Ohio Birders:

We're coming up on the time of year when northwestern Ohio  - specifically
the Lake Erie shoreline in the area of Magee Marsh Wildlife Area and Ottawa
National Wildlife Refuge - becomes one of the most exciting and popular
destinations for birding in North America. Longtime subscribers to the
Ohio-birds listserve may know all about birding in this region, but this
year there are some new sources of information available. And new birders,
in particular, might want to save this post to help with planning your
spring birding trips.

First, if you're not familiar with the area at all, there's an overview in
this feature article that I wrote for Birding, the magazine of the American
Birding Association, in 2010: http://www.aba.org/birding/v42n1p38.pdf

The Black Swamp Bird Observatory ( http://www.bsbo.org/ )  (BSBO) provides
many kinds of free information for visiting birders, including info on
birding sites.

The single most famous local site is the boardwalk at Magee Marsh. This
boardwalk winds for almost a mile through a small woodlot between the
marshes and Lake Erie, and great concentrations of migrants can be seen
along its length and along the edges of the adjacent parking lot. For easy
communication about the locations of birds on the boardwalk, numbers are
etched into the railing, so that birders can report things like "The
Golden-winged Warbler is being seen at #20." To find these numbers, it's a
good idea to carry a map that shows their locations. This map is available
for free downloading and printing; you can print out your own and stuff it
in your pocket for quick reference. Here's the link:
http://www.bsbo.org/uploads/3/0/8/0/30807041/magee_marsh_boardwalk_map_and_text.pdf
And here's another free map that gives more of an overview of Magee Marsh
Wildlife Area:
http://www.bsbo.org/uploads/3/0/8/0/30807041/magee_marsh_map.pdf

These maps and others, plus other kinds of birding information, are also
available for free at Black Swamp Bird Observatory. BSBO is located just
north of Ohio State Route 2 at the entrance to Magee Marsh Wildlife Area,
and the observatory will be open every day in May.

When is the best time to visit? For starters, here is a basic overview of
the whole spring migration, from late February to early June:
http://www.bsbo.org/timing-of-spring-migration.html  Every day in late
April and May offers good birding here, but some days are much better than
others. If you have flexibility in deciding when to visit, how do you pick
your days? Well, during this season, some friends and I study the weather
and try to predict which days will be best for seeing migrants. We post
these predictions, along with reports on recent sightings, on this blog:
http://cranecreekbirding.blogspot.com/  As I write this, the most recent
prediction says that this coming weekend, especially Sunday May 3, should
produce a very good arrival of migrants.

BSBO runs a springtime bird festival called "The Biggest Week in American
Birding," scheduled for May 8-17 this year. This festival has the effect of
REDUCING the crowds on the Magee boardwalk, since we hand out maps and
directions to many other local sites, and run field trips all over a
four-county surrounding area. For anyone coming to bird in the area, even
if they're not registered for the festival, there is a wealth of
information to be found in the Biggest Week Visitors' Guide. Printed copies
of the Guide can be picked up at many sites throughout n.w. Ohio, but it's
also viewable online at
http://issuu.com/presspublications/docs/americanbirding2015online

It's worthwhile to consider registering for the Biggest Week (
http://www.biggestweekinamericanbirding.com/ ) even if you're not
interested in any of the workshops, field trips, or programs. Registration
entitles you to various discounts at local restaurants and other
businesses, and gives you free access to some fun social events. Online
registration for this year's event will close this Thursday night, April
30. Walk-in registration will be available throughout the event at both the
Black Swamp Bird Observatory and the Lodge at Maumee Bay State Park, where
the festival is headquartered.

In a brand new development this year, the Biggest Week has just become the
first birding festival in North America to have its own dedicated
bird-finding app. The sharp people at BirdsEye Nature Apps (
http://www.birdseyebirding.com/ ) have developed a Biggest Week app.
Although it's designed for the festival, it's already "live" and delivering
information; you can click on a species and instantly see the locations of
the most recent sightings in the area. It's available for both iPhone and
Android, and it's free! You can download it from this link:
http://www.birdseyebirding.com/biggest-week-in-america-birding-festival-apps/


If you're birding the area, you can also sign up to follow the Biggest Week
on Twitter and have up-to-the-minute bird sightings sent straight to your
smartphone. Here's a blog post by Melissa Penta that talks about the
Twitter feed, and links to information on how to have these tweets sent
directly to your phone:
http://www.digibirder.com/blog/2015/04/a-little-birdy-told-me/

Finally, if you are coming to the area for birding, please stop at the
Black Swamp Bird Observatory for information and birding maps, and to check
out the book store and "window on wildlife." The observatory will be open
every day in May. BSBO works year-round to promote research, education, and
conservation throughout Ohio and the surrounding regions, and it's a good
organization for birders to know.

Kenn Kaufman
Oak Harbor, Ohio

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