Happy New Year everyone! With each new year comes fresh starts, an opportunity to set and achieve new goals, create new habits, and a chance to grow and make personal improvements. We usually attempt this by making New Year’s Resolutions. Some we’re able to keep, some we only stick to for a short time, and some we give up on before we even get started!
Studies show that many of us have similar ideas of what our resolutions should look like. Some of the most common are to exercise more and get in shape, lose weight, learn something new, volunteer for a cause, or to travel to new destinations. We believe that being a member of Seabrook Island Birders might just be the answer to all of these!
Resolution #1 – Exercise more, get in shape, lose weight. We can help! Seabrook Island Birders holds several birding walks every month. While these probably don’t count as cardio, they will help you get up and moving outdoors in the fresh air, and will definitely help you achieve your steps goal for the day! Some of our walks are gentle, slow walks along even ground. And a few are more like hikes as they travel over uneven trails or longer distances. We have activities for all fitness levels, so it’s a great way to start your new fitness program, or a good way to add variety into your exercise routine.
Resolution #2 – Learn something new. This is exactly what our walks and activities are designed to do. In fact many of our events are titled “Learning Together”. Whether you’re learning how to identify a bird by sight or sound, learning about their habitat, courting, or nesting behavior, or just learning about the trees, flowers or fungi we see along the way, there’s always something new! The amount of knowledge in our group is amazing, and you’ll be surprised at just how much there is to know about our feathered friends!
Resolution #3 – Relax more/reduce Stress. Have you heard about Ornitherapy? Tuning in to nature benefits our mind, body, and soul. While there are plenty of books and courses online which show you exactly how to do this, many of our members find that just being outdoors with friends, taking part in the simple act of birding, helps restore our wellbeing.
Resolution #4 – Travel more. Depending on your definition of travel, we can help with this one too. We offer everything from local walks on Seabrook Island, to walks that are “beyond your backyard”. From right next door at Kiawah, over to Folly Beach, Charleston Harbor, or across the state. Birding, and birding activities, have become a popular sector of the tourism industry. Eco-tours are everywhere now, and adding a little birding to one of your bucket list destinations often take you to places off the beaten path, areas not commonly seen. And if you’re feeling adventurous, you can always go for a Big Year! That’s seeing as many species of birds in one calendar year as you can see. That takes you to most of our 50 states in 12 month! (You’re on your own for this one, but we’d love to hear about it!) If you haven’t seen the movie “The Big Year”, starring Steve Martin, Jack Black and Owen Wilson, check it out. This will give you a crash course on what a big year is all about, and some laughs too!
Resolution # 5 – Volunteer my time. If this is the year you’d like to give of your time, organizational and people skills, we have multiple volunteer positions available within Seabrook Island Birders. Our member committees always welcome fresh, smiling faces and new ideas! Perhaps one of the most impactful volunteer positions you can sign up for is right here on North Beach, at Seabrook Island. Each spring we have a need for Shorebird Stewards to meet and greet our beach walkers and guests, answer questions about our abundant shorebirds (think Red Knots!), and help provide educational insight into the critical needs of the shorebirds that choose Seabrook Island as their resting spot along a very lengthy migration path. It’s one of the easiest volunteer opportunities, and training is provided so you don’t need to know much about birds. If you enjoy being out on the beach, meeting and talking to other residents and visitors, then this is the opportunity for you! (And you set your own schedule!) More information will be released soon showing you how to become involved with our Shorebird Steward program.
So there you have it. Five resolutions, already off to a great start, just by joining Seabrook Island Birders. While we can’t make you stick to your resolutions long term, we can certainly provide the opportunities.
If you’re already a member, we look forward to seeing you again in 2024! If you haven’t joined yet, go to our website and check out either our Activities page or our Calendar. Find one that appeals to you, sign up, and we’ll see you soon!
Happy New Year everyone!!