Signs of Today

In today's competitive business environment, companies are focusing their marketing efforts on very specific niches.

Three Days at Mohican

We had 26 folks on the Gorge Overlook field trip on Saturday. Best bird: A very cooperative Canada warbler.

Friday through Sunday afternoon the hills and hollers of Mohican State Park and the halls of the Mohican Resort resounded with the shouts, gasps, and laughter of 200+ bird watchers attending the Ohio Ornithological Society's annual conference.

This is how you get warbler neck.

We saw nearly 160 species in this fascinating hunk of special habitat (three glaciers met here a few thousand of years ago and made the landforms and subsequent plant and animal life a very north-meets-south feel.)

This river of sycamores (full of yellow-throated warblers) exactly follows the contour of the river itself.

I'm home now and weary. But we had us a good old time. Steve McKee lectured about Mohican's birds and plants on Friday. Donald Kroodsma lectured about bird songs and sounds on Saturday. Our brains grew. The coffers of OOS's Conservation Fund also grew by $1,800 thanks to the generous bidding on the silent auction items (and only a little coercion from me while at the podium).

A pair of wood ducks that sat tamely while we took photos from the van.

Since I was leading field trips on Sat. and Sun. I did not carry the big Canon camera. It's too heavy and besides, it's hard to lead a field trip AND take photos. So I've got lots of grab shots and a single keeper digiscoped image.

My only decent digiscoped image: a rough-winged swallow photographed from the covered bridge .

While waiting for the veery we lost ourselves in the skunk cabbage.

Group shot of Sunday's field trip. The gorge is in the background.

My favorite bird of the weekend? The veery we got last of all this afternoon just near a huge patch of skunk cabbage. He sang and preened and veered. And sat still for me to get him in the spotting scope for my group.

And the sun sets over Mohican's main lake on another great OOS convention.

Flying North with the Birds

A singing male indigo bunting, photographed at Shawnee State Forest during the 2006 OOS annual conference.

I'll be leaving this weekend for the annual conference of The Ohio Ornithological Society at Mohican State Park near Loudonville, OH. We expect about 200 avian enthusiasts for the event--the OOS's third annual conference. Saturday night's keynote speaker is Donald Kroodsma, famed ornithologist and bird sound recorder/interpreter.

I'll be hoping to catch up with migration, too, in heading north. The blackpoll warblers are passing through here right now, which means that the major flow of spring birds is ebbing. Blackpolls have always seemed to me to be a signal that migration is slowing down. Yesterday the spruce tree outside my office window held several Cape May warblers. Today it's all blackpolls.

Wherever you are this weekend, get outside--away from the "real world" and spend some time in nature! Books and magazines and blogs and websites are great, but there's no substitution for immersing yourself in the real natural world.