The biggest week in American birding

Parula over there, see it? I craned my neck to see the warbler the border next to me was pointing to. Ah, there's the veery, he continued, pointing to a reddish thrush foraging in the undergrowth. Had to ask him to spell both birds out and look them up in the bird guide!

Can't miss the signs!

My wife and Ihad landed in the month of May in Columbus, Ohio for our daughter's graduation; it turned out that the “Biggest Week" in American birding was between May 4-13, at Black Swamp Bird Observatory, Magee Marsh on the southern shore of Lake Erie, a 3 hour drive from Columbus. We lost no time in registering ourselves for the week long program which included guided field trips, specialised walks in search of particular species and lectures by experts. Replacing our Indian bird guide with Dunn and Alderfer'sNational Geographic field guide to the birds of North America, weset off on our first birding trip outside the Indian subcontinent.

The boardwalk over the marsh keeps you nice and dry, and the birds at eye level!

Red tailed hawks and Turkey vultures rode the air currents above as we drove north to Lake Erie. We got a first taste of the machine like organization  and visitor friendliness of the American birding culture in the neatly organized parking lots and outstanding interpretation centre. Bald eagles were nesting on the tall trees by the lakeshore and the areas around them were cordoned off to minimize disturbance: measures such as these have helped these endangered iconic raptor numbers recover. A Screech-owl looked up sleepily from its tree hollow. Much promise for the next day!

A souvenir

Warblers here, there and everywhere: someone called out “Cerulean ahead”, setting off a near stampede to see this relatively rare warbler. We were on a boardwalk that had been constructed on the marsh, and the bushes and trees were choc a block with warblers and other tiny migrants. The yellow warblers were actually the staple species, against which we compared and contrasted the others: most were yellow coloured or some variant thereof, except for one or two such as the Black throated blue warbler.Colourful Cape May warblers competed with equally gaudy Magnolia warblers; the Blackburnian warbler with its bright orange throat was a standout. As an American birder whom we had met earlier this year in Kerala told us, our warblers are bright and colourful like your flycatchers, whereas your warblers are impossibly drab and all similar to each other like our flycatchers!

Yesterday was full of Blue-winged, today you canexpect the Golden-winged, a guide confidently proclaimed. Warbler migration is a precision  science here: these colourful, vocal birds migratenorth for the summer from as far as South America, and the nutrient rich habitat at Magee Marsh is their pit stop where they refuel and recoup before undertaking the next leg across the vast expanse of Lake Erie into Canada. Can’t afford to run out of gas over the water! So early May becomes literally the “warbler week", and every birder worth his salt considers a visit here at this time, to rack up numerous warbler species alone. As I was admiring a Black throated green warbler and gleefully confirming my correct identification in Dunn and Alderfer's bird guide, an avuncular gentleman remarked “ hope you’re enjoying my book": turned out to be Mr Jon L Dunn himself! I promptly got his autograph on my new copy. Wow!

Black-throated Blue Warbler by Kavya Gopalakrishnan

The next morning, we registered ourselves for a guided walk and, much like birding with our experienced Indian guides, the species list exploded. Wasn’t just warblers: a Trumpeter swan, a Great horned owl, Cedar waxwings, the Indigo bunting and a nighthawk (looked just like our nightjars) were among the 79 species we recorded. The company we had was just as remarkable: perfectly green or brown attired birders, with giant telephoto lenses and expensive Swarovskibinoculars, but always smiling and willing to help out with a bird location or ID. Was almost like worshipping atthe Mecca of birding!

Warbler traffic jam on the boardwalk

Though we could only spend a couple of days at the marsh, our birding fires had been thoroughly kindled by now, and we decided to explore a couple of Metro parks around Columbus. These patches of forest have lovely interpretation centres, especially for children: stuffed exhibits, books, movies, bird feeders and transparent windows make birding and learning about nature effortless. We watched Downy woodpeckers,a Tufted titmouse and a Carolina chickadee from up close, and wistfully wondered at the perfect nature education a bunch of visiting primary school kids were getting. The walk in the surrounding woods revealed Hairy, Red-bellied and Pileated woodpeckers, the last being the biggest woodpecker in the USA. A Scarlet tanager’s bright red coloration was almost hurtful to our eyes.

Just like India, America has lost much of its natural habitats to suburban sprawl and development, but without the severe human population pressure we have, does a remarkable job of preserving and promoting what’s left. Each natural area is divided into recreation areas for popular activities such as picnicking, hiking and biking, and areas of undisturbed forest. Controlled hunting of waterfowl is unfortunately very much the norm, probably a residue of the earlier settler and frontier mindset.

Time to return, alas; but I’ll make sure I pack my binoculars and field guide the next time I come here. And if you’re ever in this country in the month of May, you’ll know where to go!

Sunset over Lake Erie