Founded in 1996 by Dean Finley and Jim Poor, the Big Walnut Bird Club currently has around 25 members. The Monthly Bird Watching event is a group hike that is hosted by the Big Walnut Bird Club (BWBC) and led by Carl Huffman a BWBC member and a retired professor from DePauw University. Carl began birding a decade ago and has identified over 100 nesting bird species here in Putnam County with that count going over 200 taking into consideration migrating birds. The group meets early in the morning, at 8:00 a.m., at the DePauw Nature Park and can last anywhere from an hour to several hours depending on the frequency of birds and conversations of the members. Free and open to the public, this is one of many events hosted in cooperation with Putnam Parks & Pathways, a newly established county-wide outdoor recreation organization focused on creating more natural areas and promoting their use to the general public.