Queens County Bird Club

44th Anniversary Edition Bird club took wing 90 years ago

Tradition and technology each find a perch at QCBC

by Peter Kropf

Chronicle Contributor

Before the early 20th century, most birdwatching in America was done through a gunsight. Hunting birds was common sport and the fashion industry coveted their feathers.

By the 1920s, however, many began to drop their rifles and shotguns in favor of binoculars. Avian appreciation, fueled by a wave of conservationism, was popularized by birding icons such as Ludlow Griscom of the American Museum of Natural History. Griscom, a New York City native nicknamed the “dean of the birdwatchers,” demonstrated that birds have unique aesthetic value.

It didn’t take long for Queens to catch the birding bug; the Queens County Bird Club was formed in 1932. Initially, it was a small, exclusive group. To join, prospective members had to be recommended and approved in a process similar to applying for a job. Restrictions loosened over time, though, and interest grew. In fact, the club was ahead of the curve in the early to mid-20th century, as it had many more female members than most other birding organizations (birdwatching was a male-dominated hobby back then). By the 1960s, the group was one of the first to have a woman as president.

For 90 years, the QCBC has had a set of bylaws, held formal monthly meetings and gone on countless birding trips in the borough and beyond. During much of the 20th century, the group met at the Queens Botanical Garden’s Visitors and Administration Building in Flushing, but in the late 1990s changed its meeting location to the Alley Pond Environmental Center in Douglaston and, for now, Oakland Gardens.

Today, Queens County Bird Club Inc. describes itself as a “non-profit, tax-exempt, charitable organization” and offers much more than it did in 1932. The club hosts informative lectures and presentations from top avian experts and authors, and places more emphasis on the understanding of birds’ environmental needs. For example, current birding trips are not just about birds — some time is also spent learning about other fauna and flora that the group comes across.

Birdwatchers need birds to watch. The QCBC has thrived for nearly a century because the borough is perfect for the hobby. Queens has more green space than any other borough and features habitats — forests, fields, lakes, marshes and seashores — that attract a wide variety of feathered flyers. Alley Pond Park, Cunningham Park, Kissena Park, Forest Park, Fort Tilden, Jacob Riis Park and the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge overall are avian havens.

The club’s proximity to such hotbeds, along with the tenacious work ethic of its well-informed members, has helped it make significant contributions to birding and ornithology. To date, the QCBC has identified and documented an impressive 371 species of birds. Club President Ian Resnick has seen 180 different species, and others in Queens have observed close to 300.

Since 1933, the group has participated in the National Audubon Society’s Christmas Bird Count, the country’s longest-running community science bird project — essentially an annual national bird census taking place between Dec. 14 and Jan. 5. Birders across the country monitor zones 15 miles in diameter, with those zones divided into sectors, and report the results to the National Audubon Society. (The QCBC encourages anyone interested to join its members in this year’s count.)

For almost a decade, the club has also taken part in The Big Sit!, an annual international one-day birding event hosted by Bird Watcher’s Digest. It is fundamentally a birding marathon, in which birdwatchers try to identify as many species as they can while limited to a space 17 feet in diameter. The QCBC’s best year at the event was 2018, when it documented 91 species.

Over the decades, the club has provided its collected bird-related data to the National Audubon Society, the New York State Ornithological Association and other organizations. The information has proved invaluable for tracking bird population trends and breeding patterns.

Some Queens County Bird Club members have authored books important to the field. “The Guide to the Birds of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands,” written by Herbert Raffaele, was published in 1983. Corey Finger’s “American Birding Association Field Guide to Birds of New York” was released in 2015. Finger, a Queens resident, is also the creator of “10,000 Birds,” the country’s most popular birding blog. His photos have appeared on the “Today Show” and in several birding publications.

One of the club’s greatest contributions to the hobby has been simply existing. It’s one of the last independent birding organizations in the area, as some in the city and elsewhere have ceased operations in recent years.

The QCBC’s impact has been felt outside the birding world as well. The group constantly promotes the conservation of green spaces. When the city Parks Department was planning to bulldoze part of the Ridgewood Reservoir to make room for ballfields in the mid-2000s, the club, along with other community and environmental groups, voiced its displeasure. After more than a decade of advocacy, the reservoir was finally recognized as a protected wetland. The site is used by 100 species of birds, some considered threatened or of special concern. The club has also helped protect Jamaica Bay and bring attention to ecosystems destroyed by Hurricane Sandy.

“As our club and hobby grew, we were able to have more of an influence,” Resnick says. “We continually work with NYC Parks and Friends of Alley Pond Park to ensure habitats are preserved.”

The group has seen its fair share of bird trends over its nine-decade run. But the most noticeable pattern is also the most alarming: Bird populations continue to drop.

“There is so much less habitat in Queens compared to 90 years ago,” Resnick sighs. “For example, Bay Terrace used to be a swampy forest.

“The old-timers in the club always used to talk about how many more birds there used to be. Now I’m the old-timer saying that to the younger birders. The trend has not been good.”

Resnick says the types of birds in Queens have also changed due to global warming. He notes some birds that traditionally remained south, such as cardinals, have now moved north and are common in Queens. Other factors have also been at play. For instance, the West Nile virus

decimated the borough’s crow population, with ravens replacing them. It’s not all bad news — Resnick adds that the club has had many rare sightings, especially in recent years. “We sometimes get birds that wander in the wrong direction,” he says. One time, vultures were found at the Creedmoor Psychiatric Center campus in Queens Village. In fall of 2012, a Virginia’s warbler, normally found in the American Southwest, visited Alley Pond Park. The organization’s website reports it has spotted “pretty amazing” species such as brown pelicans, black-legged kittiwakes, dickcissels and parasitic jaegers. The club made a smooth transition into the 21st century. It has a detailed website and multiple social media accounts where birders interact. Yes, the club tweets about the original tweeters. Members also use the new tools of the day, such as apps that play bird calls and provide bird identifications. NATURE “We were always told you can’t bird and photograph at the same LOVERS time,” Resnick laughs. “Smartphones have changed birding. You no longer need camera equipment that weighs 10 pounds.” The pandemic increased interest in the hobby, as people desperately sought fun outdoor activities. “The number of new birders had been increasing before Covid-19, but the quarantine definitely helped,” Resnick says. He points out that the number of birdwatchers at Oakland Lake in Alley Pond Park has “doubled or tripled in recent years.” Since Covid-19 struck, club members have remained socially distant on field trips and wear masks. One wonders if the birds have noticed the humans’ change in behavior. Waiting for hours outside to see a bird that may never come can make for an ornery ornithologist. But the club maintains a sense of humor — check out “the universal laws of birding” on its website, such as “the law of proportional observability”: “If there are two or more birds in a tree and one is a rarity, the only one you can’t see is the rarity.” The Queens County Bird Club demonstrates the parallels between birding and life; both involve perspective, persistence, luck and the hope that something new and interesting will always come around. Q

The Queens County Bird Club and famous ornithologist David Allen Sibly, far right, on a 1993 summer birding trip in Maine. Below, more recent birding in Nickerson Beach Park a little east of Queens in Lido Beach, LI; and a blue jay

— no rarity but a work of art on wings. COURTESY PHOTOS; PHOTO BY STEVE FISHER, RIGHT