As seen in USA Today
                     By Gene Sloan
                     Friday, August 21, 1998

    Things are looking up for bird-watching, a pastime that, if you believe the aficionados, is the fastest-growing recreational activity in the USA. Already, more than 17 million people a year are flocking to birding sites, says ornithologist Dick Hutto, new host of PBS’ series BirdWatch. Hutto says the hobby has taken off, in part, because busy travelers have found that it can be done just about anywhere they go. Still, there are some places that are so spectacular they’re worth a trip of their own. Here Hutto share his picks.

1.Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge, Sanibel Island,Fla.
    This is one site where you can leave your binoculars at  home. The watery refuge is filled with large numbers of  long-legged wading birds, and Hutto says they have little fear, so visitors can “get very good looks.” Herons, egrets,  ibises and spoonbills are all in abundance year-round. One
of the best ways to see them is from a kayak, available for rent. “It’s a different sort of bird-watching experience.”

2.Monterey Bay, California
    Thousands of sea birds such as shearwaters, petrels, jaegers, gulls and auklets, cruise the waters off the California  coast here looking for fish. Bird-watching boat trips are common. “Sea bird-watching is a really different experience  from land bird-watching,” Hutto says. “The birds are kind of far away, so you’re not looking at close details. You pick  up on the way they move, how they dive, how they beat  their wings. It teaches you to look at more than their color and markings.”

3.Cape May, New Jersey
    Flocks of raptors, shorebirds and songbirds (especially each fall and spring as they migrate up and down the coast.  the thousands. “All the birds from the Northeast and Canada coming down the coast get funneled onto this little spit of land,” Hutto says. “They pile in huge numbers before
gritting their beaks and flying south.”

4.Patagonia, Arizona
    Lush vegetation has sprung up here, smack in the middle of the Saguaro-filled Sonoran Desert, creating an oasis for all sorts of species. Migratory songbirds such as Wilson’s warbler and summer tanager mingle with year-round residents such as the brilliantly red vermilion flycatchers and gray hawks (found more commonly in Mexico). Hutto says that more than a dozen species of hummingbirds also pass through during spring. “The juxtaposition of desert and cottonwood oasis provides for a rich experience.”

5.Grand Teton and Yellowstone national parks, Montana/Wyoming
    Many people think the terrible fires of 1988 destroyed Yellowstone and its environs. But it was a bonanza for bird-watchers, Hutto says. They population of black-backed woodpeckers, Clark’s nutcrackers and mountain bluebirds has exploded since the flames because food sources such as beetles arrived to devour fire-killed trees. “Vast habitats for species were created.” The region’s also home for stately trumpeter swans and great gray owls.

6.Santa Ana/Laguna Atascosa national wildlife refuges, Texas
    Competitive birders flock to this region near Brownsville in southern-most Texas for the Great Texas Birding Classic every spring, and winners often see nearly 300 species. But Hutto says even amateurs can’t miss the large numbers of green jay, ringed kingfisher, plain chachalaca and
landbirds, such as hooded warblers and wood thrushes, also migrate through here each fall and spring. Hummingbirds, too, are abundant. Because of the warm weather, “it’s an early bird-watching opportunity.”

7.Central Park, New York City, New York
    In the midst of one of the most paved-over places on Earth, birds are not only surviving, they’re thriving, Hutto says. “It’s a refuge in a sea of concrete. It makes you think about what it is that we’re trying to achieve here on Earth.” Songbirds migrate through in the spring, but the park offers something to see year-round. It’s even drawn a “birding underground” of hard-core birders who keep track of sightings in a bird register at the park’s boathouse. Look for the red-tailed hawks, which have taken up residence atop a Fifth Avenue skyscraper.

8.Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, California
    Even if you’ve never been anywhere near the Santa Monica Mountains, you already are familiar with the sounds of its birds. It’s the background noise heard in all those classic western and World War II films, which Hollywood made in the region, Hutto says. “You hear all these birds in those
movies. Here’s a chance to actually see them.” The area’s scrubby chaparral vegetation is home year-round to the wrentit, California thrasher, California quail and spotted towhee.

9.Platte River, Nebraska
    Not for fall, but each March, more than 500,000 sandhill cranes converge along an 80-mile stretch of the river in what’s considered one of the birding world’s most awe-inspiring spectacles. The birds linger about five weeks, joined by about 10 million ducks and geese that use the Platte and the neighboring Rainwater Basin wetlands. “It’s something that has to be experienced firsthand to be appreciated.” There’s even a crane home page on the Web (ngp.ngpc.state.ne.us/wildlife/cranes/menu.htm).

10.Pawnee National Grassland, Colorado
    The McCown’s longspur, which nests in the grasslands, puts on great aerial displays here that are particularly vivid at sunset in early summer, Hutto says. The bird is tiny but has rich rust, black and white patches, visible as it darts up and around from the ground. “When you get the light just right, with a dark, storm-filled sky in the background, it leaves you in awe.” This is also a good place to see chicken-like sharp-tailed grouse and sage grouse in early spring.