Along the wooded lakes dotting Atterbury Fish and Wildlife Area, a group of residents craned their necks upward.
They stared into the sky, searching out for the rare creature Doug Gray was pointing out. The group had come on a late July Friday night to take advantage of Gray’s knowledge as a birder.
The Franklin resident and pastor had hoped to show them something special, and this was the chance. Passing directly overhead was a large white bird known as a snowy egret — a small white heron.
“It was a first stop of the day, so we’re out there scanning the lake,” Gray said, recounting the experience. “I shared with them that there’s an all-white bird called a snowy egret. We have them in this area, but they’re not as common. As soon as I said that, this big white bird starts coming towards us.”
Gray has found a way to combine his love of birding — and teaching others about birds — while raising money for a good cause. As a participant in this year’s Dancing with the Johnson County Stars, he is generating funds for Gateway Services and Access Johnson County. The nonprofit group serves people with mental or physical disabilities, offering employment programs, respite services and community outings, among other activities. They also run Access Johnson County, the public transit service.
For the past three weekends, Gray has led birdwatching tours to Atterbury Fish and Wildlife Area. The tours continue each Friday evening and Saturday morning through Sept. 2.
“I don’t have the nickname ‘Bird Man’ for nothing,” Gray said.
Gray remembers the moment he fell in love with birds, and birdwatching. He was a 5-year-old boy who was riding on a tractor with his grandfather, a farmer.
Suddenly, he saw something that piqued his interest.
“I saw this bird hovering in the middle of a field. For a 5-year-old, that’s magic,” he said. “I told my grandfather to look at the bird, and looks at me, and stops the tractor. He just marveled with his grandson about this bird.”
The bird turned out to be an American kestrel, or what Gray’s grandfather called a “sparrow hawk.” From that moment on, Gray was hooked on birding.
“Birders sometimes refer to that first bird as a ‘spark bird.’ So that American kestrel was my spark bird,” he said.
Now a pastor at Second Missionary Baptist Church in Franklin, as well as a chaplain at Otterbein SeniorLife Community, Gray has traveled around the country following his passion. He has served as a tour guide for some of birding’s biggest events, including the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival in Texas and the Biggest Week of American Birding, a festival held every May in northwest Ohio.
Gray has served as a past board member for groups such as the Amos Butler Audubon Society in central Indiana and the Black Swamp Bird Observatory in Oak Harbor, Ohio.
Locally, he’s led countless groups for both adults and children to see birds in Johnson County. He’s done bird presentations and outings for Otterbein residents, and did one for the Rotary Club as well.
“I love taking schools out,” he said.
When Gray agreed to represent Gateway Services in this year’s Dancing with the Johnson County Stars, he sat down with the nonprofit’s leadership to discuss ways to raise money for the effort.
Dancing with the Johnson County Stars was in 2014 to play off the popularity of the hit television show, “Dancing with the Stars.” Founder Barb Miller had seen other similar events in central Indiana, and thought it would be a good way to raise money to support area organizations.
The event is a platform allowing small nonprofits to participate in a major event with no financial risk, Miller said. Event sponsors pay all of the costs of the event — printing, venue, dance lessons, etc. The agencies and their dancers do fundraising and keep all of the money they raise.
One of the stipulations is that organizations have to come up with new fundraisers that they’ve never held before. The idea is to help them build something that will generate funding year after year, Miller said.
“What makes this all worthwhile is teaching (nonprofits) what to do and how to do it, giving them some motivation and some competition,” she said.
Gray suggested birding to Becky Allen, director of transportation for Access Johnson County, a subsidiary of Gateway Services, and others in Gateway Services.
“It was just something that came to my mind, and I threw it out there,” he said. “That’s where the idea to do tours at Atterbury came from.”
Starting on July 28, Gray has been leading tours to the southern Johnson County wildlife preserve. Access Johnson County agreed to use one of their transportation vans to shuttle people there and back to Franklin, and Gray uses his experience to point out common and not-to-common birds living in our own backyards.
“We’ve seen some great birds,” he said.
The snowy egret was the star of the first weekend. The following weekend, Gray was out with a group that spotted a blue grosbeak, a blue songbird with a distinctive beak.
“They nest and live here in Indiana, but they’re not likely seen. But there it was, perched up so we could get a look at this bird,” he said.
Another time, the group was able to hear the distinctive call of the northern bobwhite — a rare species that reminded Gray of his childhood on the farm. They didn’t spot it, but standing around Stone Arch Lake, they could hear its song.
“I told them to just be quiet for a second, and they could hear them calling. For me, that was just a wonderful time,” Gray said.
In three weekends — even counting some rainouts — Gray has raised more than $1,000.
With three more weekends before the Dancing With the Johnson County Stars competition, Gray hopes to get more people to go out on the tours.
“It’s turned out pretty good,” he said.
IF YOU GO
Birdwatching tours
What: Local pastor Doug Gray is leading bird-watching tours of Atterbury Fish and Wildlife Area in southern Johnson County. The tours are a fundraiser as Gray competes in Dancing with the Johnson County Stars.
When: 6 p.m. Friday, Aug. 25 and Sept. 1; 8 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 26 and Sept. 2
Where: Tour buses load at the southeast corner of the Kroger parking lot, 970 N Morton St, Franklin. The loading area is near Bob Evans.
Reservations: To reserve a seat on the tour, email Gray at [email protected]. A $30 recommended contribution for each bird-watching tour will support Gateway Services and Access Johnson County.
