It has caught on with all ages because it is an inexpensive hobby. All a bird-watcher needs is a set of binoculars and a field guide to help identify the birds, he said. Shank, who is a board member of the Lancaster County Bird Club, has been interested in birds since his childhood as a result of the love of birds his mother instilled in him. He has actively participated in bird-watching for the past 20 years. When he and his late wife, Anna, went on a nature weekend at Camp Hebron in Harrisburg, they met the president of the Lancaster County Bird Club, Harold Morrin, who invited them to attend a club meeting.
Meetings are open to the public.
At the meeting, members report on field trips, telling what birds they saw and noting any unusual birds or ordinary birds doing unusual things or even an unusual number of common birds. The program usually consists of slides on a nature topic like birds, flowers, butterflies. Shank also goes birding one morning a week with another group of 25 birders, led by naturalist Lee Amigh of the Lancaster County Parks. This group takes field trips mostly in Lancaster County, with occasional jaunts outside the county to Conowingo Dam or Berks County. The county bird club does more extensive traveling to find birds in such places as the seashore, Chincoteague, Va., or Canada.