I mostly echo Bill's comments about Drue's post. The seemingly increasing occurrence of over-wintering mimids and hermit thrushes is certainly a trend of recent years. A few northern mockingbirds have been fairly normal sightings in winter for quite a while. We have one at our farm on Flint Ridge in Muskingum County. I saw it last Thursday to kick off the new year. I don't find it incredible that catbirds and thrashers are sticking around more. And yet I remember when I was a youth in the 1960s (back in the Bronze Age) a mockingbird, even in summer was fairly uncommon at 40 North, at least in the places where I was.

I was once a young birder. As I grew into consciousness of the natural world, birds were my first interest. I drew cardinals incessantly when I was in elementary school. When friends were not available for play, I spent hours climbing trees, and watching the birds and squirrels in the backyard woodlot of our house in Whitehall (an eastern Columbus suburb.) My skills were formidable, if I do say so myself. In particular, I got quite good at hearing woodpeckers, nuthatches and brown creepers scratching and poking around the bark of trees. Even when they were not actually pecking I could find them. I would sit for long periods in springtime discriminating the movements of warblers in the forest crown from the fluttering leaves (something for which I no longer have as much patience, I suppose.)

Then for some reason as a teenager I got more interested in rocks and fossils and other distractions (girls.) I didn't take up birdwatching again (or birding as they called it by then) until I turned forty in 1994. I regret this, since I allowed some skills to lapse, and it has  been a challenge to retrain.

My advice is: (if anyone cares) If you are young, keep at it. If you are older, give those young eyes and ears all the respect they deserve. And if a species such as bobolink is seasonally way out of place, respectfully explain this to the bearer of the young eyes and ears, as Bill has done. I will admit that I find the bobolink report a little suspicious as well, but one never knows... They should be in Venezuela or Brazil, shouldn't they? 

As for "young" clubs, they can be fun. I belonged to the "Youth" division of the Saturday Music Club when I was a youth. It was fun meeting and hanging out with other devotees of classical music who were my age. They were in short supply at my schools, what with The Beatles and such. There definitely is a Young Numismatists division of the American Numismatic Society. (I don't know about stamp collectors, but that covers the coins.) They (YNs) seem to as skeptical of us old fogies as we are of them, but the pursuit is available to all, regardless of age. I would say from remembered experience that the club is more fun when the adults are less involved. Adults should just enable the gatherings and stand back.

As for birds, it has been said many times that all you need is a field guide and a cheap pair of binoculars. I would say it is good for ages 3 and up.

Bob Evans
Geologist, etc.
Hopewell Township, Muskingum County (and Lake Forest, CA)
you can do the math for my age

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