Bird-watching is growing in the state.
In terms of 2001 bird-watching participants aged 16 and older, Maine tied for fourth in the nation.
Maine had 36 percent, tied with Washington and Minnesota.
The data was the first of its kind, just released from the Interior Department’s U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Montana, Vermont and Wisconsin, in that order, are the top three states with respective rankings of 44 percent, 43 percent and 41 percent. The nation’s average was 22 percent.
This analytical view of birding came as a surprise to Nathaniel Bowditch.
Bowditch, assistant director of the Maine Office of Tourism, was especially thrilled to learn that 46 million birdwatchers across America spent $32 billion in 2001 pursuing one of the nation’s most popular outdoor activities, according to the report.
“Bird-watching has been one of the things that’s growing in popularity and economic impact numbers, but we never had the wherewithal to pursue it,” Bowditch said Friday.
“But now we’re ready to start and hop on the bandwagon and get our share,” he added.
Bowditch said he was surprised to learn that Maine ranked fourth in the nation in bird-watching participation because the state hasn’t really marketed this aspect of tourism. Until now.
“Bird-watching attracts a finite segment of the population, and it does generate a fair amount of revenue. So now we’re reacting to what’s going on in other states. We hear what’s going on in Texas and Cape May, N.J., with bird-watching, and now is definitely Maine’s opportunity to shine,” Bowditch said.
Judy Walker, staff naturalist at Maine Audubon in Falmouth, agreed.
Walker said Maine Audubon and its seven in-state chapters average several hundred field trips a year, with 80 percent being bird oriented.
“We’re doing more trips now than we used to have and each time we come close to selling out or selling out entirely,” Walker said. “In the spring, during a three-week period, every single day is just for birding.”
Since the advent of e-mail, Walker said the Falmouth office gets inundated with requests about what kinds of birds people can expect to see when they come to Maine and where they can view them.
Many of the people who come to Maine for bird-watching want to view unusual warblers, and state specialties like puffins, spruce grouse, black-backed woodpeckers, boreal chickadees, gray jays, Bicknell’s thrush, loons, eagles, peregrine falcons, Barrow’s goldeneye, king eiders, and Harlequin ducks.
“And owls, any kind of owls, but especially snowy owls. They want to know where the best place to go hawk watching is and when to go,” she said.
But what people look for, changes from season to season. In the winter, popular choices are ducks, owls and winter finches. In the spring, waterfowl and migrating birds are tops. But winter is Walker’s favorite season for bird-watching.
“There is fantastic birding in Maine in the winter. We have a lot of winter waterfowl that stays put unlike the little, flighty birds. In the winter, birds are starting their courtship displays early, there’s no bugs and not a whole lot of traffic,” she said.
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