Birdman of SaddleBrooke
by Jim Hoagland.
Jim has always been fascinated with nature from a very early age. As a young boy his family would explore the woods near his hometown of Covington, IN mushrooming, making maple syrup and growing Christmas trees. He was familiar with birds such as the cardinals, robins, jays, and wrens, but not a “birder” at that time. It was in February 2013 at the young age of 62 that his birding obsession began when some friends invited him to go with them to Belize. He took his camera and was blow away by the beautiful colors of the tropical birds. He has been “hooked” ever since. After that, the San Joaquin Audubon Society, (Stockton, CA) became his birding home. SJAS provided many great birding-mentors thru those beginning years. He went on to serve as Field trip coordinator until moving to SaddleBrooke Ranch in June 2020.
At the Ranch, he has been given the title of “Birdman of SBR”. He regularly posts the birds of SaddleBrooke Ranch on SBR Facebook and Nextdoor. He writes a monthly feature called “Nature’s Way” in the SBR Roundup.
He considers himself a birder who enjoys taking good photos of birds. He and his wife Glenna Matthews both graduated from Purdue before moving to California for careers in construction and Food Science respectively. They enjoy traveling the world as well as the USA where Jim adds to his life list and photographs the birds.
His presentation on October 28th focused on the Five Season of Bird observation here at the Ranch where he has documented over 150 bird species with photos including 65 in his backyard alone since moving here in June of 2020.
