Division I regional track finals
Fenwick graduation 2012
Ponitz graduation 2012
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Sunday, September 18, 2011
One of Many Midwest Birding Symposium Moments
For those of you who weren’t able to make it, the 2011 Midwest Birding Symposium was quite a treat. I had never been to such an event before, but I can assure you this year’s event won’t be my last! So much took place from Thursday until today, and I need more sleep to thoroughly recap the great weekend, but I think one of many great moments that stuck out was when we saw a yellow-billed cuckoo at Meadowbrook Marsh. I don’t have an accurate life list for myself, but I don’t think I’d seen a yellow-billed cuckoo before. It was early in the morning, and we weren’t seeing too many birds, though we could hear them chatter. As we walked between the marsh and the forest, a larger bird popped up from the shrubs and landed in an arch made of grape vines. When it flew up, what stuck out to me were the large flashes of white on the tail. I had no real clue it was a cuckoo and what would distinguish a yellow-billed from a black-billed cuckoo, so when everyone was trying to decide what kind of cuckoo this bird was, I didn’t really partake, assuming I wouldn’t be able to help. From our angle, no one could see the tail and tell whether there were large white spots or narrow white spots. In the low light it was hard to tell the bi-colored bill or see an eye-ring, so the tail was apparently what we needed to go by. So, even though I didn’t know what told my colleagues it was a cuckoo or what markings distinguished one cuckoo from the other, I was actually able to help in this identification, because I had seen the large white spots on the tail. No one else had gotten a good look when it flew. I think this stood out to me, because it shows that you don’t have to be an expert to contribute to birding and have fun out there. And the more I’m out there, the more I learn and appreciate the birds, the habitat, and nature in general. And isn’t that the point?
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