To become an experienced birder, you only need one thing. Experience.
There are two ways to get it. You can just get out there, do it, make every mistake in the book and learn slowly. Or you can borrow experience from someone else and speed things up a little.
I wish I had taken the faster route. I’m a pretty good birder now, but it took me about 65 years to get here.
Penobscot Valley Audubon has launched this year’s series of Neighborhood Bird Walks. Each is led by experienced birders. Don’t kid yourself. Their birding skills are not the result of divine providence. Whatever skill level you are at currently, they were there, too. They’ve just had more time to learn from their mistakes.
These morning walks are among the most popular birding events of the year. Most people go along because they enjoy having birds pointed out to them. Even the walking part is effortless.
All the 90-minute walks are over easy, level terrain.
Some participants take advantage of the opportunity to learn. I recommend that. Go on a walk. Ask every question you can think of. Ask: How did you identify that bird? How did you locate it? What is special about the habitat it occupies? How does it react to all these people watching it?
In many cases, the bird provides all the necessary clues without anyone even seeing it. Birds sing in May more than any other month of the year. They are literally telling the world who they are and where they are.
I’ll deny later that I said it, but expertly guiding walks in May is a piece of cake.
There are 10 walks coming up. The locations are chosen for diversity, so that participants can enjoy the variety of habitats found throughout the Bangor area.
They’re timed to take advantage of when birds are still singing. Birds start to quiet down after 9 a.m. on most days.
There will be a special walk on Saturday, May 10. It’s World Migratory Bird Day, and Fields Pond Audubon Center in Holden begins the day at 8 a.m. with a bird walk around the grounds. There’s another walk for beginners starting at 11 a.m.
All other walks run 7:30 a.m. to 9 a.m., starting with a particularly popular walk in Bangor City Forest on Tuesday, May 13. Meet at the city forest parking lot at the end of Kittredge Road.
Mt. Hope Cemetery in Bangor is the destination on Wednesday, May 14. Meet in the parking area inside the State Street entrance.
Although it may not be obvious, the Saxl Park walk on Friday, May 16, is an unusual opportunity. It’s not often you encounter a rich grassland with mowed paths running through it. The wooded edges are also surprisingly rich in birds. Meet in the Cascade Park parking lot just off State Street in Bangor.
I’ll lead the walk on Monday, May 19. We’ll meet at the Government Road entrance to Leonard’s Mills on Route 178 in Bradley and walk through the diverse habitat featured in the Penobscot Experimental Forest.
The following day, Tuesday, May 20, meet on the University of Maine campus near the Littlefield Ornamentals Trial Garden. Park behind the Emera Astronomy Center and enjoy a woodland walk that opens into a very birdy grassland and wetland.
Of all the walks, the Thursday, May 22, event may be the most popular. The stroll around the wetland in Bangor’s Essex Woods is off-the-charts birdy. Meet in the parking lot at the end of Watchmaker Road.
For a walk through West Penjajawoc Preserve, a Bangor Land Trust property, meet at the dead end of Fox Hollow Lane off Essex Street on Friday, May 23. See if you can count all the bobolinks and savannah sparrows.
Orono’s Technology Park is surprisingly productive. Seriously. I’m surprised every time I visit. Meet Saturday morning, May 24, in the parking lot behind the building across the road from Black Bear Inn (formerly Nexx-Linx call center).
The walks wrap up on Tuesday, May 27, in the Caribou Bog Conservation Area, co-sponsored by Orono Land Trust. From Forest Avenue, follow Taylor Road and meet at the trailhead parking area adjacent to the Orono Landfill.
Nobody has learned everything there is to know about birds. Even experienced birders benefit from more experience. If you’ve ever worried that people will laugh at your mistakes, don’t fret.
You can go on my walk and laugh at my mistakes instead.
