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!