Next week my friend Renee and I are heading to Ohio for five days of pure-birding fun during the Biggest Week in American Birding. I have been posting photos from this event since February and now it is finally here! Birders from all over the world (yes, not just the US) will be pouring into Magee Marsh and the surrounding areas to enjoy the Warbler spectacle.
Palm Warblers were everywhere!
Last year, we went to the festival because we heard good things about Magee Marsh. We ended up falling in love with it! Now The Biggest Week is in our plans for many more future spring migrations.
What is so special about this event?
Obviously, there are great birds – who do not make you struggle to view them.
One of many Cape May Warblers near eye level
We also met new friends from all over the world, many of whom we still keep in touch with over Facebook. Some of them were trip leaders and showed us some pretty cool birds.
My first very good looks at a Sandhill Crane thanks to the guides from Wildside Nature Tours
The event planning just keeps getting better and better. There are so many trips and social events on the schedule. Kim Kaufman and her team really knows what they are doing!
Warbling Vireo, typically in tree tops, seen from one of the raised platforms on the Magee boardwalk
The Biggest Week brought me some awesome life birds including my first looks at Bobolinks, a Least Flycatcher, a Common Nighthawk, an Eastern Screech-Owl, a Sora, Field Sparrows, Grasshopper Sparrows, Lincoln Sparrows, a Cliff Swallow, a Gray-cheeked Thrush, a Kentucky Warbler (thanks to new friends for this one!!) and Prothonotary Warblers.
Prothonotary Warbler – a new bird for my life list
When a rare bird shows up, you will know about it. One of the best highlights of last year’s event were the Kirtland’s Warblers. Three of them showed up after I left so I did not see them, but I am determined to get one this year!! Huge thanks to Dawn Fine and Chris West for allowing me to use their photo so that you can see the great views that people got. Word traveled fast when these birds showed up… and so did the crowds. If you don’t want to miss great birds like this one, be sure to keep up with @BiggestWeek on Twitter and opt to have their tweets sent straight to your phone.
Kirtland’s Warbler by Dawn Fine taken with a point and shoot camera. Yeah… that’s how close she got to this bird!
Kirtland’s Warbler by Chris West
Speaking of crowds – you may be turned off by the amount of people that will be in the area. Be sure to read Anna Fasoli’s post at Nemesis Bird to put your mind at ease. I, personally, am not the type of person who loves crowds. In fact I mostly enjoy birding alone, but if it weren’t for these groups, I may have missed many great birds. And like Anna said, it is not packed wall-to-wall with people – you can always get away from the crowd if you want to!
This Lincoln’s Sparrow was pointed out by others in the crowd
What else can you expect from the Biggest Week?
Check out Greg Miller’s Birder’s Guide To The Biggest Week and Dr. Bob’s tidbits about the Biggest Week in American Birding. Laura Kammermeier also has a blog post where she recaps some of the previous posts from fellow bloggers that is worth checking out!
I also share my excitement with Biggest Week bloggers Rob Ripma, Jerry Jourdan and Linda Rockwell – all of who I hope to see this year. I’m sad that I will not get to meet Dawn Fine but look forward to seeing her at future events. If it weren’t for her, I would not have seen the offer for event bloggers.
I will leave you off with a link to a great migration poem by Kim Smith. If you haven’t read it yet, I strongly recommend you do!
Yellow-rumped Warblers had good numbers as well