This week, the January 2010 issue of Birding magazine has been landing in
mailboxes.  This is the one that features Jen Brumfield's fabulous artwork
of warblers along the boardwalk at Magee Marsh Wildlife Area, Ohio. The same
issue has two articles that describe spring birding in northwest Ohio, as
well as information about the Biggest Week In American Birding (BWIAB),
coming to the area this May.  So there's quite a focus on Ohio birding.

A few people who are not familiar with the local situation have privately
expressed concern that the BWIAB might somehow have a negative impact on the
prime birding destination at Magee Marsh.  As an individual who birds this
area all the time and who is involved in the event, I thought I should
address these concerns in a public forum.

First, the entities planning the event -- Black Swamp Bird Observatory,
Tropical Birding Tours, Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge, Kaufman Field
Guides, and the Ohio DNR Division of Wildlife, plus our major sponsor the
American Birding Association -- are all heavily committed to bird
conservation.  In the many months of planning and preparation so far, every
decision has been made with an eye to its effect on the area and on the
birds.  (It's not as if we invited a crowd to come and then said, "Gee, I
wonder if this will have an impact.")

There are places where you don't want to bring in a lot of birders: for
example, a patch of fragile habitat with rare nesting birds. There are
places where you can bring in as many birders as you wish: for example, a
pier where gulls congregate offshore.  The Magee Marsh boardwalk area is
actually the latter kind of situation.  At the boardwalk area, the birders
follow the rules and stick to the boardwalk itself or the edges of the
parking lots.  The migrant birds, intent on foraging, come within a few feet
of their admirers; we've all seen the warblers dangling on twigs at eye
level, oblivious to all the ooohs and aaahs and camera clicks.  If there are
shy birds that want to avoid humans, the woodlot at Magee has plenty of area
where such birds can hide away and remain unseen.  It's a brilliant
situation for getting lots of people close to lots of warblers and other
migrants, with no damage to the habitat and virtually no disturbance to the
birds.  Concerns about impacts on the resource or "loving the place to
death" simply don't apply here.

Of course it's true that the boardwalk gets crowded sometimes.  (In my
experience this happens mainly on International Migratory Bird Day itself,
and mainly at the west end.  I have spent the whole IMBD back there more
than once and have seen tons of birds despite the crowds.  It's not the
place to be if you seek solitude, but it's definitely cool if you want to
see how popular birding has become.)  But all of the partners in the BWIAB
are dedicated to improving the experience for visitors, and for that reason
we have all been working to make people aware of the many other fine birding
spots in this immediate area.  During the Biggest Week, many of the
activities will be taking place next door at Ottawa NWR, a fabulous birding
area that is still under-birded, and other field trips will be spanning the
whole area from Oak Openings east to Huron and Kelley's Island. We already
have been distributing birding maps for places like Ottawa NWR, Metzger
Marsh, and Sheldon Marsh, and more will be available before spring. Of
course everyone will want to pay a visit to the famous boardwalk; but our
efforts may actually decrease the number of birders on the boardwalk itself
at any given time, while increasing the birding coverage of other nearby
areas.

BSBO and other partners have been working to publicize birding in this
area -- not just to birders, but especially to local governments and
businesses.  For the first time, many in the local communities recognize the
economic value of catering to birders and protecting habitat for migratory
birds.  The birders have been coming here for a long time, but only within
the last five years has there been this effort to connect the dots and
promote the value and importance of birding to the local economy.  This can
have huge long-term benefits for conservation!

To draw the connection to conservation in another way, I'd encourage anyone
interested to go to the website --
http://biggestweekinamericanbirding.com/   -- and click on the link for
"Conservation Initiatives."  The partners involved are using this birding
event to promote a series of worthwhile approaches, from carbon offsets to
shade-grown coffee, and with a particular emphasis on Ohio's new Wildlife
Legacy Stamp, an exciting brand-new program being introduced by the Division
of Wildlife this year.

At any rate, I wanted to assure everyone that the planning for the Biggest
Week In American Birding has been done in a responsible way by people who
are deeply committed to bird conservation.  And to birding.  We are trying
out an innovative approach, putting on a birding event in which all the
activities range from very inexpensive to absolutely free.  We have a wide
variety of programs, lots of free birdwalks led by world-class birders, many
activities for brand-new beginners, and an underlying focus on conservation.
I would hope that all Ohio birders would be supportive of the aims of this
event (and I  already know that a lot of you are!).  We are confident that
the "impact" of the BWIAB will be positive all the way around, and will do
great things for the area, for the birders, and for the birds.

Kenn Kaufman
Oak Harbor, Ohio

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