Some birders today insist that birding as an active pastime is "new" or that it is breaking new ground. Of course, with 17.8 millions adult American leaving their homes every year to watch birds, there is certainly some new discoveries made all the time, but the birding traditions are long-held and continuing to accumulate. You can't get to points D, E,and F, unless you've already gone through experiences A, B, and C!

To help illustrate that reality, below is a short historic timeline for American birding, a list of highlights basically for the 20th century, assembled for this issue of GBP (. Many of the dates refer to key books published about birds and birding, but other vital experiential mile-markers for birding are raised.

Go to: http://www.greatbirdingprojects.com/

The list is not intended to cover bird conservation, although the timeline does touch on a couple of outstanding conservation issues, but basically covers the growth of our birding recreational experience, mostly over the last century.

1896 Harriet Hemenway and Mina Hall decide to launch a feather boycott.
1900 Frank M. Chapman runs the first Christmas Bird Count.
1905 Chester Reed bird guide to Eastern Birds is published.
National Association of Audubon Societies incorporated.
1906 Reed's Water Bird guide appears.
1910 Junior Audubon classes begin.
1934 After multiple rejections, Roger Tory Peterson gets his Field Guide to the Birdspublished.
Rosalie Edge buys Hawk Mountain, establishes Hawk Mountain Association two years later.
1936 Hog Island established as a summer Audubon camp.
1940 Ira N. Gabrielson, dedicated birder, becomes the first head of the Fish and Wildlife Service.
1941 Roger Tory Peterson has his first Western Guide published.
1946 First Richard Pough guide (Audubon Land Bird Guide), illustrated by Don Eckleberry, appears.
1948 Roger Tory Peterson writes Birds Over America.
1951 Olin Sewall Pettingill has published his Bird-finding East of the Mississippi.
Pough's Audubon Water Bird Guide appears.
Arthur A. Allen has published Stalking Birds with Color Camera.
1953 Pettingill's next book appears, Bird-finding West of the Mississippi.
Peterson and Fisher take off on their big year and Wild America appears in 1955.
1954 First telephone Rare Bird Alert (RBA) established in Boston.
1957 Western Pough guide pubished (all three guides sold over 1 million copies).
1961 Finding Birds in South Florida, by Ira Joel Abramson appears; it is the first modern local birdfinding guide.
1963 Ira N. Gabrielson has biggest North American lifelist (669), Peterson is #2 (638).
1965 The first Lane Guide by Jim Lane published. It was for southeast Arizona.
1966 The Golden Guide Birds of North America by Chan Robbins, Bertel Bruun, Herbert S. Zim and illustrated by Arthur Singer is published.
1969 American Birding Associated founded.
1973 Kenn Kaufman takes off on his "big year" (book published in 1997).
1975 Ross's Gull in found in Newburyport, Massachusetts, with media coverage in The New York Times and NBC Nightly News.
1978 Bird Watcher's Digest started by Thompson family.
1981 Wild birds Unlimited begins out of Indianapolis, Indiana.
1983 First National Geographic Guide to the Birds of North America released.
1984 The first World Series of Birding is launched out of Cape May. New Jersey.
1985 Recorded RBAs reach 52 in number across 29 states and one province in Canada.
Wild Bird Centers of America starts out of Cabin John, Maryland.
1986 Birder's World launched (followed soon thereafter by WildBird).
1988 First Festival of the Cranes at Bosque del Apache NWR takes place . (See 1994.)
1990 E-mail subscription lists, birding listservs, start to spread. Originally begun as computer bulletin boards and ways to post telephone RBA transcripts, they grow as versatile instruments of information sharing.
1993 The first birding trail begins, The Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail.
binoculars-green-icon.jpg1994 The first Rio Grande Birding Festival is launched out of Harlingen, Texas. Not the first festival, of course, it still becomes emblematic of the larger, successful, and long-term festivals.(Also see 1988.)
2000 The Sibley Guide to Birds, by David A. Sibley, is published.

Stopping this timeline at 2000, with the start of the 21st century, seemed to be a good idea. Obviously, birding is not new, but it actually builds on a set of accumulated experiences over a century old.