Mr. McNeely travels for his passion. Two springs ago, he and 80 others went to a wet, cold island off Alaska and stayed in an old Coast Guard camp - all to see oriental turtle doves, Siberian ruby throats and the like. The Northern Kentucky Bird Club regularly organizes field trips to less exotic locales. At 3 p.m. on March 8, for instance, members will meet in the parking lot of Huntington Bank by Boone Woods Park in Burlington, for several hours of bird observation. ''You'd be amazed at the people from all walks of life who feed and watch birds,'' says Michele Kline of the Wild Bird Center in Fort Mitchell. Some people look for antiques.
Some people look for birds.
It's a challenging pastime, too, requiring as much listening as looking. The experts can stand at the edge of a woods and rattle off birds' names simply by recognizing their songs. For the Cincinnati Bird Club, Mr. Stenger maintains a tape recording of recent sightings in the Tristate. The Cincinnati group also operates a phone network to alert members quickly whenever a rare bird is spotted. That's how Frank Renfrow of Bellevue passed along word of the Iceland Gull at Meldahl Dam.