Last year, Birds & Blooms staff went to the Biggest Week in American Birding in Ohio. (Read about it here.) We were so impressed with the experience that we decided to become event sponsors for 2012! Check out details on the event and how to attend here.
If you’ve never been out to see warblers in spring, then here’s your chance. I know you’re probably thinking: Really? Northwest Ohio? Yeah right! I know, I know. I was once in doubt, too. But it’s truly one of the best birding festivals in the country and is worth a short drive, long drive or even plane ride. And it’s honestly probably one of the most cost-effective birding trips you could plan because the Toledo area is so affordable and welcoming.
So jump on it, and start planning. I promise you’ll connect with nature in a whole way. Take a look below at some of the beauties you could spot during this event. Then don’t think about it—just say yes. I’ll be there along with a couple of other B&B editors (see details below), and we’d love to see you!
Cerulean warbler by Kenn Kaurman
Blackburnian warbler by Kenn Kaufman
Black-throated green warbler by Kenn Kaufman
Bay-breasted warbler by Kenn Kaufman
Black-and-white warbler by Kenn Kaufman
Join Us at Hummingbird Haven!
As a sponsor of Biggest Week, Birds & Blooms will have staff there, too! Look for us May 4-6 at the Black Swamp Observatory offices, 13551 W. State Route 2, Oak Harbor, Ohio. Just ask for the “hummingbird haven” area, where we’ll have information on how to attract these jewels, gardening tips, beautiful reader photos and more. Stop by and say hello—we’d love to chat! Also, we’ll be holding a raffle to benefit young birders, and we’ll have some great prizes to win! If you bring your latest issue of the magazine, we’ll give you a free entry into our drawing.
Special Fundraiser!
Bird Walk with Kenn & Kimberly Kaufman
Brought to you by Birds & Blooms Magazine, Kaufman Field Guides, and Black Swamp Bird Observatory (BSBO)
When: Sunday, May 6
Time: 9 a.m. – Noon
Where: The world-famous Magee Marsh Wildlife Area
Fee: $40 – 100% of the proceeds from this walk will help fund the improvement of local birding area viewing platforms, boardwalks, and trails.
Meet: At Black Swamp Bird Observatory and we’ll carpool back to Magee Marsh (5 minute drive)
**Limited to the first 25 people
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
One year I had a neck fusion, and came home from my parents who had taken care of me.I lived in Toledo ,Ohio in Point Place, fairly close to Lake Erie.My home had a beautiful line of evergreens and several maple trees dying slowly of cottony maple disease.I stood at my back doors looking out, so happy to be home. SUddenly I noticed these beautiful, colorful little birds. I excitedly called my mother and described them. She got very excited and said that they were warblers.My mother was a birder and volunteer naturalist at the local parks.For the next 2 weeks my Mom and a couple fellow birdwatchers sat in my back yard identifying all kinds of warblers. At the same time those warblers ate every bit of the cottony maple bugs out of my maples, and roosted in my evergreens. Then one day they were gone. My Mother found out that these sweet little birds could not cross Lake Erie due to terrible winds. I hoped to see them again, but never did. It was amazing!!
I would really LOVE to make the Warbler walk..but am now in TN and not a great traveler d/t M.S. and other medical treatments, but highly recommend it to any who can make it.
I am sorry about your M.S. I hope you will see an “amazing bird” right there!
Love love love the warblers and the finches, love the various woodpeckers and the multitude of different sparrows and wrens….and the cardinals…i would love to know how to draw or bring the bluebird and the southern yellow orioles….to our yard and garden…..
That’s the easiest thing in the world (to me) to attract Eastern Bluebirds to your yard, and to nest.
My husband built me a couple of Nesting Boxes (small hole in the front of the box) and I made him put hinches on the roof, so I can peek once the babies have hatched. I’m terrible about that, I wanna know how many chicks to look for. We have a Pool in our back yard, and I don’t want a baby to fall into the water. Each year we have 2 couples that come regularly, since Bluebird couples mate for life. Each Spring, and than during Summer there are usually 4 babies to a Nesting Box, to my delight.
We extended the Boxes up high on a Pole overlooking the Privacy Fence, to ensure cat’s can not get to the Nesting Boxes.
To my delight, sometimes I even get to hold a baby once out of the box, with Mom and Dad nearby watching. We are “part of their environment now”.
The parents no longer worry about us walking around in the yard, even being close to their Nesting Boxes in the Summer watering the yard. They just “peek out of the Box” and watch us go along our business.
The whole scene to me is like taking a vaccation, without ever leaving home.
If you need Dimensions for a box, please contact me. I’m happy to share that with you.
Miss Chris
We received your Birds & Blooms magazine and visit you on facebook. Love all the photos of the warblers posted today.
We come to Magee every year & spend as many days as we can during migration. Then, when it’s over, we start counting down the days until next year. It is truly fabulous. We drive from SE Michigan to bird there before & after migration too. But, there’s nothing quite like the Warbler migration!
Would love to attend. Sounds great birding with Kaufman….I had the pleasure of birding with Peterson down here in
Georgia. Hope you will do a great recap of your adventures in May….anxious to hear/see what I will be missing.
Hopefully, the Kaufmans can come to Michigan’s Lower Penninsula to photograph the Kirtland’s warbler in their summer home.
My husband and I live on just under 1/2 acre in the hills of Glendale, California. We have quite a few berry trees and bushes, but I’ve recently started planting more native plants and putting out bird feeders in our most enclosed back yard. (I say ‘enclosed’, but it is open to the view on two sides, with Cape Honeysuckle hedge down one side, which is used greatly by the small birds, when a red-tail hawk flies over. We have house finches, white-crowned sparrows, California and spotted towees, various hummingbirds, mountain chickadees, and lesser goldfinches, as well as scrub jays and mockingbirds. I’ve had one birdhouse for many years, and the only time it was used, a couple of Bewick’s wrens took in and pulled out nesting material for about a week. In this yard in which we now have five feeders, including a hummingbird one, we have had a natural bird house for more than a year, but no nesters. It’s for small birds. I’m watching to see if, having two bird baths and all these feeders will make a difference, but wondering what else I could be doing. (I’ve put some lint and some cat fur from my indoor house cat’s brush, in to soften the bottom. Also, I’ve thought about putting nesting boxes on two tall trees, but don’t want to harm the trees and don’t know if we’d have any better luck with those. There must be a secret! Towees have nested in large shrubbery next to the house, in this yard, nearly every year.
We have been going to Magee Marsh, long before the Birding Festival ever existed. We were raised going there with our parents, to swim. We used to take our kids there swimming–long before we knew anything about the warblers. We became interested in “birding” or “warbling” before the boardwalks showed up at Magee Marsh. We enjoy the migrations from March to June, as much as we can. We try to get our yardwork and house work done ASAP so when migrations start, we can spend at least 1-2 days a week out there, if not more. Fortunately, it’s only about an hour or so for us. We’ve REALLY enjoyed the festival on International Migratory Bird Day. We’ve been able to watch as they tag, measure, and weigh each bird. It makes getting pictures of them so much easier. We also enjoyed some of the ways we were told to help identify them. For example, they said the “Wilson’s Warbler”, ” had a black spot on the head, like a hair piece, just like President Wilson. Once we saw how many people attend the festival, we thought we’d never see any birds. How wrong we were. There can be 4 people (or even 10) in less than a 4 feet space, all pointing in the same directions or diferent directions, and all be pointing at different warblers. You don’t even need binoculars! Our problem, was trying to find time to go back again on Mother’s Day!! So we took my mother in law with us. One of the first times, we took her, 3 bald eagles did a “fly by” along the western end of the board walk at Magee Marsh, in the open area. HOW AWESOME THAT WAS!! Then of course, the close up look of the Baltimore Orioles and the Prometary (?) warbler were frosting on the cake. To this day, my husband likes to tease me about his Scarlet Tananger sighting. We hate to depart from one another, because inevitably one sees something the other wants to see and doesn’t. Most people are extremely helpful with identifying the birds. We’ve been there in the rainy mist, cold and windy, hot and humid, and even a
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