Demography is Destiny: Yolo County Birders Past and Present
In my time as a birder–roughly the last sixty years—-I have seen three notable and delightful changes in the face of birding and of birders themselves. There are far more birders now. There are more younger birders. And more girls and women serve as leaders in the birding community.
First, the popularity of birding has exploded by almost any measure. In the 1960’s there were two Christmas Bird Counts in the Sacramento Valley. Now there are sixteen and counting. Locally, the Woodland-Davis count is just three years old. And there are ever more participants – more than one hundred for the most recent Putah Creek count. The Yolo birding chat group on my smartphone, recently created, has 161 members. In its twenty-five year history, the Central Valley Bird Club has mushroomed. As a volunteer organization dedicated to birds and birding, it publishes a journal for technical papers, hosts a symposium each fall in Stockton, and maintains a listserv to post sightings. The listserv has 1275 members.
UC Davis Birdwatching Club | Photo by Zane Pickus
Secondly, there are far more young birders now. When I was in high school, birders my age were about as rare as redpolls in this valley, except in Sacramento itself. Even in the big city, young birders were very few. Now they are numerous enough as to be organized. Davis High School has a birding club with 20-25 members. Kayla Peng is the president, reachable at here. Sacramento Audubon sponsors a recently formed Sacramento Valley Young Birders group for ages 11-18. The organizer is an energetic teen, Mackenzie Hollender, and she and the group can be reached at here. Their ambitious field trip schedule is posted on the Sac Audubon website. Their January trip to the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area drew eighteen participants. Yolo Bird Alliance’s own Zane Pickus heads the UC Davis Birdwatching Club. Founded just a few years ago, it has 250-plus members every year. Contact the Club here.
Finally, more women and girls play lead roles in birding than ever before. They are Christmas Bird Count organizers, chapter presidents, Central Valley Bird Club officers, and career scientists. One exception, though, is among professional birding guides. Yolo Bird Alliance board member Lynette Williams Duman notes that only about one in ten guides is a woman, and offers some possible reasons. Women more often stay home with the family while men travel. In many places, on the street or in the field, women risk sexual harassment or worse. And in finding jobs in this competitive occupation, men can be more aggressive in a way that puts women off. We have come a long way, but still have some road to travel in the evolution of the birding community.
–Michael Perrone, Conservation Chair