AL SCHELL/Courier-Post Ed McHugh, adjunct faculty member at Rutgers-Camden, does some bird watching on campus. ON THE WEB To learn more about the species of birds Ed McHugh has seen at Rutgers-Camden, go to www.birds.camden. rutgers.edu/. ADVERTISEMENT Advertise with us!

If you visit Rutgers University-Camden, you would expect to see flocks of college students congregating at the student center or outside the campus quad.

What you might not expect too see is the variety of birds that flock to the inner-city campus.

Mockingbirds, catbirds and even New Jersey's state bird, the goldfinch, are among the university's nonmatriculating, high-flying inhabitants.

Ed McHugh, an adjunct faculty member at Rutgers-Camden for 25 years, teaches Introduction to Business Computing. He also has brought his love for birds to the campus, recording the various species on the Web site www.birds.camden.rutgers.edu/.

"It all started about five or six years ago," says McHugh, 58, a Sicklerville resident.

"I started parking behind the Business and Science Building," he says, "and there were all these mockingbirds in the bushes. I'd go to the Acme, buy yellow raisins and feed them."

McHugh began to catalog his mockingbird encounters and also started to document other birds that were not of the same feather but nonetheless flocked together at the school.

The array of birds McHugh has encountered parallels the steadily increasing diversity of his Web site, which has gradually expanded to include color photographs as well as audio and video clips.

"The Web site started with just a mockingbird page," he says. "I started posting pictures two years ago when I got a camera phone."

McHugh is always delighted when he witnesses new bird species on campus.

"I had never seen the common yellowthroat (a warbler) around this area before," he says.

"I also caught with my video camera a shot of the palm warbler, which was sitting on a fence. I hadn't noticed them, either."

Mike Sepanic, the director of communications at Rutgers-Camden, is among those who believe McHugh's Web site has enhanced the appreciation of natural splendors in this urban milieu.

"We know there's a great diversity of plant life here," says Sepanic, 40, a resident of Gloucester Township. "Yet, the tremendous amount of bird life has been a hidden attribute until Ed McHugh took it upon himself to document it.

"Thanks to Ed, everyone is paying more attention to the birds," he says.

For Sepanic, the winged congregations at Rutgers have an ironic twist.

"Our athletic mascot is the scarlet raptor," he says, "so what better place is there really for these birds to be than here?"

Reach Frank Halperin at (856) 486-2920 or fhalperin@courierpostonline.com.