Prior to arriving in New Hampshire for my Water Quality Resources Assistant position with Green Mountain Conservation Group, my knowledge of, and interest in birds consisted of merely a few children’s books when I was young and a quote from one of my favorite comedy TV shows, Brooklyn Nine-Nine. When our GMCG orientation began, we were told by our supervisor that we would be conducting Blue Heron Bird Club during this service term. I was intrigued to say the least. It’s not like I’ve ever had a negative experience with birds that turned me off to them. I guess I had just been sort of overlooking their existence up to this point, indifferent to these warm-blooded vertebrates. Little did I know that I was beginning a simple, mundane, yet inspiring journey towards discovering my passion for birds.
Blue Heron Bird Club is a program GMCG began back in 2018 with its first round of AmeriCorps members. It involves AmeriCorps and community members joining together for a leisurely time of bird watching, identifying, and counting. This program comes through the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Project FeederWatch which allows anyone across the country to participate in this citizen science endeavor. Unfortunately, as is the case with many of our programs, COVID-19 forced us to find a way to conduct Blue Heron Bird Club virtually. The best way to make this happen was simply to allow folks to spend time on their own watching their feeders at home and send us the data they collect. It is not the most ideal way to run a bird club, but for now it’s what we can do.
As we began watching the feeders here at the Blue Heron House I started to become familiar with the common winter birds in this region: black-capped chickadees, white-breasted nuthatches, downy and hairy woodpeckers, tufted titmice, and blue jays. I started observing their behavior and found myself fascinated. The blue jays reminded me of the elementary school tough guy. They always flew in to the feeders, screeching, usually causing the other birds to fly away, but looked scared to actually land on the feeders as they often lost their balance. The black-capped chickadees would usually play with each other and kind of hop and flutter around. The woodpeckers seemed to not mind the action around them as they enjoyed a tasty treat at the suet feeder. I remember just a few months ago learning to distinguish between the very similar downy and hairy woodpeckers. Despite the almost identical appearance, the hairy has a much longer bill size compared to the downy. I was just beginning my bird-watching experience, but I was excited to learn more. I asked for a “Birding Basics” book for Christmas and began a new hobby.
Most weekends this winter, when the weather is good enough (which means it can be below freezing, but just not too windy), I have tried to get out and go hiking. It is my favorite hobby. It turns out, my newfound interest in birds would quickly become intertwined with my hiking adventures. In my attempt to cross some of New Hampshire’s forty-eight 4000 ft peaks off my list, I hiked Mt. Tom, Mt. Field, and Mt. Willey on one Saturday morning. At the top of Mt. Field, I stopped in my tracks as I saw 2 puffy, greyish birds looking down at me. I thought to myself that these birds were a lot closer than I thought a bird would be willing to get to a human.
I continued to see them throughout my hike, and later learned that I was seeing a Canada jay, also called grey jay. In several other hikes after that I continued to see different birds at different times and I noticed myself becoming much more aware of their presence around me. All of a sudden I was paying attention to their sounds and calls, and my eyes darted with every little movement in the trees. While hiking Tecumseh, I reached the peak and looked out over the valley. Then, I heard a sharp, rapid pecking noise around me. Up here at close to 4000 feet was a downy woodpecker just stabbing away at a tree. Birds were becoming a noteworthy part of each of my hikes. My fellow AmeriCorps EB and I went hiking just last weekend and spent a good 5-10 minutes standing still along the trail trying to follow the sounds of several woodpeckers. I was continuing to grow in my love for these creatures.
Then came my favorite birding experience thus far. We were sitting down at one of the tables in the community room here at the Blue Heron House, and I happened to glance over to my left out the window. I quickly became aware of a large figure rapidly pecking at one of the trees outside. I stood up and ran over to the window. It was a pileated woodpecker, a bird I had never seen before! I was amazed at the sheer size of this creature. It looked like a bird of prey pecking away at this tree, except it didn’t just peck, it drilled holes the size of my fist into the wood. According to Cornell, these holes can be so big that they can cause small trees to break completely. I was fascinated and amazed by this.
Then came my first outdoor bird watching experience. I quickly realized that it was about trusting my ears instead of my eyes. It was the sound initially that drew my attention to the birds, and then my eyes that helped me find them (or rather find nothing more than an elusive movement most of the time).
I am still a novice birder having just begun what I hope will be a lifelong endeavor exploring these wonderful creatures. It also just happens to be one of the many things that my time with GMCG has inspired me to explore further both personally and scientifically. I am already looking forward to spring when a new wave of migratory birds will show up and I can continue learning more.
Trent is Green Mountain Conservation Group’s Water Quality Resources assistant. In addition to his recent foray into birding, Trent and fellow LRCC member EB have been developing an interpretive trail for GMCG! Learn more about Trent here.