Hampshire Bird Club

The Berkshire Bird Observatory started operations in 2022. Ben Nickley, BBO’s founder and director, will discuss its origins, aims, current research projects and future endeavors. He will show plenty of pretty pictures of birds in hands and relate stories from our pilot Spring, Summer and Fall seasons at Jug End State Reservation.

Ben Nickley is a researcher with a passion for birds and the natural landscapes they inhabit. Over the past several years Ben has traveled across North America to do field studies in many exceptional places, mixing in college and grad school along the way. Of all the places they’ve been–from the Cypress swamps of the Southeast to the high meadows of the Sierra Nevada–they love nothing more than the Northeastern Deciduous Forest. Ben feels truly privileged to have landed in the Berkshires and to have support from Green Berkshires, BBO’s parent organization. BBO contributes data to Green Berkshires’ four-year South Taconic biodiversity mapping project. Ben hopes to garner continued support from the Berkshire community to ensure the longevity of BBO as a social, scientific and conservation institution in this wonderful region.