Some Penn State students have their eyes on the skies.

"If you see these strange people walking around with binoculars, that's us," Penn State Student Club President John Yerger said.

The club, which officially meets every two weeks, also gets together at least once a week at local sites including Colyer Lake, the Scotia Barrens, Bald Eagle State Park and Shaver's Creek.

"We just go out and look around and see which birds we can find," club member Joe Gyekis (senior-life sciences) said. "It's a group of friends, and we have fun just laughing and chatting along the way."

Last weekend, Gina Riggio (senior-nutrition), a new member, took her first road trip with the group to observe birds in Algonquin Provincial Park in Ontario.

"I have not had a whole lot of experience of seeing wildlife animals in their element," she said. "But there's something really fascinating about that."

Riggio said that since she has joined the club, she is more aware of her surroundings.

"When I walk to school and hear birds chirping, I don't just hear birds chirping," she said. "I wonder how many there are -- I try to ask myself which birds are making which sounds. It's just opened up a new curiosity that wasn't really there before."

Gyekis said he thinks the life Riggio has discovered goes unnoticed to most students. "Even day-to-day walking around campus, you can observe some really incredible things," he said. "I've seen a red-tailed hawk capture a squirrel and fly with it at about six feet above the ground, and fly into a tree and eat it -- all the while people walking underneath, totally oblivious to what was going on."

The club gained official status last spring, club member Mike Lohr (senior-wildlife and fisheries science) said, but really took off last fall as a result of Hurricane Isabel.

After searching for birds blown inward from the storm, he and some of his friends spotted a bird known as Cory's Shearwater -- only the second recorded sighting in Pennsylvania. "It was a big, exciting moment for all of us," Lohr said. "So that really showed that there was enough interest and talent at Penn State to warrant a club."

The excitement of the unexpected is one of the most interesting aspects of bird watching, Yerger said.

"I think there's just this basic sense of discovery when you never know exactly what you're going to find," he said. "When you find a new bird or observe a new behavior that's really interesting, I think that's where the thrill comes in."

The group has also participated in a number of volunteer efforts including the Tussey Mountain Hawkwatch, Lohr said. "Tussey Mountain gets one of the largest numbers of golden eagles in the eastern U.S.," he said. "We sit on top and count the hawks, eagles and falcons as they migrate."

Gyekis said a large part of the group's effort goes toward raising money for conservation.

"Over the past 50 years ... the suburbs sprang up and a lot of agricultural land was used up," he said. "So here's been a huge loss in bird habitat."

But for the members of the Student Bird Club, preserving and appreciating the diversity of bird species isn't just hard work -- it's also joy.

"A lot of times it can be a little bit draining on your sleep schedule, but it's really incredible to be able to watch birds you know have been flying all night from who knows how far south," Lohr said.