Birding has become quite popular over the last few years. At least that’s what my particular tailored algorithms are telling me, but while I have always enjoyed wildlife photography… the birding came from meeting my now wife.
She had downloaded the Merlin App while trying to relieve some stress from submitting her Match Rank list for residency. It was not long before she was woefully on her way to becoming a birder. At the time, however, she was completely content with solely getting the identification of a sound on the app. If you are unaware of Merlin, it is an app made and maintained by Cornell Lab of Ornithology that uses your phone’s microphone to record sounds and ID the bird calls you hear around you. You can also take a photo of a bird and it will help you ID the bird in your image. She would set her phone on the windowsill, walk around a park, or stop her car and listen out of her window to see what birds were around.
In the Spring time of 2024, we had gone up to her family’s cottage in Northern Lower Peninsula Michigan for the weekend and unbeknownst to me, just miles down the road, was one of the hottest bird hot spots in the country —Tawas Point State Park.
What happened on this weekend would basically lock in the birder in me forever. It happened to be a pretty good day, as each year on the second Saturday of May is the Bird Migration Count for Spring Migration in the US and Canada. We arrive at Tawas Point pretty early in the morning on the 12th (May 11th was the Big Bird Count day), and it was birds galore!
Now, I wouldn’t say I got particularly good images. I was running a Sony 70-200mm f2.8 GM OSS II with the 2x Teleconverter, not a particularly sharp combination for small birds if you’re unsure what you are doing, but I did get some really cool lifers right off the rip!
Tawas Point State Park is quite small as far as a nature area is concerned but it has a few different environments between the beaches, woods, trails, and hills. It is diverse enough to offer plenty of spots for all sorts of birds to pass through and because it is a hook shaped point jutting out into the bay, it becomes the first stop for many birds coming North from winter migration. In fact, one of the wildest groups to see are Red-headed woodpeckers flying up by the dozens. That isn’t exactly a common way to see these birds but it is pretty awesome.
That morning we walked back and forth on the paths and beaches and while I’ve been making photos for a long time, shooting photos of small birds proved to be quite difficult. I enjoyed the challenge and the subjects that morning we’re all so interesting and new to me. Among my favorites from that trip were the Indigo Bunting, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Baltimore Oriole, Eastern Kingbird, and the star of the show for me — the Scarlet Tanager!
While none of the photos are absolutely breath-taking from that morning, they were enough to energize me and make this something I wanted to pursue more. The photos also sparked an intrigue with elle and was the start of what would become both our favorite pastime and survival technique during residency.
I will follow up this post with some more info about how we progressed, how the gear progressed, and what adventures we have and will be taking. I thought maybe it was worth telling the story of how we got into this hobby. I think it would be worth talking about what we get from it too, so perhaps I can get elle to share some of her perspective in the future.
Below are some photos from this first birding experience that I took. I will also drop a link to our channel where we share our adventures. We have a 5 part vlog up from a trip in Florida earlier this year and have much more planned for that.
-kb
