There's good news for the more than 50-million people in North America who willingly spend hours with binoculars pressed to their eyebrows looking skyward to call out the identity of a double-crested cormorant or a peregrine falcon, or who tramp through forest and field to spot the difference between a spotted owl and its great-horned cousin.
Reader's Digest Books has recently released a volume titled, Where the Birds Are (288 pages, 400-plus photos and illustrations, $28.95 in hardcover).
Its subtitle, A Travel Guide to over 1,000 Parks, Preserves and Sanctuaries, says it all.
This field guide/vacation planner can direct you to places across the continent where you can spot more than 500 distinctive bird species, either local varieties or those stopping over during seasonal migration.
It's organized into 35 driving tours to wildlife havens across four regions from the Hawaiian Islands to the Florida Everglades.
Forty detailed maps from the website Mapquest lead you to each site marked with a red line showing the route and red dots to mark each stop. The printed copy lists the exact mileage to every point or turn onto another highway.
Natural areas noted on the maps range from national and state forests to national parks and monuments, wild-life refuges and state recreation areas. Each listing provides the address, telephone number, website, hours the site is open and whether special permits are required.
The routes are designed for day trips that can be spaced over several seasons or on several-day outings. Site selection favours those that enhance the bird-watching experience with nature centres, boardwalks, viewing towers, tours, trails, canoe paths or blinds.
An example is Santa Fe to Albuquerque.
The chart of the 120-mile route though New Mexico actually begins at Storrie Lake State Park four miles outside of Las Vegas, N.M., an area that hosts fall and spring migrations of geese and ducks.
The nearby Las Vegas National Wildlife Reserve offers grassland meadows, streams, canyons, ponds, tilled fields, and marshes as feeding and breeding grounds for many species.
The route south and west, through Santa Fe, includes a side trip out to Bandelier National Monument, where three-toed woodpeckers may be spotted. You can pick up a list of area birds at the Randall Davey Audubon Center just outside Santa Fe. Albuquerque offers a dozen or so sites that include taking the Sandia Peak Tramway to the summit to spot dark-eyed juncos, white-throated swifts, and red-naped sapsuckers, among others.
For the newcomer to bird watching, the book offers key bits of advice.
For example, begin by listening to the sounds of the birds you're watching, and then be alert for songs that don't fit the pattern. Your bird-watching experience will become one both of seeing and hearing.
Park your car out of traffic or other hazards in a refuge area and use the vehicle as a blind.
Take advantage of observation towers, and ranger-guided tours.
Use a boat that travels silently, like a canoe, kayak or one with an electric trolling motor, to glide along waterways to spot wading birds and other fowl.
When photography blinds are available, try to reserve one ahead of time and plan to be in position before dawn or at dusk, when birds are most active.
Suggested equipment includes binoculars and an image-stabilization device (usually a tripod) and large-diameter lenses with anti-reflective coatings. Angle spotting-scopes are more comfortable than the straight-line models by allowing high magnification viewing on a tripod with less strain on your neck and when bending down. If you plan to hand-hold your binoculars, they should be not more than 10X magnification to eliminate movement.
Use a film or digital camera with a moderate telephoto zoom lens, such as a 90 mm to 200 mm on a 35 mm model. And take a bird field-guide.
