As 2019 is coming to an end on Tuesday evening, there are still quite a number of people reviewing their resolution lists for 2020. While weight loss is most likely the frontrunner, more and more folks are adding recreational hobbies to these goals, ranging from learning to paint to mastering a foreign language. And an increasing number of them are writing down their desire to take up birdwatching.
The facts seem to bear this out as you look at the ever-growing population of birders, with almost 41 million admitting they have observed wild birds around their homes. Adding to this is the extraordinary related businesses that support those participating, which last year came in at $41 billion in product sales and services.
But as Bettye Maki, president of the Talbot Bird Club, notes in her Spy interview from a few weeks ago, this surge is just one indication of how addictively fun it can be for people of all ages. Now retired on the Eastern Shore after a career in medical technology, Bettye finally has found the time and the unique environment of the Eastern Shore to develop this newly found passion herself.
Maki also makes it clear that a love of birds goes beyond the lens of binoculars; three billion birds have been lost in North America since 1970.
That sobering fact has made Bettye and the Talbot Bird Club begin working with their parent organization, Maryland Ornithological Society, to help with critical research to slow down this dramatic rate of loss.
This video is approximately three minutes in length. For more information about the Talbot Bird Club please go here.
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