The Birds are Coming!

Cooper's Hawk

“I don’t mean to interrupt you, but I have an American Bittern.”  Camouflaged in the cattails of Navarre Marsh was a sneaky wading bird pretending to be a cattail.  It’s neck was stretched and he was looking straight up into the sky.  If it weren’t for Greg Links of the Toledo Naturalists, I would not have seen the Bittern.  Greg, simply put, is a birder.  To have him, Kenn and Kim Kaufman, and numerous other great birders from Northwest Ohio in the same group is a dream come true for someone doing a big year.

Our trip to Navarre Marsh this past Sunday made me feel like a birder with a VIP pass.  Not only did we have many experts on hand to help us with any bird related questions, but we were birding in a location that is only open to outsiders a couple times a year.  Navarre Marsh is located right next to the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station.  The answer to your question is no.  I did not see any birds with four eyes.  There were more than a few birders, however, for which the moniker may have been appropriate.

Zoom in on the American White Pelicans

The field trip was an all around success.  In addition to the American Bittern, we were able to spot a Black-crowned Night Heron, an Eastern Kingbird, a Blackpoll Warbler, and a first of the year Yellow Warbler.  Although we saw them in Florida at very close range, it was still cool to see two American White Pelicans soar over the marsh.  A Yellow-throated Warbler was also spotted, but I unfortunately was on the far end of the line of people looking at the bird and did not see it.  The day was capped off by an extra close up view of a second year Cooper’s Hawk. The bird had been found in the nets at the banding station located at the marsh.  Ryan Steiner of the Black Swamp Bird Observatory held onto the feisty bird as many in the group snapped photos and listened to Kenn Kaufman and Mark Shieldcastle explain some of field marks.  Cooper’s Hawks are difficult to identify due to the fact that a Sharp-shinned Hawk is nearly an identical twin.  Big Year rules don’t allow me to count a captured bird, even after you see it released.  Even if that weren’t the case I don’t think I would count it anyways.  It would feel like cheating.

I know I’ve said this before, but the first two weeks in May can offer some of the best birding in Northwest Ohio.  This is why the Black Swamp Bird Observatory holds The Biggest Week in American Birding Festival from May 3 to May 12.  Think birding isn’t popular?  Take a trip out to Magee Marsh sometime during the next two weeks.  BSBO and other organizations have not only popularized birding through this event, but they have continued to bring more and more dollars to area businesses year after year.  Perhaps if we need another economic stimulus package President Obama would consider the enormous potential of birding as fuel for an ailing economy.  

Please check out all the activities that are offered during the Biggest Week.  There are an unbelievable number of options offered during the festival.  I will be volunteering on May 4 and May 5 as a driver for a couple of the tours.  I am very excited about this, and I hope you make a point to get out and enjoy the birds during this very optimal time of the year.  Happy birding!

Bird Count: 189

Recent Notables: Chimney Swift (Greenlawn Cemetery, Delta)

Brandon's Big Year for Little Birders

A good friend of mine gave me the idea to do a young birders’ series on this blog.  I created a page on Facebook for the wee lads to post pictures, drawings, and any other bird or nature related things.  I will have a challenge each week through the middle of June in which kids can respond by posting their pictures directly to the Facebook page.  This week’s challenge is to draw the Ohio state bird, the Northern Cardinal.  Everytime someone posts to a challenge through June they will be entered into a drawing for a very birdy prize.  I haven’t decided hat that might be yet.

Brandon’s Big Year for Little Birders is meant to encourage kids and their parents to get outside and discover nature together.  When I was little I couldn’t stand being indoors.  I needed to get out and run around.  Today, more and more children prefer video games to physical activity.  Those are fun too, but kids need to move!

In the coming weeks I will be announcing events in which parents and their children can take advantage of offerings from a few of the organizations around Northwest Ohio that specialize in nature fun.  There should be more than enough options to choose from.  

In other news, migration is already getting crazy!  I’ve added 40 birds in April so far, and eight of them have been life birds.  For those who don’t know, the first two weeks in May is the best time to go birding in Northwest Ohio.  The pictures below, taken by Carl Brywczynski, are just a small representation of what’s coming our way.  Get out to Magee Marsh, Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge, or just the closest park near your neck of the woods.  The birds are coming!

Black-throated Green Warbler 

Hooded Warbler

Carolina Wren

Blue-headed Vireo

Yellow Warbler

Wilson's Warbler

Guest Blogger: Captain Dave Hunt

Captain Dave isn't always this serious

Captian Dave Hunt is a professional fishing and bird guide.  He is a Coast Guard licensed Master Captain and Florida Master Naturalist.  He is also a new friend.  My wife and I had the pleasure of taking one of Dave's birding tours back in January.  If interested in a tour, visit Dave's Everglades Birding page.  Thank you Dave for contributing to my blog!

To anyone coming to Everglades National Park to bird, I would like to give some personal insight.  First of all, I get told a million times a year “I can’t wait to go to the Everglades to see birds.”  Many go to Everglades City to stay and see them. I want everyone to know that Everglades City is a little town on the edges of a mangrove estuary that has few birds.  Don’t waste your time folks. The second thing is that the Everglades is only 25% of the park.  You drive through it in 2 minutes after passing the Coe Center. The park consists of seven different habitats from everglades (wetlands) to cypress to mangroves and pinelands. Birding from the road on the edge of the Everglades is barely worth it.  Forget a hike through the Everglades. Ever try and walk through a wetland to bird with razor sharp sawgrass 5 feet high in muck? Airboat ride? The machine will scare every bird for miles.  Seeing your guide feed alligators bread for the highlight is also illegal. 

Now that you have entered the park there are birds and lots of them.  Follow the roads to places like Royal Palm and Paroutis Palm, and walk the numerous trails and go see birds like passerines, freshwater marsh birds and, yes, alligators.

December through April is the best time to bird in the ‘Glades’.  The bugs are low and the migrants are a plenty. The area at Flamingo where the 38 mile long Ingraham Highway ends is in the heart of the Atlantic flyway, but many of the park’s feathered visitors are from the Mississippi Flyway. This is where the shoreline meets Florida Bay, and what I call the Vatican of birding for peeps, shorebirds and wading birds. Marine mammals and crocodile’s also make a living here. This is extreme birding.  Florida Bay is over half a million acres in size, averages 3 feet in depth and consists of basins, channels and flats. Over six thousand five hundred years ago it was a freshwater marsh. This is where the birds can be seen feeding by the thousands as peregrine falcons, seagulls, terns, swallow tailed kites, bald eagles and ospreys fly overhead keeping watch for opportunities. I time my trips to the bay when the water is low, exposing the mudflats. Puddling of water in low spots on the flats and in small channels a few feet wide create feeding zones for these birds. Small worms, mollusks, crabs, shrimp and fish by the millions are on the menu. Some of the offshore islands have bird rookeries with tenants like nesting brown pelicans and spoonbills.  Sandbars can be filled with many varieties of terns and gulls. A half day trip can result in over 50 species of birds viewed, and can rank at the top of one’s life experiences.  Come on down to South Florida.  I’d love to show you around.

My Wife: The Super Birder

Great-horned Owl

Ever since I’ve known my wife, she has always been a personal source of inspiration.  She is smart, beautiful, and doesn’t take crap from anybody.  Her toughness more than makes up for my, lets say, lack of toughness.  When she sets out to do something there’s not a whole lot that can stop her.  Last Sunday was no exception.

After dropping off the little one with my mom and dad (thank heavens for grandparents), Elissa and I set out for the birding meccas east of the great city of Toledo.  Our first stop was Maumee Bay State Park.  I don’t always stop here, but my dad had spotted Caspian Terns, Forster’s Terns, and one Northern Goshawk the day before.  All three were missing from my list.  Unfortunately, we only picked up the Caspian.

The rest of the day saw us stopping at Metzger’s, Ottawa, and Magee Marsh.  When we stopped at Magee I ran inside to the nature center to try to get some information from the very nice lady who works the weekend shift.  She, per usual, was very helpful.  She showed me the location of where several Long-eared Owls were hanging out back on the boardwalk.  I jumped back in the car and cruised back towards the lake.  Long-eared’s were not just missing from this year’s list, but also from my life list.

Once we got on the boardwalk we wasted little time getting to the spot.  A crowd of people were standing there already so we knew we hadn’t missed them.  Tucked deep into the brambles were three really cool looking birds (Several people reported four, but we could only locate three).  While checking em’ out, I started talking to one of the other birders in the crowd.  He asked if I had seen the Eastern Screech Owl by the bridge on the boardwalk.  At this point I was down right giddy.  Owls have always been a difficult brand of bird for me.  Could I add two of them in one day?

Yes.  Yes is the answer.  A tiny little gray phased Screech Owl was sitting on a little vine up against a big tree, blocking itself from the wind coming in off the lake.  Super cool.  But not good enough for my wife.  Finding an owl when you already have a general location is not that hard.  She wanted to find one all on her own.  

After we got our owls we decided to take a walk on the Estuary Trail by the beach.  The usual suspects were out on the lake.  Ruddy Ducks, Scaups, Bufflehead, and Cormorants dotted the water as far as the eye could see.  As we made the turn on the west side of the trail, we watched two immature Bald Eagles strike fear in every duck on the inland pond.  Again, I see Bald Eagles all the time, but they’re still very impressive to watch.

As we were finishing up the Estuary Trail, Elissa stopped and eyed something at the top of a dead tree that looked like it had been cut in half.  “Does that look like fur or feathers or something”, she said.  I got my glasses on it and immediately got excited.  It was a tail.  A big tail.  We went around to the parking lot.  I set up my scope and zeroed in on the stumpy looking tree.  Looking back at me was one open eyeball of a Great Horned Owl!  A three owl day for two people who usually curse owls for being so hard to find.  The best part, of course, was that my wife found one of them all by herself.  At the end of the day we had seen over 70 species, and I had added 8 new birds to the Big List.  

I’m very excited about the upcoming posts I have planned.  The Big Year Blog will have it’s first guest blogger, and will begin a Young Birders Series.  I will be involved with several competitive birding events in the coming months, one in which I will referee several non-birders (my ridiculous friends) in a crazy competition down in Georgia.  If you haven’t been outside lately you need to break free from the house and enjoy the outdoors.  Migration is here!

The Big Year Map

Here's a map I've been working on with all the locations of where I've spotted all 150 (and counting) species.  Click on the little blue bubbles and it will show you the birds I've seen at each location.  In the future you can get to this map by clicking the link on the right.


View Big Year Birding Locations in a larger map

Bob the Birder

Kirtland's Warbler (Cornell)

For those of you who know me, you know that I have occasionally let my temper get the best of me.  A certain fist-meets-wall story comes to mind.  The wall won.  That said, I can only remember one time in particular in which I was really ticked off during birding.  

I must have been 12 or 13 years old.  We were birding during the height of spring migration, and the warblers were falling out of the sky.  Black-throated Blue, Black-throated Green, Bay-breasted, Chesnut-sided, Cape May, Blackburnian, and even the elusive Hooded Warbler was spotted.  We honestly could have looked in any direction and there would be a beautiful neo-tropical migrant flitting around.  The first bird of the day was a stunning male Canada Warbler.  I stood a couple feet off the road just east of the main boardwalk entrance at Magee Marsh.  There used to be a broken down metal fence on the outer edge of the trees.  The Canada was hopping up and down, catching bugs and investigating his surroundings.  I walked right up to the fence and watched this bird as it got closer and closer to me.  On several occasions it nearly landed on my feet.  

As we continued on to the boardwalk our list grew faster than we could write them down.  Perhaps 100 yards in, there used to be an area with several fallen down trees and bramble draped over the top of them (The state has cleared away and cut so much down at Magee and other places that I wonder if the birds will even recognize it anymore).  My parents and I stood at this spot and tallied several more species.  Suddenly, I saw a bird under the brambles that looked like a Canada Warbler, but it wasn’t a Canada Warbler.  It’s back was striated instead of a smooth bluish-gray.  It had no necklace, but did exhibit some black streaking down the side of it’s chest.  I frantically looked through my field guide because I was looking at was a Kirtland’s Warbler!

When I looked up from my field guide, to my astonishment, the bird had vanished.  I located my dad among the many birders and told him what I had seen.  As I was relaying this information to my father, a bespectacled roly poly little man butted into the conversation.  “You saw a Canada Warbler.  A Kirtland’s is very rare.  A typical mistake for a beginner.”  I told the man that I had seen several Canada Warblers earlier in the day and that this bird was not a Canada.  He continued to doubt my sighting, and waddled away down the boardwalk.  

Now I know it may seem silly to get mad for something like this, but imagine you were 100% sure of a decision and someone told you that you were an idiot.  That’s how I felt.  I wanted to sock that guy right in the face.  Instead, I continued on the boardwalk and perhaps had my best day of birding ever.

A couple days later my mom excitedly told me that the National Audubon Society confirmed several sightings of a Kirtland’s Warbler at Magee Marsh over the past weekend.  This news was bittersweet.  I was happy to hear it, but I wish Bob was around so I could rub it in his face!  Oh...I forgot to mention...his name is Bob.  Bob the Birder.  And I see Bob every year during migration.  He’s getting older now and carries a little chair he can rest on as he meanders down the boardwalk with his wife...Mrs. Bob.  He has become more of a humorous joke than a source of frustration over the years.  My Uncle Jack knows the story and every time we see Bob he starts elbowing me.  We all call him my nemesis.  

The truth is, however, that Bob is actually a fairly generous person.  Instead of browbeating novice birders, I have seen him help out many beginners over the years.  Perhaps he was just having a bad day on the boardwalk oh so many years ago.  Perhaps he had never seen a Kirtland’s and was jealous.  Perhaps a little kid took a comment from a stranger a little too personally.  Nah...I’m going with the jealous thing.  Happy birding!

Bird Count: 146

Recent Notables: Short-eared Owl

Picture from:

Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Kirtland’s Warbler (website). Retrieved from http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Kirtlands_Warbler/id