Birding is punk

Tamir Gray had been skeptical when his girlfriend invited him along to bird-watch one weekend last spring He figured it would be boring Gray was still in university and had been living according to the maxim that time outside was best spent being developing Still Gray went with her to Central Park which is a bird-watching hub due to its size and combination of woodlands open spaces and bodies of water His girlfriend who d started birding a minimal months prior had a pair of binoculars and shortly after they set out something came over Gray I don t know what exactly it was but I just the entire time that we were there I was like I want to hold the binoculars he mentioned Gray became a birder overnight and has been frequenting Tompkins Square Park during migration seasons ever since Early on weekend mornings Gray and a insufficient other regulars are out in the park listening for birdsong before it s overpowered by the thrum of trucks and music gazing up at the branches before much of the East Village wakes Related With age comes birds Notes on time awareness and watching for wings Tompkins Square Park is minuscule and less popular for birding compared to the -acre Central Park but it s convenient and perfectly sufficient for Gray who isn t inevitably vying for the rarest bird I invariably have more fun when I just am able to appreciate whatever it is that I see than when I m looking for one bird in particular Gray mentioned In Tompkins this spring he saw a variety of warblers various Northern Parulas and a pair of Red-tailed Hawks that mate in the park Gray s unexpected plunge into the world of birding is becoming more common In the past scarce years young people and not necessarily birdy or nerdy ones have taken to the parks of New York City to catch a glimpse of the birds The bulk of them like Gray never saw this hobby coming For more than years Robert DeCandido has been leading bird walks in Central Park where he s better known as Birding Bob When DeCandido started out those birding were generally little old ladies in tennis shoes he declared Since then DeCandido has watched that demographic diversify notably over the past five years during and after the pandemic as birds beckoned people outside for a safe pastime of watching tracking logging and photographing their feathery swag In the past limited years young people and not necessarily birdy or nerdy ones have taken to the parks of New York City to catch a glimpse of the birds A National Survey of Fishing Hunting and Wildlife-Associated Recreation from the U S Fish and Wildlife Operation disclosed that there are million bird-watchers in the United States more than twice as numerous as in Tod Winston Urban Biodiversity Specialist and Birding Guide at NYC Bird Alliance stated that he s enjoyed watching the local birding population change in the last decade as he noted that his organization strives to be a welcome place for every sort and age of birder Winston also cited COVID- as a factor in the demographic shift During the pandemic plenty of New Yorkers discovered surprising and beautiful birds right in their local parks and backyards and this group of new birders included a large number of younger folks who might not normally have had the opportunity or motivation to stop and experience nature he revealed Emily Kozadinos from Queens first became interested in birding in the summer after she d graduated high school She was working as a lifeguard for the National Park Institution in Sandy Hook New Jersey Her interest in birds started innocently enough with rainy days and a deserted beach where she had nothing to do but look out at the crop of shore birds which included Sanderlings American Oyster Catchers and seagulls Once a friend a fellow lifeguard presented up with her bird guide and they started identifying birds together Kozadinos was invested Start your day with essential news from Salon Sign up for our free morning newsletter Crash Class I was never anti-bird Kozadinos revealed but she hadn t exactly foreseen her interest in birding It was honestly very surprising Summer ended and Kozadinos returned to Queens bought her own copy of a North American bird guide and got birding She started by going to the beach at Hallet s Cove in Astoria where she spotted mallard ducks geese and eventually a swan then she moved to Central Park where she saw what seemed like an infinite number of different species It makes me really happy hearing and seeing birds I ve never seen before Kozadinos reported Kind of like collecting Pok mon except instead of collecting Pok mon I m tabbing birds in my guide book Jahlel Victor is a college apprentice from Brooklyn who got into birding and bird photography after trying and failing to get a shot of a particularly photogenic bird during a trip to Yellowstone National Park last year he also saw a connection between birding and his childhood interest in Pok mon I enjoy the chase he announced Victor whose go-to area for birding is the Ramble a large woodland area in Central Park posited that birding is especially accessible in New York City somewhat ironically because of the limited green space For birds the city is like a quaint one-horse town When it s Saturday night migration season there are only so multiple places to go Winston from the NYC Bird Alliance made a similar point saying that birding in New York City is particularly fruitful as millions of migrating birds of specific different species funnel into the city s green spaces including small neighborhood parks We are doing something that s like quasi-pagan we re gathering together outside and we re paying reverence to the natural world Even so Michael Lombardo who started birding in while living in San Francisco and moved to Brooklyn in was surprised at how a multitude of birds he was seeing when he started frequenting McGolrick Park a small park in Greenpoint Lombardo began leading bird walks the weekend after quitting his tech job in and soon formed the McGolrick Bird Club with a vibe shift in mind Lombardo announced that he hadn t set out to create a younger bird club necessarily just a less birdy bird club He noted that he knew of several local birding groups with young people but in his opinion they tended to attract those with a high and somewhat unrelatable fervor for birds Still the club and its online presence are recognizably young full of timely puns bat summer anyone and of the Ella Emhoff moment see waitlist for crocheted balaclavas I want to dress birding up in its preponderance regal plumage and I want people to understand that birding can be for them Lombardo explained Lombardo truly believes that birding is what people are meant to be doing In my aspirationally poetic moments I call it a festival of noticing he announced We are doing something that s like quasi-pagan we re gathering together outside and we re paying reverence to the natural world We need your help to stay independent Subscribe currently to encouragement Salon s progressive journalism Lombardo likes to say that birding is punk as a joke but one that he believes in fully The dominant practices is so screen-obsessed and superficial and into virtual realities and numbing out and chasing likes or chasing this Birding is a practice where you are just sitting with your body in the real world that is punk as f k Lombardo declared So that s the vitality that I try to capture Max St John a comedian based in Brooklyn was pleasantly surprised when he had inadvertently inspired people to try birding He posted a series of short-form videos on social media in which he recounted viewers to come with me as a -year-old hungover bird-watcher in New York St John went birding for the first time last year in Prospect Park In St John s second video he narrates It s cold this morning but it feels refreshing because a m Taco Bell made me sweat all night He zooms in on a branch What do you think Red-winged Blackbird Like several other birders St John feels excited when he sees a species he s never seen before and appreciates being more attuned to his surroundings that is majority of of the time This is kind of a joke St John started saying that one shouldn t start birding unless they re ready to think about birds like a lot I sometimes find it hard to enjoy a park hang with friends because I m hearing an oriole up above So in a way it s almost become debilitating and distracting St John was unique in suggesting that an interest in birds could become debilitating but Gray and others also noted how their everyday lives have changed since getting into bird-watching It makes me see the city in a different way Gray reported he s grown to appreciate how a place like New York City is an crucial milieu for wildlife All you need to do is go outside and look around It helps to have binoculars but you don t need binoculars to appreciate the birds around you Read more about birds and birding Lili Taylor s Turning to Birds champions the little things and warns of Terminator Sparrows Every Little Thing captures the fierce grace of hummingbirds and their heroic healer Pigeons seem to dream of flying A new assessment unlocks tantalizing secrets about the minds of birds The post Birding is punk appeared first on Salon com