Sometimes those birdwatchers spot some really upset neighbors

[Donna]

Sandra Keller chases birds all over America, even to places where birders are as rarely seen as their subjects.

The Barrington, Camden County, woman once drove up to New Hampshire for a chance to glimpse a wayward African bird called a western reef heron.

In her travels across Commercial Township and other favorite birding spots, she has become sensitive to how strangers perceive her.

"Once I was looking at a barn owl in Salem County toward dusk. Because it was near the Salem nuclear power plants, the State Police showed up. I don't go to that road now," she said.

Last month, a Massachusetts man who said he was birdwatching was arrested after police decided he was behaving suspiciously.

Paul Peterson, 47, of Boston, was charged Jan. 5 with disorderly conduct, assault and resisting arrest after his binoculars drew the attention of neighbors near a Massachusetts marsh.

Peterson said he did nothing wrong and plans to fight the charges.

"It just so freaked me out. It's a shame that it's caused me not to enjoy birdwatching as much," he said.

Peterson's first court appearance is scheduled for Feb. 22. Whether he is found guilty or not, birders said conflicts and misunderstandings are not uncommon, especially in congested New Jersey, where few natural areas are far from neighborhoods.

Don Freiday, director of birding programs at the New Jersey Audubon Society, said police have stopped to question him at least five times while he was birding.

"One of the most memorable was when I was along the north shore of Monmouth County. I had a birding scope on my gun stock and an officer mistook it for a real weapon," Freiday said.

After that experience, Freiday decided the convenience of the modified scope was not worth the dangers a similar mistaken assumption could pose, and he no longer uses it.

Not even the late Roger Tory Peterson, one of the world's most famous birders, was beyond reproach.

In 1942, Peterson was photographing goldfinches in Long Island, N.Y., when neighbors reported him to police as a suspicious character, according to Elizabeth J. Rosenthal's biography "Birdwatcher."

Fortunately for Peterson, the officer recognized him as a famous naturalist. But the biography noted that birders faced unique challenges during World War II.

"Because of their binoculars, birders were suspected of spying," Rosenthal wrote.

The modern birder is more likely to run afoul of homeland security.

Scott Shalaway, a newspaper columnist from Cameron, W.V., goes birding in Cape May every year on his family vacations in Sea Isle City and Avalon, and said he has run into problems in the past.

"I was birding on a public road near a power plant along the Ohio River. They have lots of natural areas near power plants. It's a birdy place," he said. "Within two minutes of getting out of the car, a security agent pulled up and quizzed me about why I was looking at the power plant. With my spotting scope and binoculars, I thought it seemed obvious what I was doing."

In New Jersey, parks and refuges are never far from residential neighborhoods.

"I think there will be more conflicts. It's important for birders to be sensitive to it," Shalaway said.

Once, police in Texas stopped Audubon's Freiday because he was too near an oil refinery, he said.

"Another time I was birding the Raritan Bay area near the Earle Naval Weapons Station shortly after 9-11. I was looking at ducks in the bay. This Navy patrol boat came storming over at high speed," Freiday said.

The sailors aboard the boat sized him up and must have decided he posed no threat to national security. They turned around and retreated.

Cindy Ahern, of Huntingdon Valley, Pa., spends weekends birding in Cape May and Cumberland counties. She said she got into an argument with a neighbor once when she tried to photograph a hawk in their yard.

In her experience, most people who live near public parks and refuges are accustomed to seeing birders. But reactions can vary when she goes off the beaten path.

"If they can't understand it, they'll question it," she said. "Looking at it from the outside, someone with no interest or knowledge will ask questions. They don't get it."

The American Birding Association promotes a birding code of ethics, which includes a healthy respect for private property. The Cape May Bird Observatory in Middle Township lectures birders not to train binoculars on homes or businesses.

Freiday said most of the neighbors he has encountered while birding are tolerant about the activity. Birding and other ecotourism is big business in New Jersey, generating more than $500 million each year in Cape May County alone according to a 2006 study.

"I think people probably by now can recognize a birder when they see one," he said.