On Kings and Fowl Weather at The Biggest Week

The week had been beautiful. Unseasonably warm and with the exception of a few afternoon thunderstorms, relatively dry. I grew up on the south shore of Lake Erie and know well how fickle a month May can be, bouncing from days that feel more like November or December to afternoons that feel downright July-like. Just as the birds were, I was paying close attention to the weather. So when I awoke to a rainy Friday morning, I prepared myself to lead a field trip for which I was nearly certain most of the participants would not show. 

Oh, how I love being wrong!

Ray Stewart and I had a van full of folks, all of our registered participants in fact, whose spirits had not been dampened by the wet morning. I worked to pump myself up, as much as the participants, by letting them in on a little secret; that birding in the rain was fun and is often even more productive than birding in fair weather.

I thought back to a particularly wet Big Day Van trip that I led at the previous Biggest Week in American Birding; a day that will live in my memory for a long time. I met new friends that day and saw a King Rail, which for me was a new bird. As a guide, rabid birder, and professional ornithologist, lifers don’t happen every day.

As Ray and I worked to keep our humors up, off we went to a magical land of Private Marshes.

When Rob and Lester sent me my leader schedule a few weeks before the festival was to begin, I was delighted to see that I was slated to lead a Private Marshes trip. This very special trip allows participants to enter an extremely prestigious piece of private land, the renowned Winous Point Shooting Club. While many individuals might at first not understand the connection between shooting birds for sport and bird and habitat conservation, when one dives deeper into the subject they may find volumes written on conservation dollars raised by hunters and sportspersons. Winous Point Shooting Club is the oldest shooting club still in operation in the United States, dating back to its founding in 1856. Throughout its history, Winous Point has been on the cutting edge of wetland research and conservation efforts (for more info on the history of the club and its associated marsh conservancy, preview this epic volume at: https://books.google.com/books?id=8e4lAAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false).

As a private hunt club, access is extremely limited. One must be either a member (of which there are fewer than thirty), a guest of a member, a researcher, or one of the lucky few individuals that is granted access (usually as a member of a group) for educational purposes. When I was pursuing my undergraduate degree in Wildlife Management at The Ohio State University, I was fortunate to spend a weekend camping at Winous Point, exploring its marshes. I saw my first Bald Eagle there. To say I was eager to get back would have been a major understatement.

The intermittent rain coupled with the wind made birding difficult. It seemed each time we would all pile out of the van, a steady sprinkling would begin and birding from inside of the van was a near impossibility with the number of bodies inside. We were doing the best we could and enjoyed the birds we got to see, but activity was low and by mid-morning our enthusiasm was beginning to slip.

We were finishing loading up the van when a Utility Vehicle with two young men pulled up on the dike road behind us. Presuming they may be researchers, I went to chat them up. Sure enough, they were checking the rail traps. I had caught wind of the project through a conversation with another guide who had led the same trip just a few days before. Their lucky group had the chance to ogle a King Rail up close and personal. Knowing how rare King Rail is in Ohio, state listed as endangered, in fact, I figured we wouldn’t be that lucky, but hoped that perhaps the crew might catch a Virginia Rail or Sora that our group could see. Their plan was to take any bird they might catch back to the headquarters to put a transmitter on it, for tracking movement and locations, band it, and take measurements before returning it to the location where it was captured. They agreed to hold on to anything they caught for us to see, I agreed that we would be back at the headquarters around the time they were to return from checking the traps, and off they went.

A short while later, I saw their UV ahead of us on the dike road. The two men were walking back from the marsh and I noticed the lead gentleman was carrying a bag. A big bag. I was like popcorn in the passenger seat of the van, completely giddy. I had a really, really good feeling about what was inside that bag. There was no tempering my excitement and I notified everyone in the van that they had caught a bird for us to see!

We pulled up behind them and scampered out of the van as they walked back up to the top of the dike. Yep. Sure enough. The King of all Rails was in the bag. My unbridled enthusiasm compelled me to snap a few pictures of the bird in the bag with the beautiful marsh from where the King Rail came in the background. The photo captures the dreariness of the day, but at that moment, a sun was shining in my heart and I was on could nine in my head. 

Another bander friend of mine once said “Seeing a new bird in-the-hand is like getting a lifer all over again.”

We spent the next short while birding the remainder of the marsh but all I could think of was the King Rail that would be awaiting our return. We picked up a few new species for the day and headed back to talk with the researchers and John Simpson, the Director of the Winous Point Marsh Conservancy, which oversees the management of the land. John was kind enough to not only show the bird to us and discuss their rail research project, but he also later took us into the main lodge and discussed the history of Winous Point Shooting Club and its associated Marsh Conservancy. We poured over the maps and probably would have happily asked him questions for another several hours, but as the weather started to break, our anything but bleak day was drawing to a close. 

 

A close-up of the Elvis of water chickens.

The richly-colored and boldly-patterned flank of the beautiful King Rail.

Another close-up, because, yeah.

This lightweight satellite transmitter will help the researchers track the locations and movements of this individual, helping to shed light on the little-known ecology of this endangered species of the Lake Erie marshes area.

While our species day list was kept below average due to the weather conditions, being lucky enough to view a King Rail, in-the-hand was something that certainly does not happen on just any birding trip. In fact, I believe this is only the fourth King Rail transmittered since the project began. Combine this with the opportunity to spend time at an exclusive hunting and conservancy property, having the chance to speak with its director about the history and research goals of the organization, and being granted the permission to walk through the lodge and inspect the museum-quality artifacts, decoys, letters, photographs, etc., made this the absolute highlight to a week punctuated by one intensely positive experience after another.

I can’t say enough about The Biggest Week in American Birding. Visiting private parcels of land such as this, observing research in the works, and aiding conservation efforts with special fundraising events and programs (check out The Biggest Week webpage for more information on this: http://www.biggestweekinamericanbirding.com/) truly makes this festival one of the premier annual birding events in the US. The camaraderie and community associated with this festival is second to none. There is nowhere in the world I would rather be during the first two weeks of May! While the warblers draw folks to the area, sometimes royalty steals the show.  

And for me, it’s a chance to come home.

On that day, I was given a particularly special gift. I was able to revisit a place I spent time during a formative period in my career, when I was just starting to get my feet firmly planted as a wildlife biologist. Though my time there was incredibly brief, it was impactful. I was raised on the shore of the lake that feeds these wetlands, romped across the beaches and islands of the region as a young girl, and developed my interest in the natural world in this area. The Great Black Swamp served as my natal birding grounds, with this piece of property helping to pique the interest in birds and bird research which has morphed into my passion and my vocation. To return all these years later as an accomplished researcher, bird bander, wildlife biologist, and bird guide, was humbling and exciting and profoundly soul stirring.

Not soon to be forgotten.

To see a couple of cool maps associated with the transmitter locations of the marked King Rails, including the bird that was marked the day our group visited Winous Point, check out the Winous Point Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Winous-Point-Marsh/111584338881320.