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Last edited: 8/23/07

Importance of "Amateurs" to Ornithology

 

From my earliest years living on Fort Hill State Memorial in southern Ohio and tagging along on nature walks, I’ve always recognized how a bird watcher can contribute to the science of ornithology. Dr. Ed Thomas, a professional and one of Ohio’s premier naturalists, and his wife Marion, a “simple” bird watcher, led spring and fall nature hikes at Fort Hill. I thought Ed to be stiff and too formal, but Marion, oh how I vividly remember her wonderful identification skills (showing me my first “Sycamore” Warbler near my favorite fishing hole), her meticulous field note taking, and her descriptions of supporting nature organizations, gathering and sharing her data, and giving bird programs and writing bird articles.

Many years later while studying for my Ph.D. at Cornell University, I watched how bird watchers from every walk of life mixed with graduate students and professors at the weekly ornithology seminars at Sapsucker Woods and usually reported more sightings during the weekly reading of the checklist for the Cayuga Lake Basin. This same mixture of bird lovers also participated together on Ithaca’s January 1 Christmas Bird Count.

However, it was not until I read the essay, The Amateur in Ornithology by Howard Mayfield, of Kirtland’s Warbler and Sandhill Crane fame, in the January 1979 issue of The Auk, that the real impact of this concept hit me. Mayfield’s statement, “No branch of biology has felt the hand of the amateur like ornithology,” is simple but profound. Mayfield’s essay moved me to deliver a paper at the 1979 WSO convention on the topic, where I presented many examples of how amateurs can contribute significantly to our knowledge about birds.

From backyards to remote forests, these citizens represent the world’s largest research team, and much has been accomplished. Quoting from the Lab’s web site , “Results from citizen-science projects are being applied to bird conservation efforts. Citizen science also has led to the purchase of land that hosts breeding populations of several declining species. Findings from citizen-science projects are published in scientific and education journals and also are used to produce bird population management guidelines. At the same time, citizen scientists come to better understand the complete issues surrounding birds and conservation, making them effective stewards within their own communities.” Another valuable web site for “Citizen Science” projects is BirdSource .

My dream is that each and every WSO member becomes a Citizen Scientist in some way, whether it is through one of the Lab’s many programs, BirdSource, submitting field observations to the WSO (or submitting data through eBird ), or helping gather data for some other worthy bird project. I can assure you, there is a project available to appeal to every WSO member, from counting birds at your feeder, to driving and counting birds along the snow-covered back-roads on a Christmas Bird Count, to monitoring your bluebird house, to searching for Cerulean or Golden-winged Warblers in the woodlands of Wisconsin, there is some way that you can be a Citizen Scientist.

However, this dream is clouded by how key societal and economic trends are impacting and will impact the voluntary sector, including those that volunteer their time to being Citizen Scientists. These trends involve the aging population, the changing nature of households and families, increased level of educational qualifications and aspirations, and the growth of the digital and internet society. As a non-profit organization, the WSO must understand how these and other trends will impact today’s declining WSO membership, funding, competition for time, and WSO’s effectiveness as an organization. It is the responsibility of WSO’s Board of Directors to lead the organization, but all members can help. I urge you to become engaged, become an active Citizen Scientist, and be a spokesperson for bird conservation

Robert Putnam in his book (2000), Bowling Alone, documents how people born since the 1950s are less inclined to volunteer, vote, join associations, and play an active role in networks. He describes social capital as the basic fabric of our connections to one another and develops the conclusion that many more of us today are living off social capital and many fewer of us are replenishing it. Volunteering for organizations like the WSO and contributing your bird observations and data will help us build the social capital, or the social glue, that holds our society together.

It is fortunate that ornithology never drew a clear line between the amateur and professional. For as Jacob Bronowski in A Sense of the Future (1977) expressed: “Let no one tell you again that science is only for specialists; it is not. It is no different from history or good talk or reading a novel; some people do it better and some worse; some make a life’s work of it; but it is within the reach of everybody.” I ask all WSO members to become Citizen Scientists; every Citizen Scientist is making a difference!

Noel J. Cutright, WSO President