By Cathy Miller

A photographer, artist, environmentalist, teacher, and an accomplished birder, Brian Butler considers himself “a Warren County kind of guy.” He faithfully crosses the Musconetcong River twice a day, traveling between Washington and his hometown of Hampton, visiting several locations and their various bird populations.

He says, “I have places I like to check. I actually had some green wing teal at Mill Pond for the Audubon Christmas count. That was a real treat – we usually don’t see them that much. I check up and down the Musconetcong, and go to Asbury-Bloomsbury Road to watch for hawks and other birds. Sometimes I just drive, sometimes I see a nice red tail hawk and stop.” Brian’s penchant for birding pit stops began while he was teaching, seeking ways to avoid Route 31 on his commute.

Currently Brian is a substitute teacher at Memorial School in Washington, where he taught special education, along with 4th and 5th grades, for 27 years, retiring only two years ago.

Of his time spent at the head of the class, he admits, “I love 4th graders, they can do stuff. They’re realizing there’s something outside of town, beyond mom and dad – there’s a whole world out there. They really get the global concept. I think they’re the best people on the planet!”

For 20 years, Brian volunteered to run a before-school birding club at Memorial School as well as serving as teacher advisor for the Karen Nash Memorial Butterfly Garden Club on the school’s grounds.

Nowadays he volunteers with the Musconetcong Watershed Association. He takes children on birding walks along the River and teaches them how to use binoculars. When a child expresses a real interest in the binoculars, he grins and says he advises them to tell mom and dad to buy them a pair, “It’s not a toy, it’s a tool.”

“I’ve led birding walks. I’ve conducted evening programs too, “Birding 101.” I liked that a lot.” Laughing, Brian said, “I discovered I actually know more than I thought I did – you have to go over so many basic things with the attendees.”

The house where Brian and his wife Deb reside is the house his father was born in. “It’s been in our family since 1889.” Brian described it saying, “It’s an old railroad boarding house, older than the street it’s on. It faces the railroad because the Irish migrant workers would get rooms here.” Brian lived in a couple houses in the area, ultimately moving back into his childhood home. He recalled, “I’m the fifth of nine kids. We had so much fun in this house.” He added, “No story about me would be complete without mentioning my girls by name, Gidget (a retired therapy dog) and Lulu (a rescue), two Shih Tzus.”

Recognized for his bird photography, what piqued his interest? Brian always loved birds, as far back as he can remember. “I’m Irish Catholic and the Irish have a strong literary tradition. We were the only ones in the neighborhood that had encyclopedias in their house. Maybe it was the town. Maybe the county! When I was very young, probably around four years old, my mother was starting to teach me my letters. Brian Butler. Obviously B. I thought that the B-book was kind of mine. Going through it she showed me photos, charts, columns, and all these letters, all in black and white. But when we hit the colored plates for Birds, I thought my head was going to explode. I vividly remember those plates. I couldn’t believe the variety, I’m not sure I thought they were real or not, there were so many colors and shapes. I couldn’t stop looking at them. They piqued my interest. The toucan was my favorite, the keel billed toucan, (think Froot Loops).”

The Butlers were into sports, especially the Yankees, playing outside and such. But Brian always noticed the birds. He recalled, “Right after college I figured, I’m not playing soccer or baseball, but I’ve got to find something to stay active. I liked being outside. I loved birds. Let’s go for that. So I went to New Jersey Audubon’s Scherman Hoffman Wildlife Sanctuary, a nature preserve in Bernardsville. I used to go on their Saturday morning walks. Eventually, I went on a trip I’d been dreaming about for 20 years to Costa Rica. My niece Patty came with me, which was just a thrill. She was just out of college, not even a birder, but we had the best time, we laughed all day long. On that trip I saw a lot of keel billed toucans (a “life bird” – a species I just saw and identified in the wild for the very first time) and other birds I’d discovered in the old encyclopedia. It came full circle.”

Brian and Deb are traveling to Ireland in June. “My wife thinks we’re touring. I think we’re birding,” he explained. “I will typically get two hours of birding in before she gets up and has her breakfast scone and tea. Then she’ll join me for a while.”

Brian is excited to explore the southwest part of Ireland, Ring of Kerry, Dingle, Galway, and check out the cliffs, the nesting birds. He painted an oral picture, describing the beauty of the area. “Huge gannet colonies, puffins, and other sea birds. Some cliffs are sheer rocks. There are small towns, and farms that go right down to the ocean. Rocks all over. Miles and miles of rock walls, like a green checkerboard that goes on and on down to the ocean.”

Brian was invited to accompany an eight person team from the Raptor View Research Institute (raptorview.org), in Missoula, Montana the first week of October 2021, the high point of migration, to help with banding eagles. The way he spoke about the experience was especially edifying. “I never dreamed I’d do something like that. It’s like a closed club. You can’t simply sign up and go. You have to know somebody who’s earned their way to be there.” Of the opportunity to work with this group that researches and monitors raptors, Brian admitted, “I was very fortunate to be invited.”

“Bald eagles only weigh 10 or 11 pounds,” he noted, adding, “There’s not a lot of bird in that bird, they’re all feathers, more feathers than you imagine! And so the strength of their muscles, and the structure of their anatomy and configuration, it’s very interesting. The wings come through and attach to their chests. That’s where the muscle is.”

He said, “I have a certain amount of ‘cred’, since I’ve been going up to Raccoon Ridge counting hawks for the Hawk Migration Association of North America’s Raptor Migration Database for over 20 years. I go every autumn day. It’s a long hike to Raccoon Ridge on the Appalachian Trail near Blairstown. Once there, you hurry up and wait. You sit there. Some days I’ll be disappointed if I don’t see 50 or 60 hawks. On a great day you could see 2,000 – certain days, certain hawks, certain times of year, certain winds.” The average number of hawks from full-time counts at Raccoon Ridge is 15,000/season. Check out hawkcount.org/raccoonridge.

What about photographic equipment? Brian’s a Canon guy. “Right around college and after, I studied photography a bit and nearly got it down. But film was expensive. I just couldn’t afford to do it properly.”

Years later, when digital came along, he jumped into the photography foray once more. “Now I’ve got something I can work with,” Brian said. He’s not especially interested in the mechanics of a camera, admitting, “I’m not a technical person. I’m not a numbers person. That part of my brain does not compute.”

Brian spoke of the pleasure of birding. “You can do it from your kitchen window. You can go by yourself, as a couple, or with ten people. You can join a formal group. There are great bird walks in the city, too.” He’s solo about 60% of the time.

In closing, Brian summed up birding in the Garden State. “The one thing birders have going for them in New Jersey is the variety of habitats. More bird species have been spotted in New Jersey than all the other states, except Alaska, Texas, California and Florida. We’re a little state, but we have the Highlands and mountains, forests, farms, the shoreline, and wetlands,. We’re the northern range of a lot of southern birds, and the southern range of a lot of northern birds. We’re on a major migratory path. If you want a hobby you can do really well, this is a good place for birding!”

PHOTOS: Brian Butler and his tools of the trade (above), at the Musconetcong River, by Cathy Miller. Photos below by Brian Butler. They include, a female common merganser with young in the Musconetcong River, golden eagle release in Minnesota, osprey with fish over the Musconetcong River, and Brian’s “girls” – Gidget (Shih Tzu) and Lulu (Shih Tzu mix).