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Bird migration boosts local economy

WTVG Story

The tourism business is booming in parts of eastern Lucas and northern Ottawa counties. May marks the annual migration of millions of birds from the tropics to Canada and Alaska. Many stop here in northwest Ohio. Some 50,000 birders will make their way to northwest Ohio this month to what's now listed as one of the world's top ten birding areas.

Birds bring birdwatchers and they bring money. Cars were on hand displaying plates from Maryland, Oregon, Michigan, Pennsylvania and more [Alaska]. That kind of spending is feathering the nest of local business owners.

Giff Beaton drove all the way from Atlanta, despite high gas prices. "Our hotel is in Oregon (Ohio). We are staying here for a week. We are buying gas and eating all our meals here." Jay Bousliman is the owner of the Garden Restaurant. He says, "It's a significant boost to our bottom line. But more than that, we enjoy the bond we form with these folks." Lance Woodworth pilots the Jet Express ferry service.

"We took 170 people across [Lake Erie to Point Pelee, Canada], birdwatchers. I took one step up from novice to intermediate birdwatcher myself." Bill Yuhasz owns the Kokomo Bay restaurant. He told us, "We had a group of birders staying at a local motel and they've been in our restaurant five times. So this really has a big impact."

More than 10,000 people turned out Saturday for International Migratory Bird Day. How much money do they spend? The last economic study of birders here was ten years ago. Even then, they spent several million dollars.

Every spring, I meet people from all over the U.S. who stay anywhere from one week to six weeks in northwest Ohio to birdwatch. The first three weeks of May are the peak time for bird numbers, variety, and visitors.

WTOL Story

Magee Marsh and the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge are hot spots for tens of thousands of birds this time of year. "The marsh region provides an amazing habitat for them to stop, rest, eat a ton of insects, store up a bunch of fat and then take off on migration to their wintering grounds and then on to their breeding grounds," [Kim] Kaufman elaborates.

It's not just about seeing nature for Kaufman. The BSBO is about infecting people with a passion for wildlife.

"We've been doing all this research, we have all this knowledge about migration, about this rich resource, now we want to take it to the kids. We want to share it with them, inspire them, the next generation, to protect all of these valuable resources that we have," she says.

May 2008 Photos

The marsh at Magee Marsh that most birders drive by as they make their way to the tiny woodlot that holds the songbirds as described in the above photo.

Sometimes the birding on the boardwalk is shoulder to shoulder.

More room to maneuver on the outside edge in the parking lot.

Bird Photos

May 13, 2008 Ohio birds e-mail listserv posting :

Greetings all - I had a great time at Crane Creek/Magee Marsh these past two weekends. Thanks so much to all the people that I met there and for the generous information on other local birding hotspots. I'm back in California now and getting ready to leave for Ecuador/Galapagos this Friday for two weeks. But I just wanted to share some of my favourite photos I took while I was out in Ohio:

http://www.kiwifoto.com/galleries/ohio2008.html

I wish I could have spent more time there but there's always next spring!!

Cheers,

Christopher Taylor
Marina del Rey, CA
www.kiwifoto.com
http://www.kiwifoto.com/
http://www.kiwifoto.com/blog/ - BLOG

Taylor's May 12, 2008 blog posting :

I am now back home from my 9-day trip to Northern Ohio. Had a great time photographing all of the migrating passerines at Magee Marsh, Crane Creek and the rest of the hot-spots along Lake Erie. I recorded a total of 25 new photo birds and much better shots of many of the birds I already had.

Here are some of Taylor's photos of birds you can see now at Magee Marsh and sometimes in the trees and bushes in your own yard during the month of May. The mature oak trees in and around our West Toledo home held 11 species of warblers on Tuesday morning of this week, May 13.

Magnolia Warbler (my favorite warbler)

Black-throated Blue Warbler

Hooded Warbler

Cape May Warbler

Black-throated Green Warbler

Chestnut-sided Warbler

Nashville Warbler

Ovenbird Warbler

Female Prothonotary Warbler

Yellow-rumped Warbler

American Redstart Warbler

Birds Seen

My wife and I birded the Magee Marsh boardwalk in the rain late Wednesday afternoon and evening on May 14, and we observed 24 species of warblers. We missed a few other warbler species that were present.

The warblers are the main attraction at Magee Marsh during the month of May, but plenty of other bird groups are present too, such as vireos, flycatchers, thrushes, sparrows, orioles, tanagers, finches, cuckoos, and more.

May 14 may have been the best day at Magee Marsh thus far in the month of May. The birds move through in waves and their movements depend upon the weather.

Spring Songbird Migration Summary

The songbirds migrate at night. So a warm night with southwest winds can produce excellent birding the next day. A few days of northerly winds will slow the migration, but birding is still fair to good at Magee Marsh.

Tonight's (May 16) forecast : Partly cloudy in the evening...then mostly cloudy with a chance of showers after midnight. Lows around 50. Southwest winds 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 50 percent.

If the rain is delayed tonight, Saturday, May 17 could be one of the better days for bird activity at Magee Marsh.

Kenn Kaufman reports on his blog :

From Tuesday May 13 to today, Wednesday May 14, there was a huge amount of turnover in the bird population at the Magee Marsh boardwalk and other migrant traps on the lakeshore. It was a striking demonstration of how migratory waves can transform this area literally overnight.

Late Tuesday night, on a tip from Ethan Kistler, I looked at the radar pictures for the area and could see that a lot of birds had taken off just after dark to go directly north across the lake, while others were pouring in from the south. Today at the Magee boardwalk it was obvious that a lot of birds had departed overnight while a lot of different birds had arrived. This was clearly the point where the migration clicked over from the early wave to the main wave of arrivals.

A brief update on the migration for Thursday, May 15. The winds shifted back around to the north last night, and most of the birds that were new arrivals on Wednesday seemed to stick around rather than leaving. Numbers near the lakeshore may have dropped somewhat, but numbers and variety were good at some of the spots a mile or two south of the lake.

The winds are supposed to continue northerly through Thurday night and Friday May 16 before shifting around to the west-southwest on Friday evening. Even though the conditions won't be ideal, I expect there will be a good arrival of birds on Saturday, partly because there are still so many birds dammed up to the south of us. It's likely to rain a little on Saturday morning but the diversity of birds ought to be very good in spots near the lakeshore.

Birding by radar

May 14, 2008 posting to the Ohio birds listserv about birds observed on Wednesday, May 14. Most of these birds can still be observed over the next two weeks. The spring bird migration through northwest Ohio winds down at the beginning of June. It actually begins in late February with different species of birds.

May 14, 2008 Boardwalk Birds

Warblers
1. Blue-winged
2. Golden-winged
3. Lawrence's hybrid
4. Tennessee
5. Orange-crowned
6. Nashville
7. N. Parula
8. Yellow
9. Chestnut-sided
10. Magnolia
11. Cape May
12. B.t. Blue
13. Yellow-rumped
14. B.t. Green
15. Blackburnian
16. Western Palm
17. Bay-breasted
18. Blackpoll
19. Black & White
20. A. Redstart
21. Ovenbird
22. N. Waterthrush
23. Kentucky
24. Mourning
25. C. Yellowthroat
26. Hooded - f
27. Wilson's
28. Canada
29. Y.b. Chat

Vireo's
1. White-eyed
2. Blue-eyed
3. Warbling
4. Red-eyed
5. Warbling
6. Philadelphia

Flycatchers
1. E. Wood Pewee
2. Acadian Fly
3. Least Fly
4. Eastern Phoebe
5. Great-crested Fly
6. E. Kingbird

Thrushes
1. A. Robin
2. Veery
3. Gray-cheeked
4. Swainson's
5. Wood

Sparrows
1. Song
2. Swamp
3. White-throated
4. White-crowned
5. Field

Other birds seen on boardwalk
1. B.b. & Y.b. Cuckoo's
2. Scarlet Tanager - f
3. R.b. Grosbeaks & N. Cardinal
4. Balt. & Orchard Oriole
5. Indigo Bunting
6. A. Goldfinch
7. R.c. Kinglet
8. House & Marsh Wren
9. B.g. Gnatcatcher
10. G. Catbird
11. Cedar Waxwings
12. Downy & Hairy Woodpecker
13. N. Flicker
14. Chimney Swift
15. R.t. Hummingbird
16. Sora & Virginia Rail
17. B.c. Chickadee
18. Blue jay & A. Crow
19. Rwbb, C. Grackle, B.h. Cowbird, & E. Starling

Beach & edges
1. Ruddy Turnstone
2. Spotted Sandpiper
3. Killdeer
4. Tree, Barn, Cliff, Bank Swallows, & Purple Martins
5. Common & Forster's Terns
6. R.b. Gulls
7. Bald Eagle
8. M. Dove
9. Chipping & House Sparrow

Causeway
1. Great Blue Heron
2. Great Egret
3. C. Moorhen
4. A. Coot
5. P.b. Grebe
6. Trumpeter Swan
7. R.b. Gull
8. D.c. Cormorant
9. Mallard
10. Wood Duck
11. Blue-winged Teal
12. C. Geese with young
13. Swamp & Song Sparrow

S.M.B.C. & Trails
1. White-crowned Sparrows - at feeders
2. Orchard Oriole - singing near parking lot
3. Barn, Tree, and Purple Martins

created by jr on May 16, 2008 at 09:57:38 am
updated by jr on May 16, 2008 at 12:08:56 pm     Comments: 5

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tags: environment   birds   

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Comments ... #

Thanks for the pics and the report, jr. I've been getting more and more interested in birding the past few years, though time constraints have reduced most of my activity to the areas near my house and work.

For other novices like me, there are some excellent books that offer digital recordings of bird songs: The Backyard Birdsong Guide: Eastern and Central North America and Bird Songs: 250 North American Birds in Song. This has helped me identify some of the songs that I hear in my travels.

If you go out in the wilds, though, I would assume that a goofball like me fiddling with his digital book would be annoying and distracting to an experienced birder. I found the National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds - Eastern Region to be an authoritative and thorough source of information, as well as being a book that will not make you look like an insufferable Winnebago Warrior:

Littered campgrounds, folding chairs
Feed Doritos to the bears.

A great line by the Dead Kennedys that I had to sneak in here.

posted by historymike on May 17, 2008 at 08:07:12 am     #



BTW - I see a direct parallel between my own increased interest in birding and the years I have visited Toledo Talk. I'm sure that is no mere coincidence.

posted by historymike on May 17, 2008 at 08:08:56 am     #



Many birders have their field guides with them and consult them often, especially for the warblers. Only the hard-core, experienced birder goes without a field guide.

Two popular field guides I see used on the Magee boardwalk include :

I bird by ear a lot. For learning bird songs and call notes, I use the Stokes Field Guide to Bird Songs: Eastern Region. "It consists of three CDs and a guide booklet covering the sounds of 372 species living in Eastern North America."

posted by jr on May 18, 2008 at 12:05:28 am     #



When I was at Magee Marsh on Sat, May 17, 2008, I strolled the parking lot, observing license plates, and I saw vehicles from :

OhioMichigan
PennsylvaniaIndiana
KentuckyWest Virginia
New YorkNew Jersey
ConnecticutMaryland
VirginiaIllinois
IowaUtah
CaliforniaBritish Columbia

posted by jr on May 18, 2008 at 11:01:38 am     #



July 6, 2008 - Toledo Blade : Thousands flock to northwest Ohio and southern Ontario for good view

Birding - much of which relies on the thrill of finding birds on the move from one region to another - has been one of North America's fastest-growing outdoor activities in recent years. That's true for northwest Ohio, home to major bird flyways.

The area's Super Bowl for bird-watching, International Migratory Bird Day, is in mid-May. Thousands of binocular-toting tourists are drawn to Lucas, Ottawa, and Erie counties then, as well as the days leading up to it and succeeding it. "It's absolutely huge," said Melinda Huntley, executive director of Lake Erie Coastal Ohio, a nonprofit organization that promotes eco-tourism along Lake Erie's shoreline.

Research is under way to quantify birding's economic effects on northwest Ohio, she said. A U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service study shows the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge - a collection of sites that comprise an incomplete sample of the region's viewing opportunities - accounted for $3.5 million in expenditures in Lucas and Ottawa counties in 2006. Ninety-one percent of that, or $3.2 million, came from nonresidents.

Though a number of outdoor-related activities were examined, birding was the tops.

The refuge was lauded by readers of Birder's World magazine in 2002 as one of the country's Top 15 for viewing. The northwest Ohio shoreline, including Magee Marsh, has drawn national acclaim from the American Bird Conservancy and the American Birding Association.

Ohio gets the best viewing in the spring, when songbirds head north for the summer. Pelee Island and the Point Pelee National Park of Canada near Leamington, Ont., get the best viewing in the fall, when the birds head south for the winter, Mr. Shieldcastle said.

Fewer than 5 percent of all migratory songbirds make it to their third year of life, Ms. Petit said. Ninety percent die their first year. A global loss of habitat, especially from land in North and South America that has been deforested and converted to agriculture, has made the arduous trek more difficult, Ms. Petit said.

posted by jr on Jul 06, 2008 at 07:33:17 pm     #