As a teenager growing up on a dairy farm near Easton, Dave Bent often hunted for squirrels, rabbits, quail, doves, and ducks. And even back then, he had a deep appreciation for their fluid movement and vivid colors, especially of the waterfowl.
“I remember once, when I was hunting, and I saw some wood ducks come up,” Bent remembers. “They were so beautiful that I couldn’t shoot them.”
But it was another 15 years before he had a major change of heart.
“I was always concerned about nature and the changes in habitat,” Bent says. “If I’d known the changes in agriculture would change the habitat and cause the loss of the bobwhite quail, I would not have hunted them. The same with ducks. Their population has fallen off so badly, due to loss of habitat and things like that.”
So, at around age 30, Bent switched from hunting to bird watching—specifically observing ducks, with binoculars and a telescope.
“I saw them when I was very young, and they were beautiful,” says the 81-year-old retired printing industry executive. “They’re just a beautiful bird.”
When Bent retired at age 65, he wanted to do volunteer work. So, he spent two years at the Jean Ellen duPont Shehan Audubon Sanctuary, in Talbot County. Then he moved on to the Pickering Creek Audubon Center in Easton, where he eventually became secretary of its governing board.
His extensive volunteer work centers around birds. He’s seen most of the 218 species that have been documented at the center. Pickering Creek’s mission is educating young people about the natural habitat and eco-systems, and the challenges they are facing.
Bent has proven to be an invaluable volunteer with all his bird work and his maintenance of the center’s 440 acres of habitat. This includes everything from grass cutting to bush removal to invasive weed control.
“It’s hard to find someone with his dedication,” says Mark Scallion, the center’s director. “And because he has such a broad array of interests, it makes him unique. He’s always willing to come out and help us to make sure we are prepared for all the students we work with. Dave is really a leader. He’s relied on to keep things humming from a facilities standpoint.”
Bent, a Trappe resident, runs the organization’s bluebird nesting program, which is vital, because bluebirds don’t have any natural nesting habitats anymore. The center has built 70 nest boxes around Talbot County on four loops of trails around the edges of fields. He trains the team of volunteers who monitor the boxes.
He also maintains the loop trails and builds and repairs the bluebird boxes, which can be heavily damaged through the winter.
“Bluebirds are pretty much dependent on having these boxes to nest in, and I am helping them thrive” Bent says. Bent compiles all the data gathered by his crew of volunteers and shares it with the staff at the center.
“It’s a fair amount of work to make all that happen,” Scallion says. “There are few things here that require no attention from our staff, and that’s one of them. He just totally takes care of it.”
Bent also gives walking bird tours for students on the grounds of Pickering Creek and trains the seasonal educators who work with young people throughout the school year. “People tend to get more excited about the birds when they meet Dave,” Scallion says. “He’s been good at connecting people with the birds.”
Bent’s love of feathered creatures goes beyond Pickering Creek. He’s been a member of the Talbot County Bird Club since 2009 and has traveled to six different states, including South Carolina and Colorado, for bird watching trips.
“He’s very passionate about the birds,” says Wayne Bell, a fellow member of the bird club and a Pickering Creek volunteer who sets up all the bird monitoring programs. “Bird watching is one of the fastest growing hobbies in the U.S. and he can’t get enough.”
For more information about Pickering Creek Audubon Center, visit pickering.audubon.org.
