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June 13, 2025

Chestertown Spy

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1 Homepage Slider Ecosystem Eco Portal Lead Spy Highlights

Bird by Bird at Chesapeake Bay Environmental Center by Debra Messick

March 15, 2021 by Debra Messick

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Is there a socially distant, sanity preserving “pandemic pastime” which helped you survive the Covid-19 year?

While some may negatively characterize the monastic misery experienced as being “for the birds,” others coping with quarantine’s limiting confines found a source of soothing yet stimulating salvation by finally having the homebound downtime ideal for observing feathered backyard visitors. 

Cooper’s Hawk scoping out a shallow pool for smaller birds feeding on water insects (photo by Anne Brunson)

The Delmarva Peninsula, after all, is perfectly located along the great Atlantic Flyway migratory route traveled seasonally by birds seeking optimal temperatures for feeding and breeding purposes.

For folks interested in a safe space featuring a veritable birdwatching feast above and beyond their own backyard feeder, the Chesapeake Bay Environmental Center provides an ideal ‘hot spot.’

According to the CBEC website (bayrestoration.org), the site, established originally as Horsehead Wetlands Center on a 315-acre Grasonville farm property by the Wildfowl Trust of North America, has operated as a protective educational sanctuary since 1985. Currently containing 510 acres, the site caters to habitat requirements of common, uncommon, and migratory birds, with lakes and ponds, marsh, forest, and shoreline.

In fact, as many as 600 bird varieties may be viewed throughout the premises at various seasons of the year, according to the Cornell University Ornithology Lab’s  eBird app.

Specimens currently or soon to be returning include Sparrows, Bluebirds, Wood Ducks, Great Snowy Egrets, and Ospreys.

But several breeds, such as Yellow-rumped and Black-and-white Warblers, Chickadees, White-breasted, Red-breasted, and Brown-headed Nuthatches, Cardinals, Mockingbirds, Mourning Doves, and Sharp-shinned, Red-shouldered, and Coopers Hawks, have succeeded in putting down year ‘round roots in our region, a phenomenon a number of us can relate to.

Elderly Great Horned Owl, among several Raptors being cared for at CBEC due to debilitating injury or displacement.
(Photo by Anne Brunson)

Anne Brunson and husband Dave, native mid-Westerners, retired to a Kent Island condo several years ago after a stint working in D.C. Unable to set up feeders at their residence, they found an optimal outlet for their birding “fix” at nearby CBEC.  The couple now serve as Volunteer Coordinators for CBEC, assisting Executive Director Judy Wink.

The 78-year-old Wink, aptly described both as dedicated nature lover and dynamic force of nature, brings nearly a lifetime of field experience to her position, having started birding at the age of 4.

Wink spent her childhood on a farm outside of New Ringgold in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, later relocating to Carbon County’s Jim Thorpe area in the Poconos.

“I basically went to school in the woods, Wink confided, adding that she was home-schooled until 9th grade when  “I realized I wanted to go to college one day,” Wink confided. 

A neighbor, Maurice Broun, happened to be the first curator of Kempton, Pa’s Hawk Mountain Wild Bird Sanctuary, from 1939-1968. Taking her under his proverbial wing, he guided her steadily growing knowledge of the birding world she was eager to learn, becoming an inspiration and lifelong mentor. 

Throughout her career Wink has channeled and paid forward Broun’s remarkably detailed and finely honed knowledge of endless avian characteristics, as well as the fundamental skill of patience he practiced and preached.

Prior to COVID, CBEC regularly hosted 20,000 visitors annually, including school groups and summer camps. Despite health restrictions curtailing organized programming on the premises last year, 40,000 people still flocked to the Center on family outings, picnics, kayaking (with legs not visible, birds are less wary and may come closer, Wink advised), and photo ops. They came during every season, especially at sunrise and sunset, when the birds are most active, Wink added.

During a two-hour guided tour of the area last week, Wink and Anne Brunson’s fact filled play by play brought the serene landscape to life. Once, I would have passed by a smattering of decayed loblolly pine remnants, unimpressed. Now, I was able to spot the pockmarked portals identifying the remains as primo real estate preferred by the discerning Brown-headed Nuthatch, a “cavity dweller” who desires “broken rotten snags” in primitive locales. No neatly “manicured” tree lined streets for him!

While both women have enjoyed birding adventures in far off places (Wink visits Costa Rica several times a year), they eagerly revel in comparing notes about the eagles nesting high above trees surrounding Lake Knapp, whose freshwater is a “huge draw” for migrating birds scoping out bathing and drinking sources.

In early Spring Lake Knapp’s mudflats provide wading birds such as plovers and sandpipers inviting spots for scavenging food to subsist on for a day or two stop-over. During low tide, Wink has enjoyed seeing mama otters offering their young offspring swimming lessons.

From the Lake’s wooden lookout viewing stand (one of numerous Center projects crafted by area Eagle Scouts), Route 50 traffic is visible off in the distance. The very real proximity of civilization’s ever encroaching danger serves as a daunting reminder just how precious a little thing like bird watching can be, for them, and for us.

For more information visit Chesapeake Bay Environmental Center at bayrestoration.org or call 410-827-6694.

Debra Messick is a retired Dorchester County Public Library associate and lifelong freelance writer. A transplanted native Philadelphian, she has enjoyed residing in Cambridge MD since 1995.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Filed Under: 1 Homepage Slider, Eco Portal Lead, Spy Highlights

Road Recognition Well-Earned for Chesapeake Country by Craig Fuller Spy COVID-19 Daily Update March 15

Letters to Editor

  1. Gail Regester says

    April 10, 2021 at 9:49 AM

    Chestertown has it’s own Kent County Bird Club, which is a part of a larger state organization known as the Maryland Ornithological Society.
    MOS has supported the Environmental Center since it was known as Horsehead Wetlands. Local birders have long supported the CEF in it’s efforts to preserve our wildlife.

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