8/28/26 | Will Kaselow, Community Conservation Manager

The birds of Baltimore County are starting to show some signs of early fall! One thing I always look forward to is when the blackbirds start to gather. Large flocks of Common Grackles, Red-winged Blackbirds, and European Starlings are starting to build up. This signals that these birds have finished their summer nesting and are returning to the marshes and fields to feast. Sunset is one of the best times to see these flocks, as they return to their roosts for the night. I often see them crossing over roads and highways while driving home at the end of the day.

American Redstart; photo credit: Will Kaselow

The first songbirds have already started their southbound migration, and we hope to document those that stop over at NeighborSpace sites through our bird monitoring program. Our forests have real potential to support migratory and breeding birds. We are currently sitting at 99 species recorded across NeighborSpace sites and hope to break 100 this fall! 

Lucky for us, Baltimore County also supports a healthy and passionate population of birders. This fall, we are partnering with Baltimore Bird Club and select Baltimore County Public Library branches to help us expand the volunteer base for the program. With Baltimore Bird Club, we are hosting three field trips that will introduce birders to Tollgate-Wyndham Preserve (9/5), Levickas Woods (9/19), and Volz Neighborhood Park (10/3). We hope that these trips will draw attention to our wooded sites and encourage birders to visit consistently and become volunteer bird monitors. We are also offering bird identification and monitoring workshops at Baltimore County Public Library branches in Towson (9/19), Essex (10/3), and White Marsh (11/21).

Brown Thrasher; photo credit: Will Kaselow

We have also been in talks with local birders and experts from Audubon about how to best expand our monitoring protocols. This fall, we will experiment with different methods including point counts and transects while continuing to submit eBird checklists at our sites. With the help of local birders, we hope to better understand our forests and inform our stewardship efforts to best support the wildlife using them.