TCNJ

6 The College of New Jersey Magazine A feather in their cap TCNJ students collect a W in an inaugural birding competition. A flash of red in the branches, a swoop of brown amidst the leaves. Sometimes birding feels like a trick of the eye, until, suddenly — recognition. "It's pure dopamine," says Theresa Musto '27 of the thrill of identifying a bird she's never seen before. On a warm October day, Musto and four fellow students combed Central Jersey as part of the inaugural Wings Over Mercer Bird-A-Thon, a competition sponsored by the Wild Bird Research Group, a Pennington, New Jersey-based nonprofit that monitors bird populations in the state. The students traipsed across meadows and through swamps in search of their elusive winged quarry. Armed with binoculars and bird identification apps, they logged dozens of species, including rare waterfowl and a majestic bald eagle. For the students — some old hands and some fairly new to birding — it was a day of excitement and elation. But the experience was also something more. It was a chance to step outside the classroom and see the world around them in a new way. Biology professor Luke Butler first learned of the friendly competition through a colleague. Butler has studied birds for 20 years, examining how they respond to human impacts on the environment. For example, in a PRAIRIE

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