Health benefits of being outdoors: Birdwatching

• Keira McGuire
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  Keira McGuire is a health reporter and multimedia producer for WITF. She hosts and produces Transforming Health television programs as well as other shows and documentaries for WITF’s Original Productions. McGuire produced the Emmy Award winning series HealthSmart for the last ten years. Keira previously worked at WBFF in Baltimore and WMDT in Salisbury as a reporter and anchor. She’s a graduate of Towson University.

Tucked between Interstate 81 and Route 322 in Harrisburg you’ll find Wildwood Park. Peggy and Rick Price call it a gem.

The Prices have been volunteering to lead bird walks through Wildwood Park for the past six or seven years. They know from personal experience what research has shown, that spending time outdoors lowers stress, blood pressure and heart rate while encouraging physical activity and improving mood and mental health.

“I had a lot of stressful years working and birding, and fishing too, was a source of relief for me,” Rick says.

Peggy says they’re always happy when someone new signs up for a bird walk.

“Once you’re out here and once you’re looking and you see something … I don’t know. It gives me a lot of pleasure and I hope it’ll give other people pleasure and make you feel part of nature and you’re not so stressed,” says Peggy.

Rick would advise anyone feeling stressed to escape into Wildwood Park.

“Oh, it’s a different world.  If you’re indoors you don’t hear all the sounds that you hear from nature. … One of the things about being outdoors is you become very observant about what’s happening around you,” says Rick.