When we look at the Chesapeake Bay, we see water. But the region’s avid bird watching population knows that to see some of the species that call the estuary home, you must look to the sky. And just as birds play a vital part in the bay’s ecosystem, bird watchers take an active role in its culture.

Yesterday, Pat Tate, president of the Anne Arundel Bird Club, wrote a column featured in the Annapolis Capital advocating bird watching as a “great opportunity for everyone, young and old, to connect with nature and enjoy wildlife all around the area.” The Chesapeake dominates the environmental landscape, providing welcoming habitats to hundreds of bird species in its 64,000 square mile watershed, so clubs such as this chapter of the Maryland Ornithological Society depend on it as a resource, a teaching tool, and the locale of many field trips and expeditions. So they work to protect their birds and the bay both, dedicating themselves “to the protection and conservation of bird life and other natural resources.”

Photo of a hunting osprey. Source: Tim Lenz

In the next two weeks, the bird-watching community will be abuzz because of the homecoming of the osprey, one of signature birds of region, after a winter in South America, according to recent Annapolis Capital article by Pamela Wood. The hobbyists celebrate ospreys, and not just because they are easily spotted. Like many bay-area birds, the ospreys had their population crippled by pesticides such as DDT. But after DDT was banned in 1970s, they rebounded, and now the Chesapeake area is home to largest known concentration of the sea hawks in the world, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service.

But though the birds signal success and pride for the bird watchers, the ospreys also show them what they still must fight to accomplish to protect their pastime. A U.S. Geological Survey study on the Chesapeake released in 2008 said that birds such as the osprey are still threatened by pollution, disease, climate change, overfishing and shoreline overdevelopment, which harm not only the health of the birds but also their food sources and habitats. As the Fish and Wildlife Service said, “The osprey’s high visibility and position at the top of the aquatic food chain make it a valuable indicator species for detecting future habitat destruction, dwindling fish populations, and contamination of the environment.”

Bird watchers must keep up the fight for the bay to keep their community intact.