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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