Hello Birders,
A couple of things about this weekend:
On Sunday October 16, the auto tour at Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge (Ottawa and Lucas counties, n.w. Ohio) will be open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Refuge manager Jason Lewis told me today (Friday) that shorebird use of impoundment MS 5 was still excellent, so I'm optimistic that this Sunday will be another good day out there, as last Sunday was. The numbers of Hudsonian Godwits on the refuge last weekend ranked among the highest counts ever for Ohio, indicating what a good job the refuge staff has done in managing for stopover habitat for migrant shorebirds this year.
Something to consider: winds were very strong out of the west-southwest on Friday, and those winds are predicted to continue to be at least moderate through Sunday. Southwest winds shift the water levels in this region, so the Crane Creek estuary -- which has had high water recently -- is likely to be much lower over the weekend. In these conditions, many of the birds might move out of MS 5 and into the Crane Creek estuary. The best access for seeing that area is to park at the parking lot at the beginning of the auto tour, walk north to the north side of Pool 2b, and use a telescope to scan the estuary flats.
For those unfamiliar with the area, you can find a map of the refuge auto tour here:
http://www.bsbo.org/Birding/pdf/OttawaNWRMap-AutoTour.pdf
And details of the walking trails, including the view of the estuary from the north side of 2b, can be seen on this map:
http://www.bsbo.org/Birding/pdf/OttawaNWR-Trails.pdf
Now a shameless plug: I'm speaking to the Toledo Naturalists' Association (TNA) on Saturday night, the 15th, on the topic of "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Sparrow." It's a free program, and TNA meetings are open both to members and to the public. The program starts at 7:30 p.m. Saturday night at the Anderson's Activities Center located at 1833 South Holland Sylvania Road, just a half mile south of St. John's High School. More details are here: http://www.toledonaturalist.org/Programs/programs.htm
and here's a description of the program: "With apologies to Wallace Stevens ... Sparrows can be the most fascinating birds in the world, with all their historical, cultural, artistic, and scientific ties to humankind. This is NOT a talk about field identification of sparrows (although there are probably 13 ways of doing that, too); it ranges more widely than that, into arenas beyond the purely ornithological. If anyone out there is bored by sparrows, I challenge you to listen to this program all the way through and see if it changes your mind!"
Finally, I would encourage you to take the time this weekend to go see the film "The Big Year." Does it contain inaccuracies about birds? Of course -- hundreds of them, despite the best efforts of consultant Greg Miller. But if we sit there watching for such inaccuracies, we're missing the whole point. Overall the film presents a very positive view of birders as real people, not just as insulting stereotypes, and THAT'S what is important. It will make it easier for us to talk new people into going birding, which means in the long run we'll have more support for bird conservation. A gang of about two dozen birders from the Black Swamp Bird Observatory crew went to see the film Friday evening, and we all thought it was excellent. Go see for yourself!
Kenn Kaufman
Editor, Kaufman Field Guides series
http://www.kaufmanfieldguides.com/
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