On a crisp, cloudless Thursday morning, a group of six people skirts single-file along an asphalt path at the edge of a wooded area at Christia Adair Park near Pearland.

Members of the group occasionally stop as they move along, at times craning their heads upward at steep angles.

At one stop, shortly before they are about to plunge into the woods, a shrill yet hoarse chattering punctuates the 9 a.m. calm. The group's leader, Kristine Rivers, turns and poses a question to the rest: "Do y'all remember that call?"

Nobody does, but that's all right, this is only beginning birdwatching. It's one of the first in a series of classes the city of Pearland launched this fall, drawing on Southeast Texas's robust bird population.

The beginners class is about $94 and a coming intermediate class is close to $100. They both run for eight weeks.

"This area is really big for birding," said Rivers, 49, who lives in Pearland.

The class features lectures on bird calls and behavior mixed with field trips to nearby parks, including the Shadow Creek Ranch Nature Trail, Centennial Park and Christia Adair.

When nobody can answer Rivers' question, she reveals that the mystery sound is coming from a pileated woodpecker, a large, black bird with a fiery red crown and gleaming beak that it uses to riddle trees with holes.

The group passes many such decimated trees as they wind through the woods of Christia Adair and along Clear Creek. Mosquitos swarm the group, but that doesn't deter anyone from stopping and checking out a ruby-crowned kinglet, a tiny ball of feathers that leaps from twig to twig, or a yellow-bellied sapsucker, one of many species of woodpecker found in the area.

Cathryn Restivo, one of the group's participants, reaches into her pouch and whips out a small notebook and scribbles each name down. It's a habit she's picked up during the class.

"You don't leave home without it," she said.

Restivo worked for a CPA and moved to Pearland to be close to her grandchildren. The other five people come from a variety of backgrounds. One moved to Friendswood almost 30 years ago and ships products around the world. Another is a retired oil and gas executive. Another is a newspaper photographer.

Bob Wells is a retired Episcopal priest. He bought land in Pearland to build a house with the intention of retiring in the suburb. Wells, 76, calls himself shy. But he says two reasons drew him to the class, which he saw in a newspaper advertisement: he wanted to get outdoors and he wanted to learn something he knew nothing about.

His favorite bird so far is the roseatte spoonbill - the group spied some on a previous trip and he describes in detail the long bill that ends in a flat, pancakelike shape, the feathers tinged with pink.

"This is one of the things I decided I would get into," Wells said.

Wells downloaded an app on his iPhone where he can look up photos of the birds he's seen. He swipes through them along the walk.

Like Wells, most of the group found out about the class in a newspaper advertisement. They all share a passion for being outdoors, and being with others who share that desire.

"It's just a good group," said Karen Scott, one of the participants who lives in Pearland. "I'm never been here in this park. I've driven by it. I'm getting to know Pearland."

Rivers takes the group on a loop through Christia Adair before they drive, in a caravan, just across Cullen Boulevard into neighboring Tom Bass Park. It's about 10 a.m. now, and people are jogging along Tom Bass' trails.

Rivers and the group park and walk up to an area along a park's pond. A man fishes while a mother and her baby throw crumbs to a gaggle of geese.

Rivers' eyes catch a small, brownish bird, bobbing up and down at the edge of the lake, a spotted sandpiper. She had scouted the place out the week before and brought the group here to see if the sandpiper had hung around.

Rob Crenshaw, 66, is confused about what family the bird belongs to.

"Is it a plover? Is a sandpiper a plover?" Crenshaw asks.

"Well, plovers are sandpipers," Rivers responds.

Rivers herself is a lifelong "birder." At age 14, she went to her first Christmas Bird Count, an event where people try and count as many different types of birds in one setting, usually around Christmas.

She studied zoology at the University of Oklahoma. She ended up being an art major, and worked administrative jobs before her current position in web design that gives her flexible hours and allows her to spend time doing what she loves.

She has a patient way with the participants, describing with pinpoint accuracy where a tiny bird is flitting around in relation to crooks in branches and forks in tree trunks.

As the group walks along, she points out the calls of a blue jay and red-shouldered hawk and types of holes in trees created by different woodpeckers.

The class is a perfect size, Rivers said, for her to be effective, and she's enjoying every minute of it.

"If it gets much larger, it gets hard for everyone to see," Rivers said.

Next year, Rivers will step it up: she's teaching an intermediate class that will go on field trips to places like Brazos Bend State Park. That starts on Jan. 14.

For more information, visit pearlandparks.com. Registration for next year's classes opened Dec. 7 for recreation center members and opens Dec. 14 for the general public.