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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
James Norman

‘Not the only birder in the village’: how citizen science is the bedrock of tackling species loss

Sean Dooley pictured, at age 11, birdwatching at 'Seaford swamp', a fresh water wetland in Melbourne's south-east
‘I was just going out as a kid doing what I loved but recording the birds I saw as I did,’ Sean Dooley says. He is pictured here, at age 11, birdwatching at 'Seaford swamp', a fresh water wetland in Melbourne's south-east. Photograph: Sean Dooley

Sean Dooley first started birdwatching as a 10-year-old with a notebook in hand at a place then known as the “Seaford swamp”, a freshwater wetland beside his primary school in Melbourne’s south-east.

“I was just going out as a kid doing what I loved but recording the birds I saw as I did,” he says. On one of his early visits he met another birdwatcher, Mike Carter, who had been recording birds there and also at nearby Edithvale swamp for some years.

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