Staying Home, Watching Birds: Mike Valliant

Staying Home, Watching Birds Backyard Birding Boom

by Michael Valliant

Watching birds in your backyard is a simple pleasure. Anyone can do it. And it can be endlessly fascinating. For some people, it’s just a matter of having time at home. Enter COVID-19 and a response to the pandemic that calls on us to do just that. And backyard birding has taken off, or maybe landed is a better word, in a big way.

The New York Times has written that “backyard birding has become the perfect pandemic pastime”; Audubon Magazine said, “Birdwatching is a bright spot in a pandemic-stricken economy”; and an AARP headline read, “The pandemic has made birding cool.”

For Leslie Heath, backyard birding has been more than cool. With her just-turned-two-year-old son Kellan at home with her, with being a mom, working, and her husband, Peter, at work during the days ~ birding has been solace.

“Birding literally keeps me sane on

Carolina wren

Photo by Leslie Heath

my craziest days,” Leslie said. “During COVID, I am in the house much more than I would normally be, and my backyard is right outside the window. I do my best to stay in my bubble, with family and friends who are high risk, and it can get pretty monotonous. But the one thing that is not monotonous is the birds.”

Leslie has always had a connection to and an appreciation for birds, but it’s been during the pandemic that she has turned to backyard birding.

“I would see the birds going to my neighbor’s yard to her feeders, and I told my husband, ‘I think I want a bird feeder.’ And now I have

Photo by Leslie Heath

Red-bellied woodpecker

four,” she said.

When she has time, Leslie will watch from her windows with her

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camera ready to catch any new or returning birds. She’s been taking pictures of a Cooper’s hawk that has a keen interest in the songbirds in their yard. She talks about the energetic and chatty Carolina wren. She’s learned the calls of some birds and has learned to identify many of her regulars in flight, even out of the corner of her eye. To learn more, she joined the Audubon Society.

Leslie is not alone in finding an excitement for birding. In addition to being a national phenomenon, it’s happening locally as well.

“Birding has picked up across the nation,” said Rhonda Matterson, who, along with her husband, Timothy, own Wild Birds Unlimited in Easton. “People have been home and have started it as a hobby, and

Tim and Rhonda Matterson with Tucker and Nugget. they find it helps them to relax. We’ve seen many new people in the store.”

When customers come in looking to attract birds in their yard, the types they most frequently ask about are cardinals, nuthatches, northern flickers, different woodpeckers and eastern bluebirds.

Photo by Leslie Heath Nuthatch

The Mattersons opened WBU in July 2019. In the store, it’s the two of them and Linda Ball, who has been with them since the beginning. Each of them enjoys walking new customers through the best set-ups, feeders and food for the birds they want to attract.

“The teaching aspect of having a store like this is one of the best parts,” Rhonda said. “Educating customers and hearing back from them about the birds they are seeing and how much they enjoy it.”

Rhonda is also the county coordinator for the Maryland Bluebird Society, a member of the Talbot

County Birding Club, and a volunteer at Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge. The Mattersons had been to a WBU store in Timonium and had a great experience there. When they retired, they wanted something to do. Timothy wanted to start a business, and Rhonda’s enjoyment of birding and seeing a need in the area for a store like WBU, they went for it. They chose WBU because they loved their concept of education.

In order to get approved for their franchise, they had to meet certain standards for demographics, professionalism and knowledge. All of their employees complete 25 hours of training to become Certified Bird Feeding Specialists. And as owners, the Mattersons went through an additional two weeks of training. They can offer their customers a lot more than large stores that simply sell

Photo by Leslie Heath Blue jay

bird food and feeders.

They also hold educational events and programs. Prior to COVID, Chesapeake Wildlife Heritage and the Tuckahoe State Park “Scales and Tales” program have done in-store events. WBU Easton now does their educational events on Facebook Live. The Mattersons hope to be a resource for birders throughout the year.

And that’s one of the best parts about birding: it’s different every season. We’ve been staying largely at home during a pandemic for a full year now. A number of birds migrate and give us different things to see ~ from hummingbirds in the warmer months to dark-eyed juncos, purple finches and whitethroated sparrows, to name a few,

Watching Birds venerable and wonderful Peterson Field Guide to Birds. You can also during the winter months. download bird identification apps

The first thing I’ve done in the last onto your phone, one of the best of three houses I’ve lived in (off Ox- which is the Merlin App from Corford Rd., in Oxford and in Easton) nell Lab of Ornithology. is to put up feeders. It’s been red- And you can find guide books, bellied woodpeckers, cardinals, feeders, food and more at Wild blue jays, Carolina wrens, American Birds Unlimited in Easton. goldfinches and red-breasted nut- “For new people looking to get hatches that first catch my eyes and started attracting birds to their ears around the yard. But just since yard, we recommended our pole set COVID-19 has hit, I’ve grabbed bin- up, with multiple hanging feeding oculars and watched and identified stations,” Rhonda said. “We make two birds that I’d never personally sure they get the right set up for seen before: a rose-breasted gros- what they want, go over the types of beak and a brown creeper. It makes feeders and how to clean them, and for a giddy, child-like moment that talk weather and seasonality for sticks with you.

My favorite mornings at home start with coffee, prayer, reading and writing, and yard surveillance to see what the birds are up to. It’s a simple and sustainable pleasure. And it’s available to almost anyone.

For those looking to do more with their own backyard birding, there are a lot of great resources and references. One of the most popular online birding sites is eBird Maryland, which lets people catalog and share the birds they’ve seen. Each local county has its own birding club, full of birders of all skill and knowledge levels, from beginning to Wayne Bell (one of the local birding legends). Great birding reference books include Sibley Birds, Kaufman Field Guide to Birds of North America and the 26

Watching Birds time watching the feeders and the yard. “Birds are my outdoor pets,” she said. “It’s a hobby, but it’s also very calming and peaceful for me. I love that I can spend time in nature, even while I am at home. The northern flickers stop me in my tracks.”

what’s likely to be around.”

Going back to Leslie, when things quiet down and she is able to spend

Michael Valliant is the Assistant for Adult Education and Newcomers Ministry at Christ Church Easton. He has worked for non-profi t organizations throughout Talbot County, including the Oxford Community Center, Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum and Academy Art Museum.

Northern fl icker 28

Photo by Leslie Heath