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| 5630 Dunbar St. at 41st Ave. 604-684-4613 |
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Newsletter #9, December 9, 2000 |
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Having just spent a cool, but sunny December Sunday counting ducks and company in Vancouver's Stanley Park, I feel compelled to report on the Christmas Bird Count. The hobby of bird watching compares favourably with stamp or coin collecting. These passtimes are lifelong hobbies shared by passionate devotees. Birdwatchers essentially collect species seen or heard to add to their life lists. The Christmas Bird Count is a sort of one day a year bird watching Olympics, held in conjunction with the Audubon Society, in which birdwatchers compete in teams to see the most species in areas of their cities. Their cities can also compare numbers. For example, this year, Vancouver beat Victoria 140 species to 121. |
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Like collectibles enthusiasts, birdwatchers come from all walks of life. Some are professors, some hunters, some young, some not so young. Their shared interest brings them together. Yet, there are precious few birdwatchers involved in organized birding. Stamp and coin clubs and shows suffer from the same lack of support. There are thousands of collectors and birders in a city of Vancouver's size, but less than 100, maybe even less than half of that, support the annual bird count, or help organize the collecting events. This is a shame. I wonder how many collectors and birders do not realize what they are missing. How many rewarding friendships could grow from these shared interests? |
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Maybe more people do not want to get involved in clubs or societies. Maybe we prefer our hobbies to be elitist pseudo sciences. The birds need our help. Their numbers are declining too. Like stamp and coin collectors, birders travel to participate in hobby events. Many Christmas bird counters work on a number of counts in different communities. Like collectors, the more experienced birders are willing to share their expertise, teach less experienced enthusiasts, and pass the torch. Some birders have been covering the same territory for thirty years. Certainly hobbyists could work together to promote their interests to greater numbers of potential enthusiasts. |
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| We know clients who are bird aficionados and coin or stamp collectors. For many years, the British North America Philatelic Society has organized bird watching outings as part of its annual convention. Could the Vancouver Natural History Society benefit from a table at Coin or Stamp Shows? Maybe a few more birders would start thematic collections of stamps, coins, bank notes, or postcards depicting birds. Once a collector, always a collector. Perhaps a speaker on bird watching could address the local coin or stamp club and vice versa. Our hobbies are important. I suspect they keep some of us sane. Others could enjoy our hobbies. We need to come out from behind our magnifying glasses and binoculars and share our hobbies. | ||
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Newsletter #10: Collectophilia |
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5630 Dunbar St. at 41st Ave. Phone: 604-684-4613 Fax: 604-266-4515 e-mail: collect@direct.ca |
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