I tend to agree with Jim Elder. I am quite suspect of government data
collection and reports based on some questionable sampling procedure. The US
Census can't count the population and ethnic diversity accurately, how can
they count birders? Has any Tweeter ever been contacted by a US Census
surveyor asking birding questions?
The government economists are always telling us that the economy is great yet
all around us are unemployed, under-employed, and workers being layed off
because jobs are going over-seas to the slave labor countries. How many
birders are there in the U.S.? We'll never know for sure. i bet one could
come closer than the government by adding up all the members in birding
organizations and/or subscribers to birding magazines and factoring for
duplication.
Hans Krauss, (retired government employee. )