• Ross Cunningham •
• Originally published January 22, 2009 at 11:53 a.m., updated January 22, 2009 at 11:53 a.m.

Matagorda County and surrounding counties were invaded with 170 birders from the Texas Ornithological Society. The birders were equipped with binoculars, scopes and a birding manual and were here at Bay City for the TOS convention, which was held at Best Western Matagorda Hotel and Conference Center in Bay City on Thursday, Jan. 15 through Saturday, Jan. 17. Ornithological is the scientific study of birds. The Matagorda County Birding Nature Center and the Bay City Nature Club hosted the event. Bay City Nature Cub and Matagorda County Birding and Nature Center member Marilyn Sitz was one of the tour guides to the Matagorda County Birding Nature Center and the Sitz ranch on Saturday to look at birds. Society members Ed Findley and Mary Findley from the Woodlands in Houston were a part of the tour group with Sitz that started at daybreak at the center. “The center is really nice and it far exceeded our expectations,” said Ed Findley. “We saw at the center a yellow rump warbler, downy woodpecker, common yellow throat warbler. Another member of the tour group, Bob Leeper from Bellaire in Houston said that all birds are neat birds. “My wife, Mary Leeper got me started in birding a year ago,” said Leeper. “She is a serious birder and I tag along to take photos of the birds.” The Leepers said, that during their visit here in Bay City, one of their favorite birds was the Kingbird. On Friday the birders in Sitz group ate lunch at the Blessing Hotel. “We went to the Blessing Hotel and had lunch and it is a wonderful place to eat,” said Bob Leeper. “It’s like having a home cooked meal. My wife and I had a wonderful time in our stay in Matagorda County and we saw 55 species of birds.” David Sarkozi is from Houston and he is the past president of the society. He has been a member for 11 years. “ I started birding when I was in the eighth grade after reading Kenn Kaufman’s book ‘Kingbird Highway,’ ” said Sarkozi. “The book is about a 16-year-old teenager who decides to hit the road and travel across America. When he started the quest it was just a game to count as many birds along the way but it became a quest for a deeper understanding of nature in the world.” The society also has a century club for members to join, which he is a member, Sarkozi said. The society encourages its members to be a part of the century club. The club’s challenge is to record a 100 species of birds in 100 Texas counties and Texas has 254 counties. “Most birders probably spend the majority of their time in 20 counties, which is just 8 percent of the Texas counties,” said Sarkozi. “The Century Club was created to get birders to record birds in more than the traditional spots.” Sarkozi has been to 14 counties and has recorded a 100 species of birds, he said. In Matagorda he has spotted 130 species of birds. Another avid birder and society member Lynn Barber from Fort Worth holds the U.S. record of 777 species spotted in one year. She has also spotted and recorded 440 different species of birds found in Texas. Her favorite bird that she has spotted is the spotted owl, which she observed in Arizona. The oldest society member at the convention is Ethel Kutar, 82, from Austin, who has been a life member since 1975. She became a birder because of her brother Edward Kutac. Kutac was a member of the society and an author of a book called “Texas Birds and Where to Find Them.” Ethel Kutac had a wonderful time visiting Matagorda County and she enjoyed eating seafood at Baytown Seafood in Van Vleck, she said. The keynote speaker at the convention was Bob Sargent from Clay, Ala. Sargent is the founder of the “Hummingbird Study Group, Inc. Sargent said that the all American bird is the ruby throated hummingbird and that is the species that he uses to train bird banning with at his home. Some of the hummingbirds that he has banded are ruby throated, Rufus, buff belly and albino. The hummingbird can fly up and down, forwards and backward and up side down.

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