Birding as a sport

Many people would not consider birding a sport. Many others would argue otherwise. My father sent me an article published in the Houston Chronicle on January 1, 2011 about discovering the joys of birding in 2011. The article was written by Gary Clark with photographs by his wife Kathy Adams Clark. I found it interesting because it discusses birding in a manner that made me think of both the physical and mental benefits of birding as a hobby.

Birding requires that you go outside. You generally need to visit a wooded area to look for birds. Hiking trails are a wonderful location to find them. Once you are on location, you spend time looking, listening and learning. Spotting a bird is not always an easy task. It takes practice to find birds amongst the trees. Once you start looking for them you will find that your skills improve with time spent in the woods. Listening for a bird's song is another way to determine which birds are in the woods with you. Learning the bird's song and identifying new species you encounter benefits you mentally.

Granted, your bird walks are not going to be considered aerobic activity, but it is time spent outdoors. It is time spent in nature. It is time well-spent.

Note:

We were fortunate earlier this month to spend some time with a veteran birder. He has given us a variety of hints on improving our birding information to make it easier for birders to access all of our information. We are working on updates to the format of the bird list as well as changing our birding gallery to the birds' common names. We will let you know when we have updated this information.

Gary Clark writes nature articles for the Houston Chronicle and the San Antonio Express News several times a month. This particular article was not published online to date so I am unable to link to it.