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.

Of Shorebirds and Sparrows

As part of my efforts to ensure I stay engaged and active in retirement, I set a goal of exceeding my previous top Virginia bird count for the year. As spring migration wraps up, most birds that will visit Virginia have shown up somewhere. I saw a lot of ducks and wintering birds and a fair number of spring migrants here along the coast. A recent trip to the mountains brought me several more species, especially warblers, that are hard to find along the coast. At the end of May I was within 20 species of my goal. However, I have probably passed the point where it is easy to see several new species at once. We are now in the period where each new species needs to be searched out and focused trips are used to see them. A quick review of species seen locally that I haven't seen yet highlighted three that are in the same habitat so could be seen on one trip. My wife and I decided to combine that with another aim of ours which is to visit birding spots we haven't been to before or at least not in a long time. eBird showed these three species were seen at two marsh/beach areas about an hour north of us where we haven't been in over a decade. Our target birds today were a pair of shorebirds, semipalmated plover and semipalmated sandpiper, and the seaside sparrow. None are unusual in our area but you need to be in the right habitat at the right time to see them. 

The first stop was New Point Comfort Natural Area Preserve and the road leading out there passes through some open marsh. As we drove along, I saw a large shorebird sitting in a dead tree. As we stopped it flew off to a power pole and was soon joined by a second.

Pair of willets on a power pole

Back on the side of the road where the willet had been sitting there was a small pool that had some small shorebirds at the back side. They were too far away to clearly identify with binoculars so we parked on the side of the road and grabbed a spotting scope. As we watched them a few moved closer and a few more birds flew in. In this group was a black-bellied plover, a few dunlin, and several semipalmated sandpipers (target bird #1).

Black-bellied plover with some semipalmated sandpipers

Back across the road my wife heard the song of the seaside sparrow, our second target species. These are cute birds but they sit at the top of short grass in the marsh as they sing. So you have to look along the tops of the marsh grass and hope it isn't blocked by taller grass. We searched for several minutes and eventually saw the sparrow shape just peaking up. It was still pretty far off and we wouldn't have been able to identify it by sight along (although there isn't much else that would sit up like that in the marsh grass).

We continued on down the road to the end point of land that has a short boardwalk and a boat launch. Down here things were pretty quiet. A few terns flew around and we saw a couple of kayakers fishing.  We walked back along the road to a wooded stretch and saw several nice song birds and this northern flicker just sitting on a branch up against the trunk.

Flicker 

While it seemed quiet, we did see 38 species and two of our three targets.

Moving on to Bethel Beach, the day had become quite hot and the walk along the beach was a bit of a slog. At the far end of the beach we saw a couple of birds poking around a flooded puddle. Here we saw a few more semipalmated sandpipers. Around the backside of an inlet was a part that is roped off and a bit of research revealed that piping plovers had nests there. We looked around but didn't have any luck seeing one. We really needed to stay and do a long search and hope for movement as they blend in to the sand very well. We did see a lot of least terns flying over the inlet and end of the beach.

On the way back to the car there were royal terns flying up and down the beach.

Royal tern on the wing

The day ended with some refreshing ice cream as well as two of our three target birds. I'll have to find another time or location to see a semipalmated plover.

Life and Death in Grafton Ponds

Grafton Ponds Natural Area Preserve is a unique ecosystem here in coastal Virginia. The area has sinkhole vernal pools, ponds that fill up in the wet season and generally dry out in the summer. Vernal pools are critical habitats for a wide-range of amphibians who can lay eggs and grow up in this pools without having to survive hungry fish. Since the pools dry out every year or two, they can't support fish populations. The amphibians either leave the pools and live on land or bury down into the mud and leaf litter during the dry season.

One of the vernal pools that has already dried out

Through the Master Naturalists, several years ago I was part of a vernal pool mapping project and had the chance to go out and look for animals using the pools. This year we have started up a bird life survey of Grafton Ponds. My wife and I were joined by a couple of Master Naturalist friends to do a first survey. We were hoping there would be a good range of migrants coming in and using the area as a stop-over. Unfortunately, the weather hasn't been too conducive to migration around here for a while and the species count was below what I was expecting. We ended up with 25 species in the area. We also encountered several butterflies and dragonflies and a couple of snakes [WARNING: potentially disturbing photos, including snakes, below].

This spring has been quite dry, so several of the pools were already dried out. I hope the tadpoles had a chance to grow up before all the water left.

And a pool that still has some water

As we were approaching one of the pools, we started seeing some feathers on the ground. Soon there was an entire pile, and then another, bigger pile. And more scattered even further. 

After investigating them, we concluded these are turkey feathers and likely came from one unlucky individual. There wasn't much else left of the bird and were aren't sure who the predator was. Perhaps a coyote? Not sure any other bird would be able to take down an adult turkey and leave so little.

We also happened upon this black racer snake eating what looks to be a worm snake. My wife and I had never encountered a worm snake before but they came up in conversation early on the walk. Then our first encounter is one being preyed upon.

Swallowing prey

Gone

Yum

The day before our walk a big cold front passed through and dropped the temperature about 20 degrees (we were out on another bird walk then and everyone was putting on jackets during the walk). It was still chilly but the sun came out and we saw several animals enjoying the sun's warmth including several butterfly and dragonfly species.

Red-spotted purple (top left), eastern tiger swallowtail (top right), common whitetail (lower right), and common green darner (lower left)

Of course, this was meant to be a bird walk and we did encounter some birds. As mentioned, the birding was a little slow and we had to identify more birds by sound than sight. But there were a couple of birds that gave us good looks. 

First was this great egret that circled over one of the vernal pools. It made three or four passes and was catching really nice light.

Great egret

Great egret

Later we heard an ovenbird calling in the distance. They are just arriving in the area and I was the only one of the group to have seen one so far this spring. We tried tracking the bird but either the call was off in the distance or deep in some undergrowth. Even with extended searching, we couldn't find the bird. So we just moved on. A few minutes later my wife glanced around and saw a small bird sitting at eye level just off the path. The other three of us had walked right past it. A quick look confirmed it was an ovenbird. A second hopped up from the ground and then flew off but the first just stayed seated on the branch. And it posed for a long time letting me get a good range of photographs. Finally, we had our fill and let it be. Neither of these ovenbirds ever called; interesting!

Ovenbird

Ovenbird, notice the nice striping on the head

All in all, it was a good trip. Not as many birds seen as hoped for but more snakes and insects than expected. It has been several years since we have been back to Grafton Ponds and it was good getting reacquainted we the beautiful landscape. Looking forward to more survey trips out this over the next year or so and discovering other aspects of the Preserve.