Saturday Night Feeder

From Oak Harbor, Ohio, Kenn writes: I don't like to brag, but one thing I can say for Kimberly and me -- we have some really awesome friends and neighbors.

For example, in our neighborhood there's a young lady named Delaney, an elementary school student with a sharp mind and a lot of artistic talent. Recently she has developed a strong interest in birds and other nature subjects, and she has been studying them and learning fast. As evidence of her powers of observation, a single Pine Siskin showed up in the neighborhood last month, and Delaney spotted it before Kim or I did. And her enthusiasm must be contagious, because her parents, John and Tiffanie, are now paying more attention to birds also.

We had had a number of conversations about birds with their family, and we had given them a couple of copies of our field guides, but we were stunned and thrilled recently when they knocked at the door and presented us with a beautiful, hand-made, personalized bird feeder that they had made just for us.

Here's another view of the feeder, hanging up outside and filled with seed, ready to attract birds.

Does the feeder work? Does it ever! We had just filled the feeder and put it up outside (and photographed it, of course), and come back inside the house, when we glanced out the winter and saw that an American Goldfinch was already checking it out:

Within a few minutes, the goldfinches were all over it. (Sorry about the picture quality -- I just grabbed the camera and the telephoto and was banging away at the feeder, through two panes of dirty window glass. These are documentation photos, not works of art like the feeder itself.)

Delaney and her family told us that they have started making bird feeders for other friends as well, so don't be surprised if you start seeing these elegant feeders popping up all over the place. And this talented family is pursuing an interest in birds beyond the backyard, too. Earlier today (Saturday February 19) I was out at the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge, looking at a distant eagle nest, and our neighbors pulled up to say hello. The whole family was out looking for birds on the refuge, and they had even brought along a couple of friends to enjoy the day.

Thanks to Delaney and Tiffanie and John for the beautiful bird feeder, and for sharing the excitement of birds with us!

Whitewater

From the far side of the rapids, Kenn writes: We screen the comments that come in before they’re posted on the blog. Most of the comments are wonderful, all are appreciated, and we post almost all of them. One that we didn’t post came in from "Anonymous" a couple of weeks ago -- taking us to task for the fact that we hadn’t updated the blog since April 10th. "Why bother to have a blog, there in the ‘warbler capital of the world,’ if you never post to it?" It went on to imply that we must be pretty lazy, or worse, to fail to keep the blog rolling.

Gee, "Anonymous," we’re glad that you missed us. A lot has been going on here. The best analogy that comes to mind is that being here in northwestern Ohio in May is like a modified version of whitewater rafting. But instead of roaring down the river, the raft is tethered to one spot, bucking and pitching wildly while the whitewater rapids of spring migration come pouring around and under and over those of us who are clinging to the raft.

The Lake Erie shoreline in northwest Ohio -- specifically the area centered on Magee Marsh Wildlife Area and Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge -- is one of the best spots in North America to see concentrations of spring migrant songbirds, especially warblers. I wrote about this area in Birding, the magazine of the American Birding Association, earlier this year; you can read the article here. Every spring, hundreds of thousands of birds, and tens of thousands of birders, come pouring through this region.

Numbers of visiting birders had been growing in recent years, so this year we decided to hold an event to engage with them and try to enhance their experience. Wild brainstorming about it a year ago led to the formation of the BIGGEST WEEK IN AMERICAN BIRDING -- and it was big! For starters, it was a week that was eleven days long, May 6 through 16. It was hosted by five different organizations: Black Swamp Bird Observatory, Tropical Birding tours, Kaufman Field Guides, Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge, and Magee Marsh Wildlife Area (a unique partnership of a nonprofit, two for-profit companies, a federal agency, and a state agency). Of course, Kimberly and I represented two of the five partners, so we were kept busy! It was sponsored by a wide variety of organizations and companies, from Leica Sport Optics (Leica's Jeff Bouton gave many digiscoping demonstrations) to the American Birding Association. Sean Logan, the director of Ohio's Department of Natural Resources, came up from Columbus to speak at the opening ceremony, and U.S. Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (in whose district the event took place) sent a letter and sent a top-ranking member of her staff to the opening ceremony as well.

Throughout the event, there were multiple field trips and birdwalks every day, many of them free of charge, led by skilled guides from Tropical Birding. Throughout the event, there were daytime workshops and evening programs held at multiple sites. I personally gave evening keynote talks on nine different nights! Throughout the event, we were doing constant updates on bird sightings via Twitter, making this the first bird festival to use this new opportunity. Throughout the event, and for weeks before and after, Kimberly was working 14 to 17 hour days, since Black Swamp Bird Observatory was the center for organization and registration for the event. Throughout the event, we had to stay on our toes, since Kimberly and I both wound up on radio or television or in the newspapers multiple times, talking about birding. And throughout the event (and before and after), I was keeping up almost-daily updates on weather, migration, and latest bird sightings, by way of another blog that "Anonymous" apparently didn’t know about (you can read it here) -- I wrote no fewer than 30 posts on that blog between mid-April and the end of May.

The whole 11-day event was a fabulous time, with lots of birds, lots of great friends to share the birds with, and lots of opportunity to introduce brand-new people to birding. My very favorite day, however, was Day 9 of our long week. I’ll describe that in a separate post.

The Ohio Young Birders Club Conference

From the Black Swamp Bird Observatory, Kim writes: Today felt like old times. When the Ohio Young Birders Club was younger itself I spent A LOT of time on the phone with parents and grandparents and aunts and uncles and neighbors -- trying to arrange transportation for students still too young to drive. Last January, I took the position as the executive director of the Observatory that founded the club, and since then I've had to dish many of those responsibilities off to the OYBC coordinators, John Sawvel and Delores Cole. John and Delores are great, and it's very rewarding to see the club continue to grow and reach more and more young people while I'm doing other BSBO business. But, I have to admit that sometimes it's hard to accept that the club is not "my baby" anymore. Well, for a few hours today, I got my baby back! I just happened to be the one available to deal with this, and it felt so good to be back in the business of making great experiences happen for young birders. Here's how it went...

E-mail comes in from the Aunt of one of our student members who REALLY wants to come to the conference this Saturday and then go on the observatory's pelagic trip on Sunday. This young birder lives in Parma, and his Aunt can't bring him all the way to Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge where the conference is taking place. Hmm...okay, I know that there are two OYBC members from Avon and their Mom is bringing them to the conference; Avon is about 40 minutes from Parma. Okay, call Avon Mom and see if Parma Aunt can get her young birder to Avon, could Avon Mom bring Parma young birder to the conference. Avon Mom is one of the nicest people on the planet, so of course she said yes.

The visitors' center at Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge

But, Avon Mom can only stay for the early part of the conference and then she has to go back to Avon due to a prior commitment. hmm...Now what? The boys really want to stay and go on the afternoon field trip (part of the conference), and then go on the pelagic trip on Sunday. But, that means they'll need a place to stay and something to do on Saturday night. hmm...okay, how about this.

Kenn and I (and the whole BSBO gang!) are going to the Toledo Naturalists' Association (TNA) banquet on Saturday night. The banquet is always a great time and this year Julie Zickefoose is the featured speaker!! We had already arranged for two of our conference speakers to attend with us, and I know the other boys would really enjoy seeing Julie's talk. Unfortunately, the deadline for banquet reservations was two days ago. hmm.. I wonder if...

Okay, call my friend Jan Dixon from TNA and ask her (and by ask, I mean beg) if she can still squeeze in three more people for the banquet. Jan being the total sweetheart that she is, said, "Oh, it will be so wonderful to have young birders at the banquet; of course they can come!"

So, we'll all go from the conference to the TNA banquet in the Bird Bus, then take the bus to Cleveland on Sunday morning for the pelagic, and the boys' families will pick them up at the boat dock when we return.

The BSBO Bird Bus

*Whew* And that was a simple one. Most of the time it involves a lot more kids and a lot more locations to get them from and to and then back again. It can take days to arrange to get everyone on the club's monthly field trips. But, it's totally worth it! We are richly rewarded for our efforts in ways that I cannot even describe.

This Saturday we will watch as four teenagers stand before a rapt audience and deliver presentations on birds and bird conservation. We will watch as people from five states come together to hear their message. We will watch with tear-filled eyes as those witnessing this for the first time have their faith in this great nation and the future of its natural resources restored. And every ounce of effort that it took to get us to this point will fade to insignificance--and we will be restored ourselves.

Living Colors: Diversity and the Future of Birding

From Oak Harbor, Ohio, Kenn writes: Okay, here’s some talk about a subject that a lot of us seem to have trouble talking about.

My serious interest in birds began at age six, but at first I birded alone. Then as a young man I was traveling and meeting other birders just a few at a time. So after two decades I still didn’t have a real sense of what the birding community was like. Finally by about the time I hit thirty, I was getting invited to speak to bird clubs and birding festivals all over the continent, and it dawned on me: Wow, we’re practically all white people here.

Once I had noticed, it was strikingly obvious. I’d be doing a bird program for an audience of 200 in New York, or South Carolina, or Alabama, or Chicago, and I’d realize that there wasn’t a single black face in the crowd. Or I’d be talking to a large group at a bird meeting in California or Arizona or Texas, and there would be hardly a face in the room that looked Hispanic or Native American.

The situation remains unchanged today. Kimberly and I live in Ohio, where the population is (according to the 2000 census) about 12 percent black. But when I go to popular birding spots, like the boardwalk at Magee Marsh in spring, the ratio of black birders that I see is not 12 percent, which would be one out of eight people - - it’s more like one out of three hundred. Likewise at big birding festivals and popular birding sites elsewhere on the continent, people of color are just vanishingly scarce.

Why does this bother me? Two reasons.

One, I hate the idea that there might be something exclusionary about birding. I would never join an organization that practiced any kind of discrimination. The birders I know are not racists; I’d like to think we’d be overjoyed to welcome more people of color into our fun times in the field.

But secondly, I’m concerned about bird conservation and the future. Birds and their habitats need all the friends they can get. If an interest in birds continues to be mainly something for white people, support for bird conservation is going to decline. The group that the Census Bureau categorizes as "Non-Hispanic Whites" already makes up less than 50 percent of the population in California, Texas, and New Mexico, and if current trends continue, the same will be true for the U.S. as a whole in a couple of decades. If we really care about the long-term survival of our bird populations, therefore, we need to bring a more diverse crowd of people into the birding world.

Fortunately, there are a few people who are not only talking about this issue, but actively doing something about it. And some of those leaders in the field are coming to our area of Ohio in about a month, bringing practical info on what we can do about it. I’m proud to say that our Black Swamp Bird Observatory is partnering with Toledo Metroparks and Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge to put on a conference: Diversity in Outdoor Recreation: The Many Faces of Conservation. You can read all about it right here. Kimberly and I will blog some more about this issue within the next couple of weeks, but in the meantime, if you can make it to Toledo on September 26, come and join us! This is a great chance to show your support for diversity and learn what to do about it.

Here’s our friend John C. Robinson, taking a group of enthusiastic and fun-loving young birders out on a field trip in California. John is a leading authority on the issue of diversity in the outdoors, and the author of Birding for Everyone: Encouraging People of Color to Become Birdwatchers. He will be a featured speaker at the conference on September 26.