CRESAPTOWN — Two local teens have broken bird-watching records in Allegany County with two months left to spare. Ben McGrew and Aiden Flynn were tied with 216 birds seen in Allegany County in a year.
McGrew, who is 18 and a 2025 Calvary Christian homeschool graduate, has been birding for over five years, and has broken Allegany County’s Big Year record of 213 birds seen in a calendar year.
“It was during the winter of 2020, my dad actually bought a big bag of bird seed for my brother for Christmas and a little bird field guide,” McGrew said. “He was pretty young at the time, so he didn’t really take interest in it. That was obviously when COVID started, and we were all stuck indoors and I got bored so I decided to spread the seed across the porch and see what happens, see what birds were coming to the yard.”
McGrew documents the birds on a website called eBird where he and others can document when, where and what birds were seen. Through the website he has been able to connect with other local birders.
“I’ve been really blessed with mentors, like some people a little bit older than me that are really good with birds and one of my friends, Aaron, he would take me out when I was first starting,” McGrew said. “And we’d go around to some local hot spots for some stuff and I’ve just learned a lot from them.”
As he dove deeper into the world of birding, he began to develop an appreciation for photography as well.
“I got into (photography) kind of parallel to birds at the same time,” McGrew said. “If I found something like a rare bird and I wanted to report that on something like eBird, it’s good to have a photo of that rare bird, and just kind of as proof, I wanted people to believe me so that’s kind of why I got the camera in the first place.”
He said as time went on, he has spent more time capturing polished, professional photos, which has now expanded beyond birds and wildlife.
McGrew observes birds all around the county, but primarily in Cumberland and Cresaptown.
McGrew thought he had broken the record three years ago in 2022.
“I thought I had broken this record a couple years ago in 2022, I thought the record was set by somebody else — I thought it was 210, so I hit 211,” he said. “I was like ‘OK, I got it’ and then later found out the record’s 213. So, that was frustrating.”
He said breaking the record this year felt rewarding.
“The truth is, it does take a lot of work,” McGrew said. “There’s a lot of days that I’ve gone out looking for stuff, spent five hours in the morning working around a lot of spots, and then didn’t turn anything up for the list. There’s a lot of days you feel like going home, and then keep pushing for a little longer, and you get something new, you find something rare.”