Young bird-lover wants to educate people on species


It's a preoccupation he likely doesn't share with many other men his age: 20-yearold Ryan Cathers is obsessed with birds.

Young bird-lover wants to educate people on species


An aspiring biologist, Cathers is not satisfied with merely organizing Nanaimo's yearly Christmas bird count for the second year running.

He has now embarked on a 'big count': a sort of bird-lover rite of passage, in which a list is amassed of as many species one can count in a calendar year.

His count is already at 52, and he hopes to crack the 200 mark by December of this year. The project is partly a matter of personal interest, but also part of his drive to educate people about how many species exist in the environment around us, and how fragile the existence of those species can be.

The thing about birds, says Cathers, is that you never stop learning new things about them.

"There's never really an end to it, no matter how much you do, there's never an end," says Cathers.

"You can bird all your life and there's no way you will see even half the species in the world."

Christmas bird counts were started in Canada at least 100 years ago, at least in part due to the efforts of ornithologist Frank Chapman, a member of the newly-formed Audubon Society. Concern about declining bird populations, many of whom were killed in traditional Christmas Day hunting expeditions, led him to call for an annual count in 1900.

The tradition has continued around the world ever since. Most of bird observation is actually done by song, says Cathers, listening for the distinctive calls of various species. Bird calls are a complex form of communication for birds, he says.

However, at the bird count this year, he says he was "shocked" at how unusually quiet the forest was.

"You should walk into the forest and hear lots of birds singing. There's the kinglets and creepers up in the trees singing away, the song sparrows and bewicks and pacific wrens singing around in the underbrush," says Cathers.

"Normally you can walk into a good chunk of wood and it's just alive with sounds, but it's just been very quiet."

He thinks part of the problem is the diminishing old-growth forest habitiat. Brown creepers, golden and ruby-crowned kinglets and red-breasted nuthatches seem to all be experiencing a decline locally.

Cathers' love of the outdoors and the behaviour of animals began as a child. He grew up in Nanaimo, and camped often with his parents. His interest in birds simply grew out of a strong curiosity about the natural world.

"You know, we see birds, bears, deer, squirrels - for just flashes, so there's always been a curiosity: what else is going on in their lives?" says Cathers.

This curiosity translated into a later fascination with the migratory patterns of birds. Some birds fly for days without stopping, he says, looking animated. Some fly from here to Ecuador, Peru, Brazil; across the Gulf of Mexico, from tropical rainforests to the arctic region, just to avoid predators and raise their young.

Cathers works at the Backyard Bird and Wildlife store while he completes the third year of a biology degree at VIU.

"We have people who come in and say that for the past eight years they've had swallows show up in their yard on exactly the same day, every single year," he says. "Not same week, same month - the same day."

It is these specific and complex migratory patterns he wants to study, and his next project, set to start in February, is to conduct field research on the local habitat distribution of barred owls.

JChadwick@nanaimodailynews.com 250-729-4238


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