MONROE - Eunice Brennan's yard at the southern edge of Monroe is filled with birdfeeders and birdhouses. She can sit in her screened-in porch and hear the birds all around her, or watch the birds congregating at feeders just outside a south-facing window.

She leaves out spoonfuls of jelly for the orioles. Usually it's store-bought grape jelly, but sometimes she uses her own homemade raspberry jelly made from the produce of bushes in her garden.

She has the Green-Rock Audubon Society (GRAS) to thank for her relatively late-in-life appreciation of birds. She got involved with the organization in about 1995, after raising nine children and working nearly three decades as a nurse for the Green County Health Department.

After volunteering as secretary, grantwriter, president and board member, Brennan is stepping down this spring from the organization's leadership. She'll be honored for her service today at the Green-Rock Audubon Society's annual International Migratory Bird Fest in Clarno, which includes craft activities for kids and guided hikes.

Brennan is ready to let others lead. "I'm going to be 85 this year," she said. Taking over for Brennan on the board will be Nadine Whiteman, a Monroe Middle School teacher retiring at the end of this school year.

Getting kids excited about birds has been a goal of Brennan's, and she's excited that Whiteman can use her background in education to spearhead efforts to involve younger birders.

"Nadine is retiring, so I caught her just at the right time," Brennan said. "That's what I really thought we should be doing more of: going into schools. I think a lot of kids aren't doing these things because technology is taking up their time."

Brennan still has lots to keep her busy in retirement. She grows asparagus, apples, rhubarb, onions and more in her garden, has about three dozen sheep that pasture on her land every summer, video-chats with her far-flung children and looks after a house cat (dispelling the stereotype that bird people don't like cats).

She'll also continue her enjoyment of birding. She said she's optimistic about the future of the Green-Rock Audubon Society and wants to see it grow stronger here in Green County.

"Birds are beautiful," Brennan said. But bird-watching is about more than aesthetics. Learning about birds has been an eye-opener to environmental concerns and conservation needs, Brennan said, because birds are such a visible and fragile aspect of the local ecosystem.

"You learn so much about the environment," from the impact of agricultural practices to invasive species, she said.

For those new to birding, she recommends several must-do activities in the area.

• Take a guided bird walk with Robert Ault and John Patterson at Cadiz Springs State Recreation Area. Brennan likes going out early, by 5:30 a.m., to experience the early morning cacophony of bird calls.

• Explore Avon Bottoms Wildlife Area with Quentin Yoerger, an expert birder from Evansville.

• Visit Sand Bluff Bird Observatory, located on the Colored Sands Forest Preserve just south of the Wisconsin-Illinois border in Winnebago County at 10602 Haas Road, Durand. Go to sandbluff.org to for details on Birdfest 2015, happening this weekend.

• In downtown Monroe, watch chimney swifts fly in and out of the chimney on the Minhas Distillery building at 1404 13th St.

The owner of the building, Barb Gelbach, says the migratory birds are back now for the summer. Some people confuse them with bats - "they look like a cigar with wings." Watching them organize themselves is a sight to behold. About 200 birds will "circle and circle and one by one go down the chimney," Gelbach said.

Check the website of the Green-Rock Audubon Society, greenrockaudubon.org, for upcoming dates and details of birding activities.