The Biggest Week, part 2
The Van Trip
The first morning we spent at The Biggest Week of Birding in Northwestern Ohio, we signed up for a van tour. The van tours are highly coveted experiences and sell out quickly. Our first time visiting the festival we registered too late and missed out. So, this year we were vigilant and were able to sign up for two tours. The tours are small—ten people in each van—and are led by two experienced guides who have extensive knowledge not only about birds, but about the sites they guide participants through. Also, they are in communication with other guides about locations of any unusual birds that might appear. The vans leave Maumee Bay Lodge at six a.m. each morning, with boarding at 5:45. Since we were staying at an airB&B about forty minutes away, that meant we had to get up at about 4:15 a.m. to get everything ready and be there on time. Birds are, well, earlybirds, and getting up with the sun is the best way to see as many of them as possible. This is the way.
to listen to this post (and a few Bonnie snores):
We weren’t sure exactly what to expect, since this was our first time participating in the van tours. I was hoping to learn from our guides and other more experienced birders—getting help IDing the birds I didn’t know, tips on bird behavior and distinguishing marks, stuff like that. Jeff was hopeful to see some birds for his lifer list and get some good photographs, especially of new-to-us warblers. We had our hiking shoes, comfortable clothes in layers, full water bottles, packed lunches, binoculars and cameras at the ready. We were ready for an adventure. The trip we signed up for was called, “Birding the Lakefront.” It was scheduled to last from 6am to 2pm. Here is the description from the BWIAB website:
This field trip covers several of the top hotspots along the lakefront. Designed with diverse habitats and birds in mind, this trip covers beaches, woodlands, open habitats, and marshes. These sites are essential for migrant and breeding species. This trip will target an array of warblers, waterfowl, shorebirds, gulls, terns, waders, and much more! This field trip starts at the home base of The Biggest Week in American Birding, Maumee Bay State Park. The trip will then visit Mallard Club Wildlife Area, Howard Marsh Metropark, and Metzger Marsh Wildlife Area. Each of these sites provides excellent marsh habitat that is managed differently and is sure to diversify the species total for the day.
It sounded perfect. And in so many ways, it was.
Our fellow travelers were the kindest folks. And this is a good place to say, aren’t birders the nicest people you’ve ever met? Everywhere we went on this trip, the birders were courteous, friendly, helpful, and went out of their way to share exciting bird finds with those around them. I quickly learned it is a culture of kindness—one that extends to the birds. I don’t think that’s by accident. In our festival guide, I saw at least two codes of ethics—one for Magee Marsh Boardwalk and one from the American Birding Association (ABA). There are always exceptions, but people who are in love with birds seem to me to more thoughtful about all aspects of this one life, from caring for the environment to treating all creatures with care and respect.
So I enjoyed interacting with the others on the trip. And our guides were excellent—patient, knowledgeable, and enthusiastic. Rob was sort of our lead guide, and Carlos was in charge of the scope, the ebird list, and scouting out birds. They were pretty awesome.
We started our tour on the East End of Maumee Bay State Park. As soon as we poured out of the van we heard a Tennessee warbler singing his song so heartily. There was rich birding in just the parking lot, so we spent some time there, listening, pointing, letting our hearts be awakened by birdsong. We saw 34 species of birds in that area. Here is the ebird list from that first stop (Thank you Carlos). After a time, it started to rain (there was even a rainbow!) so Rob and Carlos decided to head to another spot in the park.
And it went on like that all morning. We did, indeed, see such a diverse variety of birds in several different kinds of habitat. It was a feast for the birder’s heart. I saw several lifers and several birds I had only seen a few times. I don’t really keep an active “Lifer list,” so there were times I thought a bird was new, but I later realized I had seen it in the past. As I’ve mentioned, we have a lot of warblers who travel through our back yard in the fall. They are usually not in breeding colors and are not singing, so are a little harder to identify. This was true of the Blackpoll warbler, the Bay-breasted warbler, the Chestnut-sided, and the Tennessee. I had never heard the song of the Tennessee and they were singing loudly everywhere we went. Such a treat.
Here are a few of my lifers from that day:
Mourning warbler
Northern parula
Prothonotary warbler
Blackburnian warbler
Philadelphia vireo
American White pelican
Black-necked stilt
It was absolutely a dream-come-true to spend a day with people who love birds the way we do. I will never forget the experience. But when we got back to the lodge at 2pm, we promptly went to the registrars and canceled our presence on the next van tour in the morning.
We hated to do it and felt guilty that we had deprived two other registrants a place in the van, but we simply found the experience too physically demanding to do a repeat the very next day. We were exhausted. In addition to being travel weary, my husband struggles with chronic pain, issues with his back and spine, and neuropathy. He is able to remain active by maintaining a strict regimen of stretching and specialized exercises. I am so proud of the way he hasn’t given in to his pain, but keeps fighting to sustain his quality of life. But staying on his feet for hours at a time was just not a good thing for his body. There were few opportunities to just sit down on this trip, let alone sneak in a stretch here and there. As I said, we didn’t know what to expect. We thought we could do it. People on a birding field trip want to see birds. The van trip we went on was geared to maximize bird exposure. Of course it was. The good folks at The Biggest Week not only want people to get their money’s worth, they delight in delighting their participants. It is a beautiful thing. Our struggles in no way are a criticism of their efforts. In fact, BWIAB arranged several accessible field trips as part of the festival. As a professional who works with individuals who have physical challenges, knowing this made me so happy. But we aren’t quite there. We hoped we could do the longer trip. And maybe other van trips were less physically challenging, we will never know. We decided it would be wiser to explore the rich birding experiences at our own pace. Lesson learned.
Here are a few ideas I have that I think would have made a better experience for us on the van tour:
If we had known there were limited opportunities for getting off our feet, we could have asked to bring a camp chair. Each van has a little storage space in the back. People were bringing scopes and tripods. There would be room for a camp chair to give a person a place to sit down for a few minutes if they needed to get off their feet. Alternatively, we could have asked to take a break by sitting in the van (they were locked when we were away from them, of course). It would be nice if there were more benches in the park areas to provide a little respite here and there.
I wonder if each van could provide a water cooler for individuals to fill their water bottles. We ran out of water on this trip. There was only one opportunity to fill them again (when we made a bathroom stop at the lodge) and we didn’t have the foresight to do so. Fortunately for us, one of our van mates had a large jug of water and insisted he share (See? Bird people are the best).
More bathroom breaks. Gahhhh! Why do birders have such bladders of steel? Or maybe this is why we were the only ones who ran out of water. Perhaps others were restricting fluids to avoid this discomfort. Still, I don’t think dehydration is a good solution!
These are very personal struggles and overall, Jeff and I are glad we experienced the van tour. If we ever decide to try again, we will be better prepared. I hope this information is helpful to others. As for us, a bit of pain and discomfort are a small price to pay for a day with so many birds!
I’m so glad you guys had a good trip and that your husband was able to keep up too despite his pain. And the stilts!! I love them so much! I saw a few today too and it makes me so happy.
Excellent adventure! Thanks for sharing.