Nature Note: A Naturalist's Travels Through Nature

As with Friday, the weekend would prove to be some of the most productive time we spent both birding and networking within our rich community of birders, naturalists, and other lovers of nature observation and appreciation. Saturday was a whirlwind of warbler watching with several wonderful life birds thrown in for good measure. We started as we had the day before, rolling up in the car and into Magee Marsh. Before arriving on the boardwalk, Alison and I watched the optics tent slide past our windows. "I think it's time I bought a scope", I said as I gazed longingly at the rows and rows of tripods. "Well, we could do that now or come back later", Alison replied, smiling. "Later. I want to see if we can find more birds", I answered. "Ok", she said. After parking up, we noticed a huge exodus of cars from the parking lot. We are, in a sense, not the most timely of birders. Most birders are "larks", arriving at dawn or in th...

Once in a while it is good to take a break and this past weekend was no exception. Alison and I planned on visiting northwest Ohio for the annual Biggest Week in American Birding festival. The last time we graced the shore of Lake Erie for some of the best birding in the country was in 2013 while Alison had been working in Columbus as a songbird technician. On a whim, she and her fellow techs decided to visit the festival to check out the birds. Her experience was so amazing that she nagged me into driving the eight hours from New Jersey (where I was working as a teacher naturalist at the time) to see the exquisite jewels that flitted from branch and twig. As we arrived in the darkness of Friday morning to our motel (which I will be calling the Rat's Nest for sake of brevity and because I don't intend to get into a Yelp flame war with the owners). Needless to say, the place was less than we had hoped for. While the continental breakfast at most motels leaves little to be desi...