By Julia Boyle
THE ERICKSON TRIBUNE
According to Richard Louv, author of critically acclaimed Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder, nature enthusiasts are quickly fading in today’s fast-paced, high-tech society, especially among children.
In fact, according to the U.S. Department of the Interior’s National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife, the number of Americans who participate in traditional forms of recreational outdoor activities decreased by ten million from 1991 to 2001.
Yet Louv sees hope in one well-known outdoor pastime—birding.
The new old hobby
He cites reports in World Watch and Birding magazines, which say that while birding has always been a traditional hobby, it is now the fastest-growing branch of outdoor wildlife-watching.
Here in North Jersey, the vast variety of habitats makes for excellent birding in addition to one unique advantage: “New Jersey is on the flyway from the north all the way down to Florida,” says longtime birder Dottie Way and leader of Cedar Crest’s bird-watching club. “They travel through our whole area so we get to see all the migratory birds.”
Outdoor classroom
Way, who has traveled North and South America in search of rare birds, now enjoys watching the colorful array that visit the areas surrounding Cedar Crest, where she lives. “We have quite a variety of habitats all around us so we can see a number of birds,” she says.
With a surrounding forest, a nature preserve, a pond, and nearby Mountainside Park, Way and her bird club cohort see everything from robins and blue birds to blue throated warblers and sparrows, and even a rarely seen snowy owl.