Say 'hello, birdie' for some cheep cheep fun

It has been proven that chronic stress can cause premature aging.

Elissa Epel, Ph.D., and her colleagues in the psychiatry department at the University of California, San Francisco, found that although hormonal changes are a normal part of aging, chronic stress can affect hormone levels and alter the body's delicate hormonal balance.

You're probably familiar with stress-relieving techniques such as yoga and deep breathing, but why not try something different? I recently spent a week at Rancho La Puerta spa in Tecate, Mexico, where I had the opportunity to try some new things, among them: bird watching.

Birding may not be the first thing you think of for relaxation, but it can be an excellent way to relieve stress. Not only does spotting the many varieties of birds let you enjoy the calming effects of communing with nature, but their songs, chirps, warbles, tweets and twitters can relax you as well.

Here are my Aging Backwards bird-watching tips:

Go where the birds are. Not sure where to start looking for birds? Check out Peter W. Thayer's "Top 200 North American Birding Hot Spots" ( www.birding.com/top200hotspots.asp).

Get some binoculars. Look for binoculars with "image stabilization" to keep them from shaking because chances are you'll be looking at the birds from a distance. While you're at it, you may want to get a digital recorder you can attach to your binoculars. Weighing less than 2 ounces and using a single AAA battery, the RememBird recorder ( www.remembird.com) allows you to whisper into it without ever taking your eyes away from your binoculars.

Familiarize yourself. These days, you don't even need to buy a bird book to learn about the various species of birds. Avianweb.com has a comprehensive index that features photos of the birds for easy identification and gives encyclopedic descriptions of each type.

There are millions of birds out there just waiting to be spotted and heard. To help support wild birds and their habitats, visit www.audubon.org, where you can find a fascinating timeline of the history of the Audubon Society. Audubon's mission is "to conserve and restore natural ecosystems, focusing on birds, other wildlife and their habitats for the benefit of humanity and the earth's biological diversity."