Hurricane Helene Couldn’t Stop Birds Using eBird

Last week, Hurricane Helene turned north in western North Carolina causing extensive damage, especially in the Asheville area and surrounding counties. Entire homes and businesses are flooded, some floating under the monstrous debris.

Amidst it all, some bird watchers—or “birders”—noticed something: People in some of the hardest-hit areas were continuing to log into the popular eBird app. As it turns out, some of the hardest-hit areas—especially Buncombe and Henderson Counties—have been hot birds for years. Less than a day after the storm, as many were still surveying the damage, the birders were back to document their findings.

Helene made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane in western Florida on September 26 before becoming a tropical storm as it moved north. When it hit Appalachia, rivers overflowed, and cities were flooded in valleys. Thousands of homes and businesses were destroyed. The death toll from this storm is over two hundred, which is expected to rise in the coming days as emergency services arrive in remote areas.

For bird lovers, the storm was very painful. None of them had power, cell service, or water in their homes. But they could go outside, try to take their mind off the tragedy happening around them, and see local and exotic birds in the area. When they finally found limited cell service—by traveling, or by satellite, or by temporary cell towers—posting their findings to eBird, which has more than 900,000 users worldwide, was almost natural.

Tambi Swiney has lived in Appalachia all his life, and the Asheville area for about two years. An ordained minister, Swiney works as a spiritual counselor—kind of like a health coach, but with a purely spiritual focus. He started birding five years ago because of his son, who had a budding interest.

“I am determined to download the eBird app and the Merlin app which helps you identify birds by sight and sound,” he said. “From then on, it was something that just became part of the regular rhythm of my life.”

FEMA and the National Guard were not fully on site until several days after the storm, he said. Before that, they had to rely on their neighbors. Another, who had a generator, says he opened it for people who needed to charge their phones or boil water.

Swiney began volunteering with his hometown First Baptist Church to distribute food and donated goods to a group in South Carolina. He says it has been difficult to accept the “difficulty” of the storm. Birds, he says, have been a source of relief. Even before the storm, he looked for birds in his yard every day.

“It’s been a relief for me to have moments where I can just look out the window at the bird feeder, hang out on my porch, and see the birds coming up,” said Swiney. “Bring peace and comfort in the midst of this storm.”

Normally, at this time of year, Swiney would travel to hot spots to look for migrating hawks, which come in by the thousands as they fly south. Currently, the road to this area is closed, so it is only possible to drive the birds on foot.

Swiney was unable to post his findings to eBird until Verizon set up a temporary cell tower in Asheville. He didn’t look closely at what others were posting, but says it has always been a community resource. He meets people at popular fishing spots who see his name on the app. Once, it was a woman who helped him find a baby with a golden crown. Coincidentally, the woman had met Swiney’s son a few weeks earlier at a nearby lake.