Birding in Ohio Part I: My Birding Story

As a young child, my mother instilled in me the values of nature and appreciating time outdoors. She was not a birder, per se, but she loved birds and all wildlife and would always point out Red-tailed Hawks or Great Blue Herons. She gave me my first bird guides and she regularly filled the bird feeders in the middle of her native flower gardens. For many years, I would sit on the back of the couch against the window and watch the birds come to the feeders.

I was never very concerned with identifying every one until ten years ago, when on a small island in Lake Erie, I took my first college course of Field Ornithology. The week-long intensive class was my first real taste of taking notes in the field and using binoculars to look at birds. To put it simply, my life was changed, although it took several more years for me to realize it. I vividly remember the first Yellow-billed Cuckoo I ever saw and the first Northern Flickers. Over the next three years, I started noticing birds everywhere I went. Kayaking at Pleasant Hill, I saw Osprey. Hiking at Mohican State Park, I noticed Scarlet Tanagers. Attending a conference in Cincinnati, I found Peregrine Falcons nesting across from the hotel. Driving to classes, Wild Turkeys roamed the corn fields.

The first bird I ever banded. Stone Lab, 2008.

I jotted notes here and there, and studied my National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America endlessly. Still, I never made the connection of going out into the field, with my binoculars just to bird. I spent my time outside of classes working and volunteering at the Ohio Bird Sanctuary where I helped in the clinic to care for injured native birds, and I fed the educational birds. I later started helping with programs and educating the public on why you should care about birds and not poison mice. When I wasn't there, I was reading scientific journals on field ornithology and taking online bird courses for fun through Cornell University's Lab of Ornithology, outside of my regular coursework.

Doing an educational program with Peregrine Falcon, Legacy. Ohio Bird Sanctuary, 2009.

In January 2012, I signed up for a semester long Ornithology course as a break in between student teaching and learning about physical and medical management, teaching phonics, and classroom behavioral management techniques for my special education degree. On the first day of class, my professor asked me what my life list was during the class introductions. A little embarrassed, I didn't know what he was talking about. Instead he asked what the most recent interesting bird I had seen was, and I excitedly replied that I had seen a Bald Eagle the previous weekend! The following week, a graduate student came in to give a presentation on how we could all be citizen scientists by using eBird. I set up my account that afternoon and retroactively entered my list from our first field trip a few days prior.

That day was the official start of my new life. Prior to then, I never cared to make friends in college. I was just there to study. Period. But now, I wanted to go birding on the weekends, I wanted to know what other birders were seeing on campus and around town, and I wanted to spend time with people who had my same interest in birds. I quickly made friends with one of my classmates, who seemed to be one of the only other students that was serious about birds, and not just in the class to get a credit. I also made friends with two graduate students who helped with the weekly field trips. Josh Haughawout taught me all the basics of field identification and Mark Rozmarynowycz introduced me to think about rarities and when and where they might be likely. Some of it came naturally. I had studied the field guide so much before I ever started birding, that it was nearly memorized. The first time I saw a Rose-breasted Grosbeak, I didn't know what it was called, but I remembered seeing it in the book and knew exactly which page to turn to. Within a few months, I had a Life List of over 150 species. I changed my major to Ecology and Conservation Biology; I was in a year list competition with my professor; and I had dumped my boyfriend of 6 years who wasn't a birder. (Although that wasn't the only reason. Haha.) I've never looked back, except to regret that I didn't discover birding even earlier.

Birding Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge with Josh and Mark. 2013.

Now, if you're a birder, I'm sure you remember what those first few months and years were like, when EVERYTHING you saw was a new life bird. Every single time you went outside, it was like Christmas morning... only better. It was easy to get new birds right on campus, and in the Bowling Green City Parks. Trips to Magee Marsh and Oak Openings Preserve Metro Park were weekend treats that I looked forward to all week. I was lucky to be located within 30-45 minutes from such fantastic birding locations. However, on April 24, 2012, the game was changed. My friends and I were invited by Ethan Kistler to tag along on a 2 hour drive to chase a breeding plumage Pacific Loon. One week later, I experienced May 1st at Magee Marsh. Finals week opened our schedules to visiting Magee Marsh again May 2nd. And the 4th... and the 8th. 19 Lifers over those few days included the brilliantly colored Blackburnian Warbler, Prothonotary Warbler, Northern Parula, and Canada Warbler, in addition to the equally stunning Surf Scoter, Eastern Whip-poor-will, White-eyed Vireo, and Lincoln's Sparrow.