http://tinyurl.com/kj5eno
BIRDWATCHERS: THEY'RE EVERYWHERE!
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service determines 1 in 5 Americans are
birdwatchers
Look to your left. Look to your right. Now prepare yourself, because
there's a solid chance that one of those people is—gasp—a
birdwatcher! According to a study conducted by the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service, 1 in 5 Americans participates in birdwatching.
That's 20 percent of the population, or about 48 million people.
Which is shocking, because I've never met even one birdwatcher in my
life. By here they exist, a silent but powerful lobby with the cash
to push their avian agenda into the mainstream: The USFWS reports
that birdwatchers contribute over $36 billion (billion!) to the U.S.
economy. They're not going anywhere, either—the birdwatching
percentage of the population has remained steady over the last ten
years, despite the introduction of multiple alternatives to
birdwatching.
***********************************************************************************
Alan McBride, MBO.
Photojournalist | Traveller | Writer | Birding Guide +
Member: International Travel Writers & Photographers Alliance
American Writers & Artists Inc.
Travelwriters.com
http://web.me.com/amcbride1
http://www.worldreviewer.com/member/alanmcbride/
http://www.linkedin.com/in/alanmcbride
http://www.twitter.com/alanmcbride
Good planets are hard to find; until we do, please, be green and
read from the screen
Tel: + 61 419 414 860
Fax: + 61 2 9973 2306
Skype: mcbird101
P O Box 190 | Newport Beach | NSW 2106 | Australia
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