As Kenn mentioned in an earlier post, he and I led a field trip for the
Audubon Assembly this morning. What he didn’t mention was that is was actually a
"Kim is so selfish" field trip. What exactly do I mean by that? Here’s the
scoop…
The organization that I work for -- Black Swamp Bird Observatory -- was one
of the Assembly partners. During one of our early planning meetings, Jerry
Tinianow, Director of Audubon Ohio, suggested that someone really should do a
trip to Ohio Bird Sanctuary (OBS) because, for one - it was close to the
Assembly location in Bellville, Ohio; two - OBS is a really wonderful place that’
s doing great work; and three - he felt that participants would really enjoy
it. Well, I immediately volunteered to lead that trip. I mean, yeah, I had
the best interests of our participants in mind, of course! But, mostly I had
KIM in mind, because I had never been there myself, and I've always wanted
to go. Whew...true confessions are so liberating. Now that I've got that
off my chest...On with the birds!
Acting on a tip from Cheryl Harner, we stopped in route to the Sanctuary in
this sweet little piece of habitat to do some birding. Kenn already told you
this, but I don't care. I wanna tell you too! Lots of great birds here,
including Yellow-rumped Warblers, Rusty Blackbirds, and Red-shouldered Hawk. But,
the scene stealer was Merlin himself. Arriving in, for me, a very magical
way.
I felt like I was in a scene from some birding movie. Just picture
this.....
There we were on this frosty fall morning; a group of birding compatriots,
standing in tight formation to combine body heat. The marsh we were searching
was washed in misty fog, and absolutely everything looked stunning bathed in
the golden light of early morning. We explored the scene before us in unison,
longing for something to appear. From my left I heard Kenn utter one word
so softly that I wondered if I had only imagined it. "Merlin," was all he
said. Several seconds of intense searching brought the bird to me, but it would
be several more seconds before its approach would break the barrier of my
identification skills and place it firmly on my birding radar. It was indeed,
a Merlin. Handsome. Glorious. FAST. He was a total scene stealer. And he
wasn't done with us yet. As he began to pass overhead, he seemed to pause,
reconsider, and then drop down to investigate this odd group of mammals looking
up at him. Even sitting still, somehow, magically, he never really seemed to
be at rest at all. Baptized in golden light, he gathered up our collective
breath and held it for several seconds before winging off into the morning.
God, I love birding!
Thank you, Jerry Tinianow and Audubon Ohio for putting us out there to
experience that moment!
Good Birding…as if there’s any other kind!
Kim Kaufman
Black Swamp Bird Observatory
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