![]() ![]() Many of them invest heavily in their hobby, and that amount grew during the COVID-19 pandemic with people restricted to their homes and neighborhoods. Fish & Wildlife Service, about 45 million Americans are birders. How we watch birds nowĪccording to the U.S. But as the hobby soars in popularity, there’s an increase in calls for birders to help preserve the wildlife they love watching. ![]() Spotting sparrows or tracking hawks is technically free, except maybe investing in a pair of binoculars. If allocated differently, it could pose a solution to a growing problem: as bird hunting has declined from its peak in the 1980s to its lowest levels in 25 years, so has the money collected annually from the sale of hunting licenses and weapons excise taxes- $943 million of which goes towards habitat conservation programs. It’s a staggering figure, but it could be even higher. Conducted in collaboration with the National Audubon Society and Project Puffin, the tours are part of a flourishing bird watching ecotourism industry that contributes $41 billion per year to the United States economy. This is one of the Hardy’s twice-a-day, spring and summer cruises to the island, home of the world’s first restored seabird colony, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. Between the shrieks of laughing gulls and the splash of sea spray, camera shutters click.Īlthough a number of seabirds-herring gulls, double-crested cormorants, guillemots, arctic terns, common eiders, northern gannets-have been spotted on and around the enormous granite boulders of Eastern Egg Rock, the tuxedoed birds with the colorful beaks are the undeniable stars. Thirty passengers spring from their upper-deck benches and crowd the port side of the Hardy III, which rolls over the choppy waters of Muscongus Bay, off the Maine coast. “Three puffins, one o’clock!” the Audubon naturalist shouts. ![]()
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