Day 2 of The Biggest Week

May 9, 2010 | Laura 1

Cape May warber along Magee Marsh boardwalk

On Day 2 of the Biggest Week, birders were here to celebrate International Migratory Bird Day. We also celebrated basics such as fleece, down, mittens, and woolen hats, because sustained winds of 35 mph with powerful gusts gave us a chilly start. No matter, however. While it was undeniably chilly, birders were undeniably motivated to get out and bird. And while bird numbers weren’t as impressive as Friday, there were enough birds to keep us busy.

Some of today’s events included: guided walks along the Magee Marsh Wildlife Area boardwalk with professional bird guides from Tropical Birding, a songbird banding program at Black Swamp Bird Observatory, a self-guided auto tour at Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge, a family and beginning bird walk at Ottawa (given in Spanish and English!), plus an evening program called The Biggest Twitch, featuring Alan Davies and Ruth Miller from the UK who set a new world record for most species seen in a calendar year.

As for me, I attempted an early morning auto tour of Ottawa NWR before I started my official “shift” at the Leica booth, but Ottawa was not open yet (hours are 8 am to 4 pm one Saturday a month, but they added an extra Saturday for the festival). I returned at sunset, however, for a blogger’s BBQ. I’m glad I did, because Ottaw a NWR is a fantastic piece of property I wish to explore further. The visitor center is architecturally impressive with expansive views of the refuge, which is a site of regional significance in the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network. Plus, fuzzy Great Horned owlets can be found a short walk from the center.

Today is another busy day for attendees: guided walks, programs, inland shorebird ID workshops, and guided bus trips to area hotspots. In between official duties, I plan on doing a little birding, sitting in on my buddy’s Mike Bergin’s talk on Around The World in 80 Blogs, and watching programs tonight including Birds and The Undiscovered World (Kenn Kautman, needs no introduction), Ethiopia – Birding the Roof of Africa (Christian Boix from Tropical Birding), and Crown Jewels of the Incas (Sam Woods of Tropical Birding).

You can keep in touch with all the bird sightings happening here at Magee Marsh. Just follow @biggestweek on Twitter, subscribe to their RSS feed, or check into this website once in awhile: http://biggestweekinamericanbirding.com/sightings_update.htm.

Gotta run!

Filed in: Birds, The Biggest Week in American Birding, Travel, Western Lake Erie

About the Author (Author Profile)

I am a writer and digital communications consultant based in Rochester, New York. My passion and speciality is the promotion of worldwide birding travel, which I fulfill through independent travel writing, destination sales with Nikon's Birding Adventures TV, and via the development of digital communication materials for destinations and tourism partners. Contact me anytime.