Subject: Re: decreasing birders
Date: Aug 14 08:44:06 1997
From: "Scott Richardson" - salix at halcyon.com


> 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?

Yes, I was contacted in 1985, I think, and answered a 20-minute series of
questions on my outdoor recreation habits and interest in wildlife issues (it
wasn't a US Census surveyor, I don't believe, but a contracted pollster). I am
generally impatient or intolerant of such phone queries, but couldn't resist on
this subject. I also enjoyed looking out the window at birds on my feeder while
answering questions about seed.
Some years later, I started seeing references to how many millions were
involved with bird watching (along with hunting, fishing, and other activities)
and realized I was among the sampled population. I took the results of the
survey at face value, accepting that lots of people feed birds or go hiking
and, generally speaking, fewer are going out to hunt. My personal take-home
message: birding is cool.
There's bound to be some error when extrapolating a small sample to the entire
population, but I wouldn't necessarily derisively label it a "questionable
sampling procedure." Any such poll should be interpreted with caution; all
sampling procedures are open to question. I (naively?) hope that the people
(government or not) involved with this and other data collection activities
strive to accumulate an accurate data set that can allow us to learn more about
national (or local) attitudes toward wildlife/birds.

> 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.)

Could be. Bet it's been done. If so, bet the technique was questioned.
--
Scott Richardson
northeast Seattle
salix at halcyon.com