BALTIMORE BIRD CLUB Welcome to the home page of the Baltimore Bird Club, a chapter of the Maryland Ornithological Society. Here you will find information about the BBC, the MOS, and our activities.

What's New? The Winter 2024 issue of the Baltimore Bird Club newsletter Chip Notes. The Baltimore Bird Club Fall/Winter 2024-25 Schedule. This schedule has all BBC events through March 1, 2025. The birds await you. For quick access to upcoming trips, click one of the monthly links: 2024: December 2025: January | February | March YouTube versions of BBC Zoom Lectures -- thank you to our 2020-23 online presenters, who allowed us to record their lectures and then make them available to those who could not make the original Zoom sessions, or who wanted to revisit them. Gabriel Foley, "Maryland and DC Breeding Bird Atlas 3" (April 4, 2023) Cin-Ty Lee & Andrew Birch, "An Introduction to Empidonax Flycatchers and their Identification" (March 7, 2023) David Curson, "Can Floating Islands save Endangered Seabirds in Maryland's Coastal Bays?" (January 15, 2023: Covered Dish Dinner) Matt Felperin, "Birding and Exploring Puerto Rico" (October 5, 2022) Brad Balliett, "Birdsong and Musical Composition" (September 18, 2022) Gail Mackiernan, "Panama" (May 3, 2022) Clive Harris, "How to Cure your fear of Gulls" (March 1, 2022) Tim Carney, "Birding Highlights at Maryland Department of Transportation Maryland Port Administration (MDOT MPA) Facilities" (November 2 2021) Dan Small, "Natural Lands Project" Sarah Luttrell, "On Birdsong" Gail Mackiernan, "Mongolia: Birding in the Footsteps of Genghis Khan" Joe Corcoran, "South Africa Birding Adventure 10 Years Post-Apartheid" If you wish to join the Baltimore Bird Club, or if you are already member and want to pay your dues, the best way is online at the Baltimore page of the Maryland Ornithological Society. If you prefer to join by mail, here is a BBC membership application you may print out and mail in. This Excel file has the results of the 2020 Baltimore Carbon-Free May Count

Baltimore Bird Club Information

• Come on along! Here's the Schedule of Club activities through December 7, 2024.
• Loch Raven Christmas Bird Count, December 15, 2019
• 75th Anniversary: On March 11, 1945, the newly formed Maryland Ornithological Society (Baltimore Bird Club) held its very first bird walk, at Lake Roland. Seven members participated; and they observed 15 species of birds, plus an unidentified woodpecker. Irving E. Hampe, the first president of society, wrote this account of the walk. Here is a link to the first issue of Maryland Birdlife, where Hampe's report originally appeared. On March 11, 2020, the 75th anniversary of that first walk, we held another walk: 23 members identified some 48 species, but we missed some of the ones that the founders saw on their trip.
• We are grateful to Book Karnjanakit for letting us put up a pdf of BIRDLAND, a short comic she created about birds and people in Baltimore, 2019.
• Do you have concerns about four-legged visitors to your bird feeders? Here are two articles by Kirsten Held on Bird Feeding and Unwanted Urban Wildlife
• The results of the 2019 BBC Survey (thank you to all who participated)
• Results of the 2018 BBC Christmas Bird Count
• Please consider making a donation to Lights Out Baltimore this year via Paypal. Please indicate in the note section that your donation goes to "Lights Out Baltimore." Saving birds and advocating for a bird-friendly Charm City is our goal. Thank you for helping us save our feathered friends.
• Our checklist of Baltimore Birds now has clickable links to species accounts for each bird found in Wikipedia and in All About Birds.
• The BBC Facebook Page.
• Looking for good places to bird? The Birder's Guide to Maryland and DC, a project of the Maryland Ornithological Society, covers every part of Maryland as well as Washington DC. Here are quick links to the Birder's Guide entries for sites in Baltimore City and County --
  • Baltimore City:
    • Cylburn Arboretum
    • Druid Hill Park
    • Fort McHenry National Monument
    • Masonville Cove Environmental Education Center
    • Patterson Park
  • Baltimore County
    • Cromwell Valley Park
    • Fort Howard Park
    • Gunpowder Falls State Park - Hammerman Area & Dundee Creek Marina
    • Hart-Miller Island State Park
    • Holt Park
    • Irvine Nature Center
    • Lake Roland
    • Liberty Reservoir Cooperative Wildlife Management Area - Baltimore County
    • Loch Raven Reservoir Cooperative Wildlife Management Area
    • Marshy Point Nature Center
    • Milford Mill aka Villa Nova Park
    • North Point State Park
    • Northern Central Rail Trail (NCRT)
    • Oregon Ridge Park
    • Soldiers Delight Natural Environmental Area
• BBC Constitution and Bylaws
• The BBC Manual of Operations
• The results of the BBC 2013 Members Survey:
  • Final Report on the 2013 Survey
  • Text of the electronic version of the survey
  • Text of the hardcopy version of the survey
• Joan Cwi's History of the BBC -- learn about our first 70 years.
• Learn more about the Baltimore Bird Club
• The 2018 edition of Pete Webb's Advice on Choosing Birding Optics -- an introduction to selecting and buying binoculars by the former president of the BBC. For a briefer version of Pete's article see his Executive Synopsis.
• Baltimore Bird Club Field Trip Leader Guidelines
• The BBC Field Trip Report form
• A checklist of Baltimore Birds
• The goal of Lights Out Baltimore! is "to make Charm City safe for migratory birds by turning out decorative lighting in the city during peak migration seasons, between the hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., and to advocate for bird-safe building design that makes glass and windows visible to birds." Learn more at the Lights Out Baltimore site.
• The BBC also maintains the Backyard Birding page.
• See photos of some BBC members at Cylburn Mansion.

Maryland and the Region

• The Home Page of the Maryland Ornithological Society.
• Here are links to the sites of our fellow MOS chapters --
  • The Allegany & Garrett Counties' Bird Club, a Chapter of MOS
  • The Anne Arundel Bird Club, a Chapter of MOS
  • The Caroline County Bird Club, a Chapter of MOS
  • The Carroll County Bird Club, an MOS chapter.
  • The Cecil Bird Club, an MOS chapter.
  • The Frederick Bird Club, an MOS chapter.
  • The Harford Bird Club, an MOS chapter.
  • The Howard County Bird Club, a Chapter of MOS
  • The Kent County Bird Club, a Chapter of MOS
  • The Montgomery Bird Club, a Chapter of MOS
  • The Patuxent Bird Club, a Chapter of MOS
• From the only Maryland county on the ocean: the Worcester County Birding page.
• The home page of the Audubon Naturalist Society
• The Patterson Park Audubon Center in Baltimore
• The Home Page of the Potomac Valley Audubon Society
• Birds of North Point State Park in Baltimore County.
• The Irvine Nature Center, in Baltimore County.
• The Lake Roland Nature Council, which has an excellent map of the park's trails
• The Pickering Creek Audubon Center in Easton, Maryland.
• The Oregon Ridge Nature Center, in Baltimore County.
• A list of Maryland Birds
• The state's guides to Maryland Parks and Wildlife Management Areas
• Sam Droege's essay "Maryland, Efficiency, and Birds" surveys the changes in Maryland's birdlife over the past 400 years.
• The C&O Canal Page
• The home page of the the Virginia Society of Ornithology
• Every Fall, hawk watchers migrate to Hawk Mountain Sanctuary

What Are Birders Seeing?

• Here are links to the ABA Birding News sites for the region:
  • Maryland and DC
  • Virginia
  • Pennsylvania
  • New Jersey

  What Else Is Out There?

• Find out how to attract birds to your yard and keep them coming back on the Backyard Birding Page
• Want to know about American birds? Visit the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center
• Bird Enthusiasts -- from the Migratory Bird Program

CHIP NOTES Back Issues:

Bird Fun and Games

• What is the name for a flock of ravens or teal or pheasants? Check the List of Group Names.
• See a list of Whimsical Group Names and send your creations to the list.
• Learn to identify birds on YouTube with Marty Brazeau's Bird Identification Flash Videos
• Test your birding skills by taking the Patuxent Bird Quiz
• Virtual flocks are featured on Craig Reynolds's Boids page.

Who Dealt This Mess?