The Biggest Week is HUGE

 This Spring, my wife and I were able to attend the Biggest Week in American Birding (BWIAB) festival in Ohio. We have been to several other birding festivals including some in pretty special and bird-dense locations but none of those compare to what we found at the Biggest Week. The first thing that stands out is the Biggest Week is 10 days long. I think that is part of the "biggest" title; too big to fit in a seven-day week. There were also several dozen tours and events to choose from with most tours happening 5-8 times during the week. Way more options than our previous experiences. Plus a lot of lectures and classes. We limited ourselves to a big tour or a small walk plus a class most days. We were also surprised by the sheer number of people participating. There was a decent crowd at every place we visited and visiting the world-famous Magee Marsh was more like going to a AAA baseball game or a concert than going to a park for bird watching. 

A pair of Northern yellow warblers, the most abundant
warblers seen at the festival 

The actual birding lived up to all the hype. I'll dive into some of the specifics in later posts but we saw a lot of birds, a lot of species, and great views of almost everything. I had four life-birds plus maybe another dozen of best-ever views. There were also several birds that we saw repeatedly that we had only ever seen a few times before. 

Including a stop by my parents after the festival and an overnight stop on the drive up,  we ended the trip with 149 species seen; all but five of those were during the festival. I was able to photograph nearly half of those.

Cape May warbler taking flight

Wednesday was the highlight of the festival for many participants, after a front that moved through on Tuesday, causing large numbers of migrating birds to "fallout" into the last feeding habitat before crossing Lake Erie to wait for better wind conditions. Luckily for us, Wednesday was the one morning we hadn't scheduled a tour; it was great to have flexibility on a fallout day. Magee Marsh was an obvious choice for where to start birding that day, but being a little intimidated by the stories of crowds on the boardwalk, we aimed for some less-traveled trails nearby that had been called out as good alternatives by the festival organizers. On our drive out there, we passed the visitor center with police doing traffic control around an overflowing parking lot. This was going to be a crazy day all right!  Before hitting the trail at Magee Marsh, we looked in on the tent with the giant festival checklist. Lots of great sightings already, including a Kirtland's warbler! A volunteer shared with us that it had been seen at the visitor center and that the parking lot was now closed to additional visitors-- so that's what that mega-crowd had been all about, because Kirtland's warblers' breeding habitat is one of the most restricted in North America with only about 2000 breeding pairs. Outside the breeding range, a migration hotspot is the best chance to see one, but many years not even one bird is spotted on migration. When reading up about the festival, we dreamed about Kirtland's as a stretch goal, but were still somewhat shocked that the response was a crowd so large that the parking lot would be closed to further visitors, so we wrote off that one, unwilling to wait hours for what might be only a glimpse, potentially losing out on a lot of other exciting and wonderful sightings on the festival's best day.

So we headed out on the Magee Marsh trails and saw a lot of great birds! After lunch we walked the boardwalk and saw many more! However, by this time the weather was getting downright nippy; many people had already left, and those who remained gave off a tired and cranky vibe, stressed in a way that only people who have had way too much of a good thing can be. As we were packing up, my wife suggested one last gamble, a stop at the visitor's center to see if the parking lot was open and if so ask about whether the Kirtland's was still around. As we approached, there were no traffic guards--good sign or bad? We pulled in and the lot was still quite full but we could probably find a spot. We saw a very friendly guide from one of our earlier tours on his way out. We stopped to ask Patrick if the bird was still around; not only did he confirm it was and give us directions, he gave us his parking spot, and tips for seeing the bird when we got to the crowd. 

Kirtland's warbler at eye level

About a third of a mile down the trail, we encountered a group of about 30 people. Patrick's suggestion was to figure out which way the bird was moving and settle in at that end of the crowd and let the bird come to us. All the cameras were pointed our way, so we settled at the near end. About five second later, the bird moved into view at about eye level and 10 feet back from the path. For one of the rarest birds in North America, we had to put very little effort into seeing it, and were rewarded with exceptional views! We watched for several minutes as it fed, moving through the brush right in front of us and then back towards the other end of the group. 

A few other notable observations about the festival included the friendliness of the participants. Almost everywhere we went people were helpful pointing out birds. Even professional guides who were there with clients would help others nearby find and identify birds. Our first day on the boardwalk (Tuesday) was one of the kindest birding trips we have ever had. With people chatting, pointing out the birds and sharing sightings and information.

A friendly welcome at Maumee Bay State Park

The other amazing thing was the local welcome from the community. At the several other festivals we've been to, it really felt like we were invisible to the local community. At one of the first big festivals we attended in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, all week all the local signs welcomed runners to a race on Sunday. No mention of birds or birders even though they make up a good part of visitors during the off-months including festival time. But in Ohio, there were welcome signs all over the place and several businesses welcomed birders with open arms. We have never felt so welcomed.

Banner welcoming birders about 
20 minutes from festival headquarters

This was one of the top birding trip in our lives. As I mentioned, there was a lot of birds and lots of photographs that I'll share across some follow-up posts so keep an eye out for those. You can subscribe to the blog using an RSS reader or send me your email through the Contact Form at the bottom and I'll add you to posting notifications.