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Scope it Out! Digiscoping 101
Presented by Clay Taylor and Sharon Stiteler
Date:
Friday, May 4
Time: 1 p.m. – 2 p.m.
Where: Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge
Fee: $10
Registration required
Brough to you by Swarovski Optiks
 Digiscoping
is a unique and effective way to capture images
of wildlife at a distance using a spotting scope
and digital camera. Clay Taylor, a Naturalist
Market Manager with Swarovski Optik, will cover
the equipment basics of a good digiscoping
set-up, including adapters, scopes, eyepieces,
cameras, and tripods. This program will cover
what to look for when selecting a spotting
scope, how to choose a camera suitable for
digiscoping, what adaptors are needed, what
tripod is best, plus field tips and techniques
for getting a great shot. Bring your cameras and
spotting scopes for evaluation and discussion.
Identifying and
Appreciating Spring Warblers
Presented Kenn Kaufman
Date:
Friday, May 4
Time: 3 p.m. – 4 p.m.
Where: Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge
Fee: $10
Registration required
 Of
the many birds present in northwest Ohio in
spring, the warblers undeniably make up the
centerpiece of the Biggest Week. This area is
called the “Warbler Capital of the World” with
good reason in the month of May, and most
visiting birders will want to soak up the
experience of the dizzying variety and dazzling
colors and activity of these magical sprites.
Although many warblers are easier to identify in
spring than in fall, they can still present some
challenges, especially for new birders. In this
presentation, Kenn will provide numerous tips on
learning to identify the warblers in the field.
He’ll also give an overview of the warbler
family, including their impressive diversity,
their surprising habits, their varied songs and
calls, and their incredible migrations. The
program should help you to identify warblers
with more confidence and to enjoy them even
more.
Spring
Migration in the Lake Erie Marshes
Presented by Mark Shieldcastle
Date:
Saturday, May 5
Time: 1 p.m. – 2 p.m.
Where: Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge
Fee: $10
Registration required
 In
this presentation, Mark Shieldcastle, one of
North America’s leading authorities on passerine
migration, will delve into the science that
makes bird migration so intriguing, and explore
the seemingly magical way that these feathered
marvels move through our universe. Mark has
been studying migration in the Lake Erie Marsh
Region for more than 30 years. He pioneered the
“wave theory” that has become a way of thinking
among birders visiting Ohio’s north coast. The
three “waves” of Neotropical migrants will be
brought to life through vibrant imagery, and the
timing of their passage through this area mapped
out with surprising precision. If you have a
nemesis, or just one species that is special to
you, come find out when and where it’s best to
look for “your” bird.
The Secrets of
Duck ID
Presented by Jessie Barry
Date:
Saturday, May 5
Time: 3 p.m. – 4 p.m.
Where: Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge
Fee: $10
Registration required
 A
flock of ducks takes off from a marsh. How can
you tell what they are with only a glance? When
summer-time comes, how do you sort out all those
brown ducks? We'll walk through a year in the
life of a duck and take a look at what makes
each species just a little different, so that
you're ready for your next encounter!
Where Birding, Science, and
Conservation Meet
Presented by Chris Woods
Date:
Sunday, May 6
Time: 1 p.m. – 2 p.m.
Where: Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge
Fee: FREE
Registration required
 You’ve
probably been hearing a lot about
eBird
lately, the website and online birding tool that
is changing the face of modern birding. EBird is
an internet-based checklist program built for
birders by birders. It allows you to keep track
of your bird records online and share them with
the birding community, while making them
available for science and conservation. eBird
allows birders to post sightings, keep life
lists, and manage their personal records. With
tens of thousands of active participants
submitting over 3 million records every month,
eBird now has the capability of accurately
depicting the fine-scale distribution and
abundance of nearly every North American bird
species. Unlike other bird-monitoring programs,
eBird collects data year-round, allowing the
mapping of seasonal distributions, migration
corridors, and important stopover sites.
Recently, eBird has gone “global,” incorporating
Google maps and current bird taxonomy from every
country in the world. Join eBird Project Leader
Chris Wood and see how eBird can increase your
enjoyment of birding, improve your birding
skills. Also learn how our observations are
being used by the scientific and conservation
communities. Oh yes. eBird is free!
Basics of
Identifying Sparrows
Presented by Kenn Kaufman
Date:
Sunday, May 6
Time: 3 p.m. – 4 p.m.
Where: Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge
Fee: $10
Registration required
 The
North American sparrows seem to create an
unreasonable amount of confusion and difficulty
for the average birder. This is partly because
they are often hard to see, partly because there
are so many species to choose among, and partly
because their field marks for many of them seem
to be so similar. A birder catching a glimpse of
a sparrow may be at a loss to even begin to put
a name on it.
The best approach to identifying sparrows
doesn’t begin with field marks at all. In this
program, Kenn will illustrate the importance of
putting the sparrows into groups on the basis of
their shapes, habitats, and behavior. Once a
sparrow has been placed in the right group, it
becomes much easier to narrow it down to species
by looking at a few key field marks. By getting
past the ID challenge, we can focus on the
beauty of these subtle birds.
Basics of Photo
Editing
Presented by Swarovski Optiks
Date:
Sunday, May 6
Time: 7:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.
Where: Maumee Bay Nature Center
(Adjacent to the Maumee Bay Lodge)
Fee: $10
Registration required
The expert digiscoping team of Clay Taylor
and Sharon Stiteler from Swarovski Optiks will
share grreat tips about how to edit your photos
to get the most bang for your photography buck
during your visit to The Warbler Capital of the
World!
Birdsong Ear Training Techniques:
Sorting out the Singers in the Chorus!
Presented by Lisa
Rainsong
 Date:
Monday, May 7
Time: 1 p.m. – 2 p.m.
Where: Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge
Fee: $10
Registration required
Birds
are highly-skilled musicians! Avian and human
music share many common elements such as rhythm,
phrasing, pitch, and tone quality. Listening to
bird songs as music can to help us identify,
compare, and remember what we hear more
effectively than relying exclusively on
memorization.
Using an approach derived from teaching ear
training and music appreciation classes,
Cleveland Institute of Music faculty member Dr.
Lisa Rainsong will help you develop your ability
to recognize and identify the avian music around
you. Whether you are trying to distinguish the
many variations of Tufted Titmouse and Song
Sparrow songs, sort out the Scarlet Tanager and
Rose-breasted Grosbeak from the Robins, or
planning to finally learn as many of our summer
residents as possible, a music-based approach
will help you better understand the repertoire
of these accomplished singers.
Often the most challenging aspect of bird song
is sorting out the individual singers from the
overall sonic texture. To help you do this, we
will begin with a one-hour indoor presentation
and then practice our listening skills
outdoors.
Basics of
Identifying Shorebirds
Presented by Kenn Kaufman
Date:
Monday, May 7
Time: 3 p.m. – 4 p.m.
Where: Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge
Fee: $10
Registration required
 The
shorebirds – the sandpipers, plovers, and their
relatives – include some of our most impressive
migrants, traveling every spring from southern
South America to the high Arctic, with many
stopping over in northwest Ohio. Their elegant
shapes and subtle patterns make them favorites
of many birders. However, they can be very
challenging to identify at times, especially for
new birders.
In this program, Kenn will break down the
challenge of shorebird ID
to make it manageable. He will
explain how to
observe shorebirds in the field, what to look
for first, how to understand the changing
plumages of these birds, and how to avoid being
misled by potential points of confusion.
Finally, he will offer shortcuts to help name
these birds quickly, so that we can spend our
time enjoying these elegant migrants rather than
puzzling over their identity.
Point and Shoot
for Wildlife
Presented Stephen Ingraham
Date:
Tuesday, May 8
Time: 1 p.m. – 2 p.m.
Where: Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge
Fee: $10
Registration required
 With
a spotting scope and a small, compact digital
Point & Shoot camera you can take very
satisfying images of wildlife of all
kinds...full frame, close up images like you see
in the magazines. Steve Ingraham, Birding and
Observation Product Specialist for Carl Zeiss
Sports Optics will show you the easy, and
relatively inexpensive, way to wildlife
photography success. Point and Shoot for
Wildlife. It is that simple.
Understanding What You See for Better Bird ID
Presented by Kenn
Kaufman
Date:
Tuesday, May 8
Time: 3 p.m. – 4 p.m.
Where: Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge
Fee: $10
Registration required
 Spring
2011 saw the publication of Kenn’s brand-new
Kaufman Field Guide to Advanced Birding. Despite
the title, this book is definitely NOT just for
“advanced birders” – it is designed to help
birders at all levels of experience to increase
their skill at bird ID. The basic point of the
book is that learning to identify birds is not a
matter of memorizing more field marks; rather,
it relies on building up a better understanding
of what we are seeing and hearing.
Drawing on key sections of the book, this
program will give an overview of this approach,
with surprising examples involving familiar
birds. Kenn will show how to avoid being misled
by tricky birds, and how a few basic and general
ideas can make the identification of all birds
less confusing and more fun.
Bird-friendly Coffee: Shade the Coffee - Save
the Birds
Presented by:
Representatives from the
Birds & Beans - The Good Coffee
- Team
Date:
Wednesday, May 9
Time: 1 p.m. – 2 p.m.
Where: Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge
Fee: FREE
Registration required
 For early morning birding, many of us rely on a
jolt of coffee to get us going. But we may not
think about the fact that the kind of coffee we
drink can have an impact on our birding, not
just today, but for years to come.
Coffee is a crop that can be grown in a variety
of conditions in the American tropics. It can
be grown in full sun, with heavy chemical use,
if you don’t care about the health of your farm
workers or the taste of your coffee. Or it can
be grown in the shade. Under ideal conditions,
where it is grown in the understory of native
forest, the coffee farms can provide good jobs
for local communities, can produce superior
coffee, and can serve as wonderful habitat for
resident and migratory birds. Many of the
spring migrants that we celebrate in northwest
Ohio may have spent the winter on “Bird
Friendly” coffee farms. Kenn and Kimberly
Kaufman visited one such farm last winter, and
in this program Kenn will describe the
fascinating and inspiring story of how “the good
coffee” is produced and how it benefits the
birds and the birders.
Raptor ID
Presenter TBA
Date:
Wednesday, May 9
Time: 3 p.m. – 4 p.m.
Where: Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge
Fee: $10
Registration required
Dendroica No Longer:
Who Keeps Changing My Field Guide?
Presented by Dr. Andy Jones
Date:
Thursday, May 10
Time: 1 p.m. – 2 p.m.
Where: Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge
Fee: $10
Registration required
 Not
only is your local bookstore brimming with field
guides by many authors and publishers, but
existing field guides are constantly being
updated and sold as new editions, forcing
birders to spend more money to stay on top of
changing names and identification techniques.
But this isn't a conspiracy by the field guide
publishers! Instead, field guides are being
updated to capture the
changing worlds of
identification and, particularly, taxonomy in
ornithology. This talk will highlight the
current changes in warbler taxonomy and the
several major reasons for why the common and
scientific names of the birds are not the same
today as when you first started birding
(remember the Rufous-sided Towhee, the
Slate-colored Junco, and the Northern Oriole?).
This talk will also cover some of the prospects
for future changes.
Identifying and
Appreciating Spring Warblers
Presented by Kenn Kaufman
Date:
Thursday, May 10
Time: 3 p.m. – 4 p.m.
Where: Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge
Fee: $10
Registration required
Of
the many birds present in northwest Ohio in
spring, the warblers undeniably make up the
centerpiece of the Biggest Week. This area is
called the “Warbler Capital of the World” with
good reason in the month of May, and most
visiting birders will want to soak up the
experience of the dizzying variety and dazzling
colors and activity of these magical sprites.
Although many warblers are easier to identify in
spring than in fall, they can still present some
challenges, especially for new birders. In this
presentation, Kenn will provide numerous tips on
learning to identify the warblers in the field.
He’ll also give an overview of the warbler
family, including their impressive diversity,
their surprising habits, their varied songs and
calls, and their incredible migrations. The
program should help you to identify warblers
with more confidence and to enjoy them even
more.
Birding by Ear
Presented by Tom Hissong
Date:
Friday, May 11
Time: 1 p.m. – 2 p.m.
Where: Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge
Fee: $10
Registration required
 Each
spring birds present us with both a colorful
feast for the eyes and a symphony of sounds for
the ears. This workshop will “tune” in to the
fascinating world of bird vocalizations. Learn
how and why birds vocalize and how to improve
your bird “listening” skills during the
excitement of spring. Become familiar with some
of the more common Ohio bird sounds.
Basics of
Identifying Shorebirds
Presented by Kenn Kaufman
Date:
Friday, May 11
Time: 3 p.m. – 4 p.m.
Where: Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge
Fee: $10
Registration required
The
shorebirds – the sandpipers, plovers, and their
relatives – include some of our most impressive
migrants, traveling every spring from southern
South America to the high Arctic, with many
stopping over in northwest Ohio. Their elegant
shapes and subtle patterns make them favorites
of many birders. However, they can be very
challenging to identify at times, especially for
new birders.
In this program, Kenn will break down the
challenge of shorebird ID
to make it manageable. He will explain how to
observe shorebirds in the field, what to look
for first, how to understand the changing
plumages of these birds, and how to avoid being
misled by potential points of confusion.
Finally, he will offer shortcuts to help name
these birds quickly, so that we can spend our
time enjoying these elegant migrants rather than
puzzling over their identity.
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