The Middle of Nowhwere, Somewhere in Trumbull County, Ohio

This is a story about a monumental movement to save special and precious places that most everyone would not even consider. I was invited (or maybe I invited myself????) to join Dave Hochadel on a visit to a place that is now conserved by the Cleveland Museum of Natural History (CMNH). This place is is very close to where I live.

Dave Hochadel is someone I met birding in Mosquito Creek Wildlife Area last year. I already knew of him but he had no idea who I was. Dave has been on the Ohio Bird Record Committee and was most recently the Ohio Breeding Bird Atlas Coordinator for Trumbull County. I am beginning to appreciate this man that practices citizen Science.

Dave is a very intelligent man with a wide range of interests including playing good old Rock and Roll. I haven't yet heard his music but if it is anything like his field studies it will be darned good music. Dave has studied some science but worked a long career with the U.S. Postal Service. He has built a great natural history knowledge base from field experience and studying breeding birds.

This piece of property of about 290 acres has long been privately owned and was a piece of land that fit into a matrix of habitats in Northern Trumbull County that are unique to the County and scarce in all of Ohio. It's natural value is in the unique boggy wetlands that inhabit this property. These boggy areas harbor unique flora and fauna that often contain plants and animals that are rare and often endangered. It is a remnant of Ohio's glaciated past but it is a small parcel that if presreved would reduce Ohio's declining natural heritage and over-all natural diversity.

Dave is a volunteer for the CMNH and is continuing the process of documenting and organizing the parcel's natural characteristics that will be archived by the Museum. Cataloging and documenting nature in any area using scientific parameters is no simple task. It requires hard work, discipline, and structure as well as a broad knowledge of plants and animals and topographic and geographic influences. In short volunteers just have to endure, heat, cold, wind, rain, mosquitoes, ticks, mud, swamps, and sometimes rookies like me.....for ths sake of science.

So I documented a few things of interest in our couple of hours in the field. There were many Wood Frogs. This is an amphibian that is a signature of northerly habitats. Common Whitetail Dragonflies often inhabit swampy areas within woodlands. We were looking generally at the areas birds and looking specifically for reported nesting Northern Waterthrushes which we did not find on this trip.

The serendipitous discovery of the day was a Veery nest. This is a nest that is built on the ground, usually at the base of a small bush. They are nearly impossible to spot (no surprise there!). But because the survey of the property is devoid of trails, the process is a bit like bush whacking. As we made our way to the major bog, Dave flushed a Veery from the ground very near his feet. And sure enough there was a little, well constructed nest with 3 blue eggs inside. Dave went back the next day hoping that the nest would have a fourth egg and it surely did. So we didn't disturb the egg laying process with our disturbance. His comment was "fortunately none of the eggs were Cowbirds". Cowbirds are a common parasite of songbird nests that lay one big egg in a cluster of the hosts. As the babies hatch the bigger cowbird baby gets all the food and the host babies perish.

Dave later showed me territory surveys he had documented of Prothonotary Warblers nesting over several years at Mosquito Creek Wildlife Area. Tromping through the muck several times a year for several consecutive years is no picnic. He is a better man than I! But the information gleaned from field studies like Dave's is our baseline information on the present state of a habitat or natural area. Continued scientific assessments document change and eventually insight into the health of a given area.

One has to stop and reflect on the effort of conservancies like the CMNH, to land owners that want save their property for posterity, for committed volunteers like Dave Hochadel, and processes that allow all of us to win in the end.

As Director of the Lake Erie Nature & Science Center I was always quick to point out that natural history education is only as sound as the science behind it. Now that I've walked with Dave in a swampy woods in my neighborhood I have even a better appreciation of conservation. I tip my hat to CMNH, to citizen science, and to conservationists for preserving  a little Middle of Nowhere right in our own back yards.

THE BIGGEST WEEK IN AMERICAN BIRDING: A PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE

THE BIGGEST WEEK IN AMERICAN BIRDING is a unique phenomenon. It may be the largest congregation of birders and migrant North American birds on the planet. An estimated 75,000 birders come to northwest Ohio from May 3^rd through May 10^th to marvel at the extraordinary passing of migrant bird species navigating along the Lake Erie south shore. The birds are coming from the Southern U.S., Central, and South America, destined for breeding areas across the North American Continent.

The bird watchers come from all over America and in fact from all over the world. America’s passion for seeing birds, especially our American wood warblers, is as compelling as the bird’s need to get on with the business of breeding and propagating their species. This fact alone allows the two congregations to co-exist for a few hours for a few days. Yet the pressure is the greatest in a 4 ½ acre board-walk trail that is strategically, right smack in the middle of the greatest concentration of birds.

This explosion of humanity upon such a place is certainly a point of concern. It seems to be, in my opinion, a greater concern for the people than it is for the birds. For the most part the birds are unanimously focused on survival, not the crowds. Thankfully most of the masses of people are gratefully respectful of the birds and their needs, and there for, the bottom line is that the Biggest Week In American Birding seems to be a balance between the desire to view and the desire to survive.

The Black Swamp Bird Observatory (BSBO), Magee Marsh Wildlife Area, Maumee Bay State Park, and Ottawa National Wildlife Area are the primary birding areas and partners.  BSBO has also partnered with private land owners, area Conservancies, State Wildlife Areas other local agencies for access to additional birding locations that maximize the opportunities for participants of The Biggest Week programs and to provide field trips that takes pressure off the Magee March Bird Trail.

After volunteering for the 4^th year I have gone from skeptical to pleasantly appreciative of the concept and with the execution of The Biggest Week In American Birding. Like it or not, the masses were bound to come and the BSBO plan was a great proactive step toward what could have become utter chaos. I tip my hat to BSBO, all the partners, and Kenn and  Kim Kaufman for making this huge project a success…..for participants and for these wild birds we all want to protect in their incredible journey.

I have done little but birding for the last four weeks. I spent a week in Shawnee State Forest in Southern Ohio birding the newly arriving southern warblers and songbirds. Tim Colborn and I took a side trip to Boone National Forest and the Red River Gorge to see Swainson’s Warbler in the most northern part of this bird’s breeding range. From there I spent time as a volunteer Guide for The Biggest Week In American Birding.  And in my spare time I birded on my own. I have 209 species of birds for the month of May.

I love guiding because I like people, and I like groups of birders. I love the chemistry between really interested people and really beautiful birds. There is no other experience that evokes an uncontrollable and genuine “wow” than those from people looking at birds from behind binoculars or a spotting scope.

I have been teaching birders for a long time. I have been preaching conservation for my whole career, and I love connecting people who like to look at birds with the opportunity bird watching provides for discovering natural history.  Understanding natural history enriches the experience, and nurtures a conservation ethic and commitment.

I led 10 birding trips and one Woodcock walk in 12 days. I guided about 140 participants over all. It was invigorating and fun. The birding was great and the participants were all up to the challenges of finding, seeing and identifying lots of birds. They asked great questions, they pushed their personal limits for the birding experience and they made me proud and humble.

You see, guiding makes me a better birder and birding participants make me a better guide. Thanks to everyone who traveled with me and made our trips fun and productive.

I especially want to thank Laura and Jim Wantz from Laguna Beach, California and David Marshall & Christine Booth from Oxford, United Kingdom for including me in their quest to enjoy the North American bird migration this year. It’s people like you that make all the long hours and hard work of guiding worthwhile. Birding with you was all smiles that still keep coming. I think we may have created the ultimate international dream birding team!

I also have to thank all the participants of the last “BIG DAY BUS TRIP” of The Biggest Week In American Birding. I challenged the 14 participants to see if we could get 100 species of birds for the day. They took the challenge…..every one of them. We got a slow start. But after we got going, the birding picked up. We finally got to 98 species and the group was excited. We cheered when we got to 100 species. Then we were at 108 and the cry went out for 110. When we got to 112 the crazed group demanded 120! We finished the day with 124 species!!!

I never saw 14 strangers, a leader and a bus driver get unified in such a wonderful way. We worked hard, we worked together, and we learned together. We had lots of educational moments, lots of fun (often at the guide’s expense!), lots of laughs, and at the end of the day, it exemplifies what a great idea THE BIGGEST WEEK IN AMERICAN BIRDING really is.

Birders are great people…just give them a good reason to prove it.  Conservation of birds and all wild things and places should be and MUST BE our priority and our legacy. The Middle of Nowhere Is Somewhere worth saving.