The reason for the large decrease in birdwatching population (in
my opinion of course) is that there never were 76 million birders in the
US or 63 million either. Think about it: that is something like one in
every four or five Americans. If you work at a typical company probably
everyone there comes and asks you all the bird questions they have. Why?
Because you are the only birder they know. If there were 76 million
birders everyone would know dozens. So this decline is a result of
comparing two totally meaningless numbers or at least we don't know what
they mean. I suspect they counted everyone who ever visited a park and
didn't bring a weapon with them, everyone who ever bought a bag of
birdseed at the grocery store, and anyone who said they would stop and
look if an eagle landed on the road next to their car. I don't mean to
belittle any of those activities but they aren't birdwatching and we
shouldn't fool ourselves that they are.

On Sun, 10 Aug 1997, Cathi Pelletier wrote:

>
> I was actually very surprised by the drop in the number of
> non-consumptive participants. In the past five years, our extended
> family has added 5 birders, including myself. I became interested first,
> then got my two brothers, my nephew, and my best friend involved. My son
> and his wife, and my two grandkids are casually interested, and I hope to
> involve my sister in Massachusetts when we go birding for the first time
> together next weekend.
>

Jim Elder (jime at eskimo.com)
SEA, Inc.
7030 220th St SW
Mountlake Terrace, WA 98043