Howard County Bird Club
Birding
Both the advanced lister, the beginning birder, and the backyard birder will find much of interest in our club and on our web page. Our programs include travelogues, identification seminars, other natural history programs, and conservation efforts. Most of our programs feature birds—but we have a few others throughout the year with a different emphasis. Starting December, 2020, programs were recorded, and many are available on the HCBC channel on YouTube. Missed one of the field trips? You can find out what was seen by looking at the Field Trips Report for that day. Members can also participate in one of the seasonal bird counts explained below. For the competitive lister, we have a report that is updated annually: the 200 Club and High Annual Totals.
Our Birding Howard County, Maryland pages provide birders with information about the locations in Howard County that can enrich your natural history experience and suggest times and places to enhance your birding outing. The third Breeding Bird Atlas (BBA3) is underway. Information on this and previous atlases is in the Breeding Bird Atlas section.
View the Howard County Annotated Bird Records, a compilation of wild bird records for Howard County, Maryland. For basic questions, try Beginning Birding.
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Programs & Field Trips
Our programs feature travelogues and photos from birding trips, bird identification tips, natural history features, conservation topics, and other topics of interest to people who love natural history.
Programs are held the second Thursday of each month from September through May at the Robinson Nature Center and virtually using Zoom. Hospitality session at 7:00 p.m. Meeting/program begins at 7:30 p.m. Starting December, 2020, previous programs were recorded and are available on the HCBC channel on YouTube
Mostly Howard County, and mostly birds—but we include butterflies, dragonflies, fungi, and anything else that strikes our fancy—as long as we can find a leader to lead and enough people to participate! Why so many different locations and times (throughout the week, but mainly on Saturdays and Sundays)? Because all of us enjoy the outdoors, and we all bring different skills and schedules to these trips. With the availability of a web page, the results of the club’s birding field trips are now available in an electronic format on the Field Trip Reports page, which also lists cancelled field trips.
Seasonal Bird Counts
In addition to a full schedule of programs and field trips, we compile migratory and resident bird records four times a year. May Count, Fall Count and Mid-winter Count are one day county-wide surveys. Members can also participate in the Triadelphia Christmas Count that includes about one-third of the county. On these counts, new or inexperienced birders can be placed with those with more experience.
More information is available on the Seasonal Bird Counts page.
Field Trip Reports
Ever since the Howard County Bird Club was founded in 1972, field trips have been a vital part of the club’s activities. It did not take very long before the leaders started recording the birds seen. Soon a notebook was passed from leader to leader to ensure a permanent record.
With the availability of a web page, the results of the club’s birding field trips are now available in an electronic format on the Field Trip Reports page, which also lists cancelled field trips.
Breeding Bird Atlases
The third DC/DC BBA began in 2020. Sue Muller and Dave Ziolkowski are co-chairs for Howard County. The Howard County Bird Club BBA3 page has information specific to Howard County.
The Breeding Bird Atlas (BBA) concept of surveying breeding birds using a grid system was based on a British five-year project. Chandler Robbins designed a county-based survey for Montgomery County, Maryland Ornithological Society (MOS) begun in 1971. Howard County MOS joined this effort in 1973 testing a smaller grid, mini-routes, and workshops to determine both observer efficiency and a shorter survey period (1973-1975). Results were published in Maryland Birdlife 34 (1): 3-39.
The first Maryland BBA (1983-1987) was sponsored jointly by MOS and Maryland Department of Natural Resources (MdDNR). The Atlas of the Breeding Birds of Maryland and the District of Columbia was published in 1996.
Repeating an atlas periodically to provide comparative data is important in order to establish population trends. The second statewide BBA (2002-2006) was also co-sponsored by MOS and MdDNR. Results were published in 2010 as the 2nd Atlas of the Breeding Birds of Maryland and the District of Columbia.
A species page for each Howard County breeding bird contains maps from each atlas to illustrate results: Breeding Bird Atlas Maps (Howard County). There is also chart showing species recorded in each block covered: Previous BBA Results by Block.
Backyard Birding
Consult the Backyard Birding page to learn about:
Food types
Expected Backyard feeder birds
Feeder styles
Feeder placement
Feeder care
Rare Bird Alert in Howard County
All members receive emails about sightings for bird species that are unusual for Howard County. Not many sightings qualify for inclusion: The sighting must have been sighted or verified by a qualified observer. The bird must remain long enough for other birders to travel to the site and expect to see it. The bird must be on property accessible to the average birder. If there are restrictions on access imposed by the property owner, people will be required to register with the HCBC Field Trip Chair (who will organize groups permitted to access the property on a schedule that may extend over several days). The Howard County alert will be of benefit primarily to those members who are not already part of eBird or privately organized alerts.
Help keep the birding trails clean
Even it it is not your trash, follow the example of Mary Lou and Meg!
Eddie Franceschi (WSSC Manager) can provide gloves, trash bags and other supplies and perform pick up to assist our reservoir efforts. So if birders haul to the parking lots (next to the porta potties is useful) of Pigtail and Big Branch, WSSC will do the removal from there. They appreciate us.
Birding Howard County MD
The first edition of Birding Howard County, Maryland had four major sections: Site Guides, The Birding Year in Howard County, Species Accounts, and the Howard County Checklist. Most of the site guides had appeared in the club’s newsletter as Birding Hot Spots, initiated by Chris Ludwig in 1985. The Birding Year by Joanne Solem had also been published in the newsletter from 1989 to 1992. This second edition of the book is not reproduced in hard copy; it is a web version only so that it can be updated periodically to incorporate current information.
Like the original book, this web version provides birders with information that can be used to see a maximum number of locally occurring bird species. Many of the best areas in the county are described in detail. Areas not readily open to the public such as undeveloped county parks, locations with restricted hours or access, and private property visible only from public roadways may have abbreviated site descriptions covering access methods, special species, and the safest parking locations or only Directions. Occasionally, the Howard County Bird Club plans trips to some of these restricted locations. Field trip information may be obtained from the club’s newsletter or on this website.
Most site descriptions will contain a list of all the bird species recorded there. The largest parks and the most frequently visited sites will have a seasonal list. Since areas attractive to birds are often excellent locations for other flora and fauna, many site guides will also include butterfly, dragonfly, mammal, amphibian, reptile, and lichen lists.