Ed Pullen opened the meeting, introducing Eric Dudley, currently the WOS president, to lead the book discussion. Some short announcements were made. Diane let the group know about the recent deaths of Melody Mayer and Bill Scheidt, which were quite a shock about this power couple.
Book cover
The discussion was very well attended and lively, to say the least, with no holds barred. Eric opened by talking about Kenn Kaufman and his previous books, especially his wild and wildly successful description of his first Big Year (and one of the first publicized Big Years ever), “Kingbird Highway.” Since much of Kenn Kaufman’s new book revolved around spring warbler migration at McGee Marsh in northwest Ohio and the fairly new “Biggest Week in Birding” festival there, which has just exploded, we were lucky to have many people in attendance who had birded there or nearby. In fact, Shep Thorp, who works nights and is unable to attend our meetings, takes a group every year, and we heard all about that. Accommodations near McGee Marsh are sparse, so info was exchanged among our group on where to stay and where to eat. Surrounding hotspots such as Point Pelee were also discussed.
Art and Laurel show off McGee shirts. Laurel’s has her birds check off!
A funny aside is that a large percentage of birders in attendance were wearing McGee Marsh or eastern warbler t-shirts, not just the Willettes! Laurel even had the warblers that she had seen in 2 consecutive years checked off on her shirt!
Diane, Carol, Joanne, & Laurel (Willettes plus one!) show off eastern Warbler shirts
Joanne Saul attended this year and discussed her serious illness, which Kenn acknowledged in a personalized inscription when he signed her book. She also won a bird tattoo at the festival, which she eagerly embraced, choosing a tropical hummingbird, life-sized. Her glee with all of this seemed to give her a new lease on life.
Eric Dudley, center, flanked by Pat and Mary Kay, leads the discussion
Migration itself was also discussed, including some of the newer tech to trace birds’ paths. There were important updates on the tech since the previous book on migration that the group read several years ago, Songbird Journeys by Miyoko Chu, which also delved deeper into where the birds go and what they do on their wintering grounds. Radar was discussed, and it seems we do not live in an area where radar techniques are as useful since our songbirds do their own thing rather than gather in the huge macro-organisms that can be picked up by radar and allow easterners to track the next big fallout. The concept of flyways, as partially debunked by Kaufman, was also discussed.
More of the book circle
Before the meeting broke up, other favorite recent books about birds were discussed, and quite a list came out of it. It will be difficult to narrow it down to one book to discuss next year!
BIRDING WITH ABC!
Ed finished by saying he’d make it easy to use our ABC Birding website to get birders together to go birding. Just enter your date and contact info to find companions to go birding with! Now you need to go to the site and check it occasionally to see whether someone could use you to fill their birding car. Click Here to see August 2019 example. Here for July.
You can easily find this by going to Categories, then Field Trips, when you’re at the site. There will be a new list for each month that you go birding.