There's no time to take up birding like the present.

Birding, or birdwatching, as it was once called, can be as simple as looking out your window or as complex as booking a cruise to the Antarctic.

Birding is especially popular with senior citizens, who have the time to watch birds. Bob Schaefer, president of the Frederick Bird Club, is a retired engineer who leads local birding walks on the first Friday of each month.

Participants meet at 8 a.m. at Baker Park’s Culler Lake, a time when most working people are on the job. They travel to a natural area around Frederick, carrying binoculars and sometimes telescopes, to see local birds.

“I’m probably one of the younger members,” said Edward “Cal” Thompson, an emergency room doctor in his 50s. “My schedule is wacky enough that I can do stuff like this if I plan ahead.”
Schaefer, 72, has been birding since high school, but he spends more time at it now that he is retired. According to a study by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the average birder is 50 years old. In 2006, there were 48 million people who considered themselves birders, according to the study.

Birding on the battlefield

November’s walk was at Monocacy National Battlefield. This national park just outside Frederick has open fields, riverbanks and wooded areas. The varied habitat makes it easy for birders to move from one habitat to another in a short distance.

In the open fields of the Best Farm, the whispering chirps of horned larks could be heard, even over the drone of traffic from nearby Interstate 270.

The farm is a good location to see many field birds throughout the year, Schaefer said. Pheasants, bobwhite quail and whippoorwill are increasingly rare, however. Schaefer attributes that to the increased use of pesticides, which means fewer insects for the birds to eat.
Birders have many reasons for coming out, he said. “For me, it’s a good excuse to get out in the wild and see something interesting,” he said. “Other people like to keep lists.”

Schaefer does keep a list of the birds he’s seen in his yard near Mount Airy. He has seen about 120 species there. North America has about 800 species of birds.

Birds can best be identified by call, Schaefer said. The horned larks at Monocacy could be heard before they were seen. “They tend to be in flocks,” he said. Another identifying characteristic for these birds is their black tail underneath their body.

Crows were flying near the Monocacy River. “There are two types of crow in America,” Schaefer said. “The American crow and the fish crow.” The best way to tell them apart is their call. The fish crow call is “ah-ah-ah,” Schaefer said.

Chickadees, nuthatches and woodpeckers often cluster in areas together, and that was evident in a walk on a wooded trail at the Worthington Farm of the battlefield, on a late fall day. “They’re singing, but they’re much quieter,” Schaefer said. “They’re also in their fall plumage, which makes it harder to identify them.” Bluebirds can often be seen at the Worthington Farm around sunrise and sunset.

Birds often take on brighter hues in the spring when they’re busy mating and nesting.
High in the sky above the Worthington Farm, Canada geese were flying in V-shaped formations. A marsh hawk, also called a Northern harrier, flew out of the trees and across the fields. “Oh, that’s a beautiful bird,” Schaefer said. Later, a red-tailed hawk was spotted.

Schaefer’s favorite birding activity is to video them. “I’ve made hundreds of them,” he said. The videos reveal the flight patterns and the bird sounds. “It shows more of the life of the bird,” he said.

He also birds on his travels. He and his wife recently visited Australia and Panama, and in both places he did some birding. He also travels to northern Canada to canoe and will take his binoculars and his video equipment. “I always see lots of birds up there in their brighter breeding plumage,” he said.

It was a high school biology teacher who got Schaefer interested in birding in his native Massachusetts. When he came to work at the Office of Naval Research in 1964 he continued to bird when he had a chance. His birding increased considerably when he retired 10 years ago.
Marcia Balestri, another member of the Frederick Bird Club, is a retired environmental consultant. “I’ve stepped up the pace of my birding since I retired,” she said. “We take more trips to bird.”

Locally, she gets out to bird at least once a week. During fall migration season, she is often out every day. Lilypons Water Gardens, near Adamstown and along the Monocacy River, is a popular place to see water birds and migratory birds. She and other members of the bird club will also travel to Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge and Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, near Laurel.

The county’s two Audubon sanctuaries, Audrey Carroll, near Mount Airy, and Fred Archibald, near New Market, also offer diverse bird habitat. Birding can be done almost anywhere in Frederick County, especially in the local, state and national parks, she said.

An outside activity

“The American Birding Association says its clientele tends to be older,” Balestri said. “Whether it’s because you have more leisure time or more money, once you take up the pastime, it gets you outside. It’s some exercise, whether you have to take a walk or hike up a mountain, and it’s something people of all ages can do.”

The Frederick Bird Club meets the first Thursday of each month at Homewood Retirement Center, which allows residents of Homewood to attend meetings. Many do, Balestri said.
Birding keeps the mind and body active, she said. It helps all senses. There are even hearing aids which help to adapt to bird calls.

“It’s good stimulus,” she said. “You’re out and about. Your mind’s working. Your eyes and ears are working.”