[BCNnet] Birding Clubs

[Donald R Dann]

There's little question in my mind of the value of birding clubs as
beneficial to birds.  How can anyone join a club's field trip and then
be insensitive about the importance of the habitats where the trips
take place?  What about a club's role in building ID skills, reporting
rarities, enhancing everyone's consciousness about birds, bird
conservation and bird habitat conservation, participating in Christmas
Bird Counts - a proven benefit to conservation for the past 100 years? 
How about clubs that consistently donate part of their funds to some
worthwhile conservation effort.  Evanston North Shore is an excellent
example. The list goes on and on.  

Here's a specific suggestion if you want your club to do more.  The
American Bird Conservancy (www.abcbirds.org) has a program called
Conservation Counterparts that has taken off with increasing popularity
throughout the country.  It targets small but very important
conservation projects in Latin America (where the bang for the buck is
so high), many for as little as a few thousand dollars.  A US club then
sponsors that project, in effect partnering with a on-the-ground effort
in the tropics.  Contact ABC to learn about some exciting programs.

Sure, we can all do more, but I for one feel very good about the role
birding clubs and the birding community plays in not just watching
birds, but indeed helping them.

Donald R. Dann
Highland Park/Lake County

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