I started watching birds as a teenager, under the tutelage of a sportsman who took me hunting for grouse, woodcock, and duck. I watched him read the weather, the vegetation, and the fallen leaves for signs of game. In the off-season, he was also a birder. What he really enjoyed was being outdoors.
Hunters and birders, or more broadly sportsmen and conservationists, share a common desire to see wildlife flourish in nature. Many hunters I know, like my mentor, could teach birdwatchers a thing or two about nature and bird identification. But, these groups seldom mix. Birdwatchers tend to scowl at the idea of owning a gun, while some hunters can’t see why birders waste time on songbirds. The groups seem wary of one another, but historically both have been enormously effective in preserving natural habitat.
Hunters and birders should be bedfellows in ensuring the preservation of nature. Birders should appreciate that when hunters argue for habitat preservation, shooting a few woodcock each year is a good trade off against the loss of the shrubby wetlands woodcock inhabit.
I gave up hunting a number of years ago, but I still watch birds avidly. Birdwatching is increasingly popular in the US, but when it comes to decisions about habitat preservation, birders are often silent and ignored.
As I look at the declining statistics of hunter registrations, a loss of nearly 1% per year in New York State, I worry. We are losing the observational skills of good hunters, and we are losing some of the most vocal and effective advocates for habitat preservation.
Photo, taken on April 4, 2009, courtesy of USFWS Pacific via Flickr.