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Couple offers birdwatching on a budget

Jim and Cindy Beckman’s new business takes bird lovers around the globe.

Contributed photo Jim and Cindy Beckman, avid birdwatchers, hatched the idea this year for Cheepers! Birding on a Budget.

ENLARGE PHOTO

As Sugarcreek Twp. police officer Gabe Plummer's band Sold the World plays (below) at Fairborn Baker Middle School, students (above) sway to the music during the kick-off of a new drug prevention program called, The Guide for eighth-graders.

Jim Witmer/Staff Photo As Sugarcreek Twp. police officer Gabe Plummer's band Sold the World plays (below) at Fairborn Baker Middle School, students (above) sway to the music during the kick-off of a new drug prevention program called, The Guide for eighth-graders.

ENLARGE PHOTO

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By Sue Moning, Contributing Writer 4:11 PM Wednesday, October 14, 2009

SPRING VALLEY — Jim and Cindy Beckman, avid bird watchers, hatched the idea this year for Cheepers! Birding on a Budget, for people interested in international travel to some of the world’s most exotic birdwatching locations.

“To start a business like this in the middle of the worst recession in our lifetime was risky,” Cindy said, but they are pleased so far.

The Spring Valley couple has monthly trips planned for early 2010, including treks to Panama, Ecuador and Belize. The February and March trips to Belize and Ecuador are sold out, but slots are available for the January and April trips to Panama, they said. In the planning stages are fall 2010 trips to Papau New Guinea, Australia and Brazil. Cindy, retired from the Xenia Community Schools after 35 years, grew interested in birds as a child. She started bird watching in the 1980s, as a teacher, led several birding trips for students at the junior high schools. Jim worked 23 years for National Cash Register until the company downsized in 1995. The two met in the mid-1990s. A year ago, a person familiar with Cindy’s student trips called, asking if she could help with contacts for a South American trip. She found a contact in Panama who suggested a trip any birdwatcher would chirp about: a chance to see a harpy eagle nest with parents attending to eggs.

The harpy eagles, with talons as large as a grizzly bear’s, nest in a remote spot near Panama’s border with Columbia, a seven-and-a-half hour rugged hike, Jim said.

The couple relies on local guides for the trips. By opting for economical choices, the couple offers similar trips for less.

“We’re just trying to fill a little niche,” Jim said for their clients throughout Ohio, Florida, Oregon, Washington, New York and Indiana.

For more information on Cheepers! Birding on a budget, call (937) 862-4505, or visit www.cheepersbirding.com.

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