State of Birding
We’ve spent the last couple of days out in Port Clinton for the warbler migration, or as the Black Swamp Bird Observatory calls it, “the biggest week in American birding.” The parking lot at Magee Marsh was nearly completely full this morning. M and I checked license plates both days as we drove through, and as best as we can tell we saw plates from every state east of the Mississippi except for Rhode Island and Delaware. West of the Mississippi was a little bit more hit or miss, but we definitely saw both Dakotas, Wyoming, California, New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, Washington and Alaska. The Biggest Week is a big deal.
Many of those license plates were the alternate “protect nature” variants for their respective states. Beyond that, a certain subset of birders apparently is a big fan of vanity plates. We saw “BIRDER”, “VIREO”, and a bunch of other ones.
M tells me there is a birding conference near Toledo aligned with bird week, which explains the folks we saw with convention style name tags. We didn’t go anywhere near the conference, but the Black Swamp Bird Observatory has a big tent set up with displays from all the various optical device manufacturers. If you’ve ever been interested in spending four figures or more on binoculars, spotting scopes or camera equipment, they’ll be happy to help. There’s a Swarovski display at nearby Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge as well to show off their wares. Both feel very similar to the vendor section of any trade show.
Given that the majority of the birders we saw out at Magee appeared to be reasonably well off retirees, Swarovski probably made some sales this week. Of course, it’s entirely possible that they’d didn’t because everyone we saw was already kitted out with at least decent binoculars if not the fancy camera equipment. I wouldn’t be surprised if a walk down the boardwalk took us past $100K in camera gear on any given day,
We also did look at birds. I don’t think that any new additions to the life list were made, although I don’t really keep that close of a track so maybe. We did see a green heron up close and personal, a screech owl looking out from its hole in a tree, a flight of pelicans, and a wide assortment of warblers. Apparently there was a super rare morning warbler, but there was a scrum of bird paparazzi around that area at all times so we didn’t feel inclined to get in to that area.
From memory, my bird list looks something like this:
- Green Heron
- Great Blue Heron
- Common Egret
- Canadian Goose (everywhere)
- Swan
- Bald Eagle (adult and juvenile)
- Baltimore Oriole
- Chestnut Sided Warbler
- Yellow Warbler
- Cerulean Warbler
- Screech Owl
- Magnolia Warbler
- White Eyed Vireo
- Ruby Kinglet
- Flycatcher
- Nuthatch
- Palm Warbler
- Red-Winged Blackbird (also everywhere, and my favorite)
- Canadian Warbler
- Ruby Grosbeak
- Scarlet Tanager
- Blue Jays (entire flocks of them)
- Catbird
- Robins
- Cardinals
I’m on the iPad and looking things up is hard so some names may be a bit off. I’m also sometimes relying on other birders to identify birds, as I’m not super great at this yet. Honestly, M is much better at both spotting and identifying birds than I am.
M went out with her parents each afternoon while I hung out with Birdie in our AirBNB for nap time, so she saw quite a few more birds than I did, including some great horn owl owlets at Ottawa and a Whippoorwill.
My closing thought is that if Cardinals, Robins and Blue Jays were rare, people would be super excited to see them due to their comparatively vibrant colors. I’m happy they’re common enough for people to be blasé about them, but I’ll try to be more enthusiastic about them when they are in our yard.
Many of those license plates were the alternate “protect nature” variants for their respective states. Beyond that, a certain subset of birders apparently is a big fan of vanity plates. We saw “BIRDER”, “VIREO”, and a bunch of other ones.
M tells me there is a birding conference near Toledo aligned with bird week, which explains the folks we saw with convention style name tags. We didn’t go anywhere near the conference, but the Black Swamp Bird Observatory has a big tent set up with displays from all the various optical device manufacturers. If you’ve ever been interested in spending four figures or more on binoculars, spotting scopes or camera equipment, they’ll be happy to help. There’s a Swarovski display at nearby Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge as well to show off their wares. Both feel very similar to the vendor section of any trade show.
Given that the majority of the birders we saw out at Magee appeared to be reasonably well off retirees, Swarovski probably made some sales this week. Of course, it’s entirely possible that they’d didn’t because everyone we saw was already kitted out with at least decent binoculars if not the fancy camera equipment. I wouldn’t be surprised if a walk down the boardwalk took us past $100K in camera gear on any given day,
We also did look at birds. I don’t think that any new additions to the life list were made, although I don’t really keep that close of a track so maybe. We did see a green heron up close and personal, a screech owl looking out from its hole in a tree, a flight of pelicans, and a wide assortment of warblers. Apparently there was a super rare morning warbler, but there was a scrum of bird paparazzi around that area at all times so we didn’t feel inclined to get in to that area.
From memory, my bird list looks something like this:
- Green Heron
- Great Blue Heron
- Common Egret
- Canadian Goose (everywhere)
- Swan
- Bald Eagle (adult and juvenile)
- Baltimore Oriole
- Chestnut Sided Warbler
- Yellow Warbler
- Cerulean Warbler
- Screech Owl
- Magnolia Warbler
- White Eyed Vireo
- Ruby Kinglet
- Flycatcher
- Nuthatch
- Palm Warbler
- Red-Winged Blackbird (also everywhere, and my favorite)
- Canadian Warbler
- Ruby Grosbeak
- Scarlet Tanager
- Blue Jays (entire flocks of them)
- Catbird
- Robins
- Cardinals
I’m on the iPad and looking things up is hard so some names may be a bit off. I’m also sometimes relying on other birders to identify birds, as I’m not super great at this yet. Honestly, M is much better at both spotting and identifying birds than I am.
M went out with her parents each afternoon while I hung out with Birdie in our AirBNB for nap time, so she saw quite a few more birds than I did, including some great horn owl owlets at Ottawa and a Whippoorwill.
My closing thought is that if Cardinals, Robins and Blue Jays were rare, people would be super excited to see them due to their comparatively vibrant colors. I’m happy they’re common enough for people to be blasé about them, but I’ll try to be more enthusiastic about them when they are in our yard.