I recall an interesting conversation I had at the Midwest Birding Symposium on approaches to bird identification. To set the stage, I also dug up a few more decent shots of the Kirtland’s Warbler at East Harbor State Park, western Lake Erie in Ohio (September 18, 2009).

An eager crowd searches for the Kirtland's Warbler at the park's Meadow Trail. By then, the day's heat was intense and the bird was probably skulking low in the bush. Or running from the hundreds of birders who were hot on its trail. (Notice: not a khaki shirt in the crowd--except behind the lens!)

The crowd dispersed but returned hours later after hearing that the bird finally showed itself. This image is a bit dark, but shows the tail and body proportions better than my other shots.

Not every rare bird will make me drop everything and bolt for the door. But the beauty of this warbler and its unfortunate status as an endangered species meant this bird was not to miss!

Yes, there's a bird in this photograph. Experts examined the tail feathers, which indicate this is a first-year male. Perhaps someone can explain why/how in the comments?

We eventually noticed an artist lurked in the crowd. Above, Peter Burke mindfully sketches the bird that flitted about in the bush. Peter is an accomplished birder, artist, an author (you can find his work in New World Blackbirds, The Birds of Chile, and National Geograhic's Birds of North America, among other places). He is also a professional guide with Field Guides Birding Tours Worldwide. Behind Peter stands Chris Ashley, Park Maintenance Supervisor at East Harbor State Park, who was quite pleased the Kirtland's decided to land in HIS park, and not a few miles in either direction.

When Peter's sketch was complete, we made him stand at the front of the class to show his work.

"How did he do that?" we asked. The bird never stopped moving for more than two seconds! Watching an artist sketch an image into life is like watching black pixels fall onto a blank page, quietly arranging themselves into a recognizable form and beauty. Sure, artistry takes study and long hours with a pencil, but I think it also takes a drop of magic.

At lunch I had the pleasure of sitting with Connie Kogler (Birds O’ The Morning blog) and several professional guides from Field Guides Birding Tours and Guatemala Nature Tours. We struck up a conversation about different approaches to bird identification.

Alvaro Jaramillo had just given a presentation that morning about looking at the “whole bird” and letting its Gestalt register your brain, just like the image of your mother, sisters, and brothers are embedded in your memory, letting you instantly recognize them (I hope that adequately captures the gist).

This is somewhat different than the traditional approach of reducing a bird’s identity down to the sum of its field marks. That is, starting with the details and working up to the whole.  As someone who often birds this way, I sometimes “don’t see the forest for the trees” and need to back up and see the bird, the whole bird, and everything about the bird; its behavior and habitat. 

People’s tendencies are probably hard wired for one or the other approach, and early training in the hobby sets you on a particular path, but greatest success in bird identification comes from placing energy into both methods.

My brain throbs and sweats just thinking about it, but expert birders and artists like Peter are adept at “seeing” birds from both these perspectives with ease. 

I’m interested to know: 

How do you approach bird ID?  

What can you do to develop a more holistic approach?

Have you ever successfully switched from one method to the other — what was that like?

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The hour of 3 am and I are becoming intimate bedfellows. That being the case, I may as well prop up my eyelids with toothpicks, wince from the glare of my screen in this darkened room, and report on my trip to the Midwest Birding Symposium.

I went into the symposium believing that I was here more for the birders than the birding. I looked forward to getting out to the famed Magee Marsh, a migrant stopover situated on the southwestern edge of Lake Erie, but I didn’t have designs on a long or intense birding experience.

It took only ONE bird to ramp up the birding intensity, however. This handsome Kirtland’s Warbler, which experts tell me is a first-year male:

Kirtland's Warbler observed at East Harbor State Park, western Lake Erie basin, Ohio, September 18, 2009.

I already dished on that sighting here, and other blogging attendees will no doubt relate their experiences (bloggers, place your link in the comments to help us out). Thanks to the wonderful spotters and informers who kept us in the loop on this sighting. And big apologies to those who did not see the bird – I feel your pain.

To put this sighting in perspective for you: Kirtland’s Warbler is one of the rarest members of the wood warbler (Parulidae) family, due in large part to its restricted range and unique habitat requirements. The bird nests in just a few counties in Michigan’s northern Lower and Upper peninsulas, in Wisconsin and the province of Ontario.  

The bird nests on the ground in 5-20 year old jack pine forests, usually in stands greater than 80 acres. Jack pines of this age class became increasingly rare because they require fire to germinate and spread (yet Man no like Fire, so we often suppressed them). Kirtland’s Warblers reached their peak population numbers between 1885-1900, they plummeted in the early 1900′s, and by the late 1950′s recovery efforts were already underway with various forestry management practices. Today in Michigan, jack pine stands are managed by logging, burning, seeding, and replanting on a rotational basis to provide approximately 38,000 acres of productive nesting habitat at all times.

Kirtland’s Warbler populations have also been impacted by a persistent nemesis, the Brown-headed Cowbird. Cowbird mothers lay their eggs in other species’ nests and are raised without question by the host mother. This practice, called nest parasitism, decreases the breeding success of the host species. Fortunately, cowbird trapping has decreased the nest parasitism rate from 66% to <5% in the last 35-40 years. Today’s population numbers hover around 1,700 mating pairs. 

Kirtland’s Warblers flock to the Bahamas in winter – along with tens of thousands of other sun-and-rum seeking vacationers for whom the beaches are boardwalked, the trees are felled, and tiki torches and hotel rooms light up the night sky. It’s vitally important for this species to have adequate food and habitat on their wintering grounds, as well as at migratory stopovers along their flyway. A multi-agency conservation partnership was formed to work within the archipelago to find pockets of wintering birds, preserve habitat and educate people on the special importance of their islands to the Kirtland’s and other species (Next time you plan a tropical vacation, think about what birds may winter there and what you can do to help promote bird conservation while on the ground).

In the Crazy Connections category: the bird was first collected (i.e., SHOT) in my hometown of Cleveland, Ohio (which is about 100 miles east of where the Symposium was held and an additional 100 miles distant from its range) by the son-in-law of Jared P. Kirtland, a medical doctor and all-round naturalist who lived in Cleveland. 

The man brought the specimen to Kirtland, who submitted it to the Smithsonian Institution for identification and preservation. Eventually, the species was named after Kirtland, as was the esteemed Kirtland Bird Club in Northeast Ohio. Way back in 1843, Kirtland also co-founded (Case) Western Reserve University medical school which is where my husband earned his doctorate.

Judging from whispers I heard “coming up” in Northeast Ohio, echoed by this flattering memoir/biographical sketch written in the tone of the day, Kirtland was a one-in-a-million person and naturalist. This connection makes this sighting even more special for me.

Well, there I go, wanting to give you a synopsis of the symposium but delivering a Kirtland’s Warbler essay instead. I couldn’t help it. I’m still enamored by this bird. Still talking about it. Still weeping over the photos. Still thanking my lucky stars to have seen such a rare and beautiful bird. Suffice it to say the weekend was a whirlwind tour of joy, jocularity, friendship, reunions, introductions, surprises, birds, learning, and even a dash of gin-soaked drama. I’ll save that story for Vanity Fair. ; )

Related posts:

1. Approaches to Bird Identification & A Kirtland’s Warbler I recall an interesting conversation I had at the Midwest Birding Symposium on approaches to bird identification. To set the stage, I also dug up...
2. My Life Kirtland’s Warbler (i.e., Life Is Good At MBS) My $75 registration fee was just returned in spades. During one of the early morning talks at MBS today, my cell phone vibrated with a...
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My $75 registration fee was just returned in spades. During one of the early morning talks at MBS today, my cell phone vibrated with a very curious message: “Kirtland’s Warbler at East Harbor State Park, Meadow Trail.”

At that point, I had to bail on the fine and illustrious speaker, Jim McCormac, because I knew he’d understand.

I picked up Su Snyder, who’s great at ferreting out rarities, and her friend Bianca and we tore (I mean, drove calmly, slowly, and obeyed all traffic signals) over to East Harbor (EHSP).

About a dozen or so people gathered at the Meadow Trail. The bird had been seen only 3 minutes earlier. But we struck OUT. We skulked around in the heat for another hungry ninety minutes before bailing for lunch.

“He’ll be back,” predicted more than one birder.

So I went back, inhaled my turkey wrap, and attended another talk given by a fine and illustrious speaker, Jeff Gordon.

Lo and behold, another buzz comes from an attendee’s pocket with a News Flash: “Kirtland’s Warbler was seen 3 minutes ago.” He was kind enough to share the news. I shuffled in my seat for a few polite but arduous minutes before grabbing my friend and going.

This time, it took almost no effort to see the bird. Festival organizers had marked the trail and had planted a naturalist guide, Dan Donaldson from Lake County Soil and Water Conservation District, there to help people.

We turned a corner and there it was in a small copse of trees, flitting about in a locust.

There were “ooohs” and “ahhhs,” there were high fives, there were even tears in the group, along with several shutter snaps from eager photographers, myself included.

The bird struck several awesome poses, one of which I captured in my lens.

We celebrated with a Life Bird Tic-Tac.

Life is GOOOOOD.

More when I can. I just had to get this up!

Related posts:

1. Approaches to Bird Identification & A Kirtland’s Warbler I recall an interesting conversation I had at the Midwest Birding Symposium on approaches to bird identification. To set the stage, I also dug up...
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The iconic Lakeside gazebo looks out onto Lake Erie.

Writing from the Coffee and Cream cafe in Lakeside, Ohio. Weather is splendid, there’s good energy in the air, and many happy people walking around anticipating opening ceremonies that occur in about two hours. 

I spent the majority of the first day at MBS birder-watching. Migrant flocks of old friends mixed with others I’d only seen in books and magazines, and a few “unknowns” peppered the mix. It’s been especially nice to see all these Facebook and Twitter friends. 

Major shout-out to the organizers of the event, all the tireless volunteers who slaved away for months and months attending to every detail. Everything looks splendid from the hats and name tags to the signage to the meeting materials. I haven’t birded much yet, but that’s coming soon.

Now, excuse me while I have some coffee to slurp and some birds to chase.

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1. Meet-Up at the Midwest Birding Symposium? Monday here. I am getting excited for The Midwest Birding Symposium (MBS), taking place this weekend, September 17 – 20, 2009 on the southern shore of Lake Erie. If you’re...
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