What a wonderful day at Lake Erie
Metropark. From the kids’ activities to the professional bird counters there
was something for everyone to do. Booths for many birding associations, bird
info, seminars, live bird displays and a visit by a pair of bald eagles were
some of the happenings.
The bird counters set up by the boat launch area and were
busy counting. Over 200,000 birds had been counted in the previous week.
Saturday was slow, with the strong breeze out of the south hampering kettling for
the raptors. Kettling is a group of raptors soaring in a circle riding the warm
air drafts and easing their way south. They don’t get the warm updrafts over
water so Lake Erie funnels them to the very location of the Metropark.
I learned birding from my brother Roger, who just recently
passed away. After my Dad passed away Rog took me on his family vacations and
taught me how to spot birds and what to look for in identifying them. From
Colorado to Lower and Upper Michigan I got to see a vast variety of birds. That
experience has stayed with me and kept me interested in bird watching. Birding
is a great exercise in that it only takes a bird ID book and a pair of
binoculars to participate. Once you try it you’ll be hooked.
One of the other things going on during the festival was the
banding of raptors. The USFWS had a capture operation set up in the area. With
the migration in full swing this is a perfect time for them to do this. A
report came in that they had captured and banded a Broad Wing Hawk. Normally
they catch smaller raptors like the kestrel so there was much excitement about
this. After some info talk the captor was released.
Fly away Rog.
Get Outdoors Downriver
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