A Spring of Young Birders' Field Trips

I've enjoyed a whirlwind spring and early summer of travel to festivals in various parts of the United States. It's always fun to see old friends, make a few new ones, and experience birding in new and wonderful places. Lots of great birds have passed across my field of view. However, my favorite part of all these spring travels has been the opportunities I've had to get out in the field with lots of young birders.

Back in May I was up at Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge in northwest Ohio for International Migratory Bird Day where I've done family bird walks for the past few years. Though the weather was "iffy" we had a nice group of bird watchers show up and we were treated to a mini-fallout of warblers along the trail as well as a great horned owl nest with fledglings in it.

A birding mom shows her daughter the great horned owl nest along the Ottawa NWR walking trail.

 

 

 

Later in May I was a speaker and guide for the Acadia Birding Festival in Maine. We did a family bird walk on Saturday, taking nice long hike along the sea cliffs in Acadia National Park. The birding was just OK but the scenery along the trail was breathtaking! I can highly recommend this festival, by the way, as being the best place in the world to see tons of warblers and tons of seabirds in the same day!

Our family bird walk group in Acadia NP.

Scanning for black guillemots and common eiders in the surf.

In mid-June my family and I were back at the Potholes & Prairie Birding Festival in Carrington, North Dakota. One of the other families attending included Abby and her mom who were from Indiana. While birding along the Sheyenne River valley, I got to show Abby a few life birds, including her first-ever common yellowthroat.

That's me pointing Abby's eyes to the common yellowthroat.

We got the bird and celebrated with a high-five!

At the end of June, I was back in Maine with my family for the Hog Island Audubon Camp, guiding, speaking, and contributing to a new week-long session there called "The Arts of Birding." My "art" contribution was teaching three songwriting workshops during the session. These were super fun and I'll plan to blog about them later. There was a teen birders' camp going on that week, too and we got to spend some time in the field with these fine young people. I even coaxed a couple of them to join me in the songwriting sessions! Our final day of birding was spent on the Maine mainland, birding some wet grasslands and pond habitat owned by the Damariscotta River Association. It was a drizzly, foggy morning, but the birding there was excellent! Nearly everyone got great looks at bobolink, American bittern, pine warbler, and Virginia rail.

Birding the DRA lands in Maine, just before the Virginia rail appeared!

All of us probably had a birding mentor at one point or another—someone who helped us get started as a new bird watcher, taught us bird identification tricks, shared the best birding spots, and—most importantly of all—took us out birding! My birding mentor, Pat Murphy, is long gone from this mortal coil, but I try to honor her memory by being a mentor to young/new birders whenever I can. The world needs more bird watchers! Consider "paying it forward" by getting involved in mentoring young birders. 

There are an increasing number of places/event/organizations that are geared to encouraging young bird watchers. Here are just a few:

ABA Young Birders

Leica Young Birders' Site

Cornell Young Birders' Network

Fledgling Birder's Institute

Hog Island Teen Birding Camps

Young Birders' Day at the 2013 Midwest Birding Symposium

Resources & Clubs for Young Birders

There are many statewide organizations for young birders, such as The Ohio Young Birders, Iowa Young Birders, Indiana Young Birders, and Illinois Young Birders. Try searching for a group in your state via the resources link above, or via a search engine.

Finally, if you know a young person who would benefit from a starter field guide specifically designed for young birders, please consider my Young Birder's Guide to Birds of North America.

I've written and edited a lot of books, but this one is closest to my heart and my proudest professional accomplishment. The book is available for sale at most bookstores—both online and off—but if you purchase from Bird Watcher's Digest, I will personalize the book with an inscription of your choice for the recipient.

Happy birding to all!

Some North Dakota Birds (& Pie)

If you've never been to North Dakota on a birding trip this post will give you a taste of just some of the birds we see. Things like Virginia rail (above) and sharp-tailed grouse (below).




Male yellow-headed blackbirds sing their retching songs from every slough.


And drake blue-winged teal forage and float on flooded fields.


Marsh wrens send their chatter-scolds across the cattails, the sound often swept away by the swift prairie wind.


A shelter belt near an old farmstead might be the home of a pair of nesting Say's phoebes.


And American bitterns are fairly easy to see among the potholes in the coteau.



Some days are gray, chilly, and wet—but that never stops us. In fact the challenging weather makes it all the more sweet when you stop for lunch at one of the small ton cafes, like the great one in Woodworth.

Where they make amazing pies for their hungry customers.

Rhubarb pie is my favorite. I can already taste it!

For more information about birding in North Dakota and the Potholes & Prairie Birding Festival, visit birdingdrives.com

North Dakota Dreaming

In a bit more than a week the family and I will be back in North Dakota at the Potholes & Prairie Birding Festival based in Carrington, ND. Every day out there we'll see the sky sliced by chevrons of American white pelicans.

You can find the festival HQ in Carrington by looking for the giant statue of a Native American outside The Chieftain Motor Lodge. He's waiting to give you a high five.

At the P&PBF we birders also throw our hands in the air (like we just don't care) when we celebrate seeing a life bird, like a Baird's sparrow or a Sprague's pipit.


Phoebe and Liam love coming with us on our prairie rambles. Nothing but grass and big sky. And smiles and hugs.


And a bit of music played at Ann & Ernie's place, near Pipestem Creek.

If you look carefully you can find some prairie smoke in bloom.

You can wander through and old homestead and image the lives that were lived there.

And you can watch the sun go down over the western horizon, seemingly just over yonder and a thousand miles away all at once.

The coteau region of North Dakota has called us to it for a decade now. It's a wide open place, where your mind sneaks out of your head and stretches itself in the prairie sunshine. The worries of the world seem so far away, and why not? It's the middle of nowhere, but farther along.

Hope to see you there.

On the Road This Spring/Summer

On my birding trips, everybody gets to do the Life Bird Wiggle.

After taking some time off between book projects I'll be back on the road this spring and summer hitting several new birding/nature events as well as some old favorites. I'm really ready to do some field birding. I really, truly enjoy guiding people and showing them birds.

Here's a list of where I'll be and what birds one might see at each event. I hope to see you out there with the birds!

Santee Birding & Nature Festival
Santee, South Carolina.
April 26-29, 2012

This will be my first time at this event deep in the heart of the range of the painted bunting (and Bachman's sparrow, red-cockaded woodpecker, Wilson's plover). Much of this event is held on and around the Santee National Wildlife Refuge. I'm leading a bird walk, giving the Friday keynote, and playing some music during the social hour on Saturday.

Male cerulean warbler at the New River Birding & Nature Festival.

New River Birding & Nature Festival
Fayetteville, West Virginia
April 30-May 5, 2012
This down-home bird fest is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, in the mountains along the New River in south-central West Virginia. It is famous for warblers, including golden-winged, cerulean, and Swainson's warbler, but the spectacular vistas, amazing wildflowers, and Mountaineer hospitality also contribute to bringing back many repeat attendees each year. I'm leading a different field trip each day and The Rain Crows are playing a show on the final night in The Meadows lodge at the charming Opossum Creek Retreat, where the event is centered.

Wine & Warblers
Grange Insurance Audubon Center, Columbus, Ohio
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
I originally thought this was a birding-by-ear event called Whining Warblers, but I was happily wrong. The title says it all: There will be wine. There will be warblers. The setting is the amazing "green" GIAC building in downtown Columbus and, given the early May date, there will be loads of warblers and other migrants streaming through the trees along the Scioto River. Did I mention there will be wine? Julie Zickefoose and I will be leading a bird walk or two, after the wine, which should be interesting.

Kenai Birding Festival
May 17-20, 2012
Kenai, Alaska
We're really looking forward to heading to Alaska in May for this relatively new birding event on the Kenai Peninsula. The bird life there is going to be refreshingly different from what we will have been seeing during spring migration in the Midwest—and I'm hoping for a couple of lifers (Aleutian tern and spruce grouse—a jinx bird for me!) We'll be doing bird walks (including a float trip!), evening talks, and some music. Best of all, this event is totally free and open to the public!

Canton Audubon 50th Anniversary Dinner
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Canton, Ohio
Julie Zickefoose is the keynote speaker for this celebratory event for one of Ohio's oldest Audubon chapters. But after she's done yakkin' we'll be playing some music for everyone.

A prairie pothole near Carrington, ND.

Potholes & Prairie Birding Festival
June 13-17, 2012
Carrington, North Dakota
Sooner or later you've got to go to the northern Great Plains to see some of the specialty sparrows that live there (Baird's, Nelson's, and LeConte's sparrows top the list). Why not do it this year during this charming, intimate event? The birds are enough to draw people to Carrington, ND for this event, but once you get there, the breathtaking prairie landscape and the small town hospitality will enthrall you. Highlights include the Pipits & Pie tours where we head out in the pre-dawn to find Spargue's pipit, then celebrate with lunch in a small-town cafe featuring homemade pie (I recommend the strawberry-rhubarb!). Oh and there will be music, too! Here's a photo gallery from last year's event.

Sunset at Hog Island.

Hog Island Audubon Camp "Joy of Birding"
June 24-29, 2012
Hog Island, Maine
Hog Island is legendary for many reasons: famed naturalists such as Roger Tory Peterson and Allan and Helen Cruickshank taught there for many years; and it's the home of Project Puffin, one of North America's most successful species reintroduction/preservation efforts (restoring the Atlantic puffin to its historic nesting sites off the Maine coast). Julie and I and the kids will be there the last full week of June immersing ourselves in the splendor of the Maine summer.