Vacation Homes: Seeking Birds, Not Birdies

Publisher: The New York Times
Date: Friday, October 6, 2006

For many potential buyers interested in second homes in resort communities, it is no longer enough – and sometimes not even necessary or desirable – that the properties offer golf, tennis and a swimming pool. Many buyers these days want amenities to include outdoor pursuits that often involve naturalists and that are sometimes off the beaten track. In this, they are proving even more demanding than buyers of primary homes, many of whom now want jogging trails in their developments… The 3 Creek Ranch in Jackson, Wyo., offers raptor rehabilitation and songbird banding.

…just as at camp, the day sometimes begins very, very early. Just ask Roger Smith, the resident naturalist at the 710-acre 3 Creek Ranch (www.3creekranch-jh.com) who from 4 to 5:30 a.m. several days on late fall and winter presides over Season of the Swans, a remarkable gathering of about 50 trumpeter swans and, usually, a dozen or so hearty souls from among owners of the 136 home sites on the property. (There are 45 single-family houses under construction.)

"At that time of day, it’s about 5 degrees, the sky is crystal clear, and because the pond is warmer than the air, fog enshrouds the swans," said Mr. Smith, a research biologist by training who sits quietly 150 feet from the pond with his dozen observers as they look through spotting scopes. "Conditions have to be just right for the swans to be here. They don’t congregate in the winter in any other part of the world, but they want to be in this ecosystem."

Often, he said, after residents have been part of a swan observation morning, "they come again and bring a friend and pass on their newfound knowledge."

Mr. Smith said that the outdoor-pursuits programs he set up in 2003 – including a songbird-banding program to determine the breeding habits of these migratory creatures and a program to help with the medical care of injured birds of prey – have grown increasingly popular.

"There are men," Mr. Smith said, "who start off by saying: 'Arboreal toads? Hey, buddy, my tee-off time is in half an hour,' who then say, 'Oh, when are you going out again to look for the toad eggs, because I want to come.' Now, around Christmas, I get e-mails from women wanting to buy binoculars for their husbands. In my mind, that is why they bought property here."