Lyanda Lynn Haupt
grrlscientist | May 9, 2006In 2001, the US Fish and Wildlife Service published their survey results of fishing, hunting and wildlife-associated recreation and estimated that there are 46 million bird watchers in the United States, making it the second most popular hobby in that country. According to a report by the New York Audubon Society, there were only a dozen bird festivals but in 1993, when the report was published, there were more than 250 every year throughout America. Why is watching birds so popular? Several reasons include the fact that birds are easily visible everywhere that humans go, and birds tend to do…
grrlscientist | February 27, 2006
How important it is to walk along, not in haste, but slowly,
looking at everything and calling out
Yes! No!
-- Mary Oliver
Almost everyone has heard about "Darwin's Finches" -- those dark little birds that live on the Galapagos Islands. But most people don't realize that Darwin didn't set eyes upon those birds until nearly the end of his five year journey. Additionally, when Darwin first stepped aboard the HMS Beagle in 1831, he was neither an ornithologist nor a professional scientist; instead, he was a 22-year-old beetle collector and an amateur naturalist with only a smattering of…