RIBBON CUTTING - Important Bird Area representative, Caleb Putnam, left, cuts the ribbon and officially designates Tawas Point State Park as an Important Bird Area. - Photo by Jason Ogden

Tawas Point designated Important Bird Area
by Jason Ogden

EAST TAWAS - Tawas Point State Park is not only a great place in Iosco County to bird watch, it is now globally recognized as an “Important Bird Area.”

The park was recognized as part of the second annual Tawas Point Birding Festival. The designation was placed upon the park by the Audubon Society.
Before the ribbon cutting ceremony Saturday, Michigan IBA representative, Caleb Putnam, as well as state Rep. Joel Sheltrown, spoke about the distinction.

Putnam said that the area benefits for migrating birds, such as food, shelter and proximity, are taken into account when designating an area, not whether the area is good for bird watching.

Tawas Point draws birds for its resources, like the many bugs which are hatching there this time of year, as well as the bottle-necking effect the point causes. As the birds are migrating north along the shoreline, they are forced into the area, he said.

Perhaps local Audubon representative, Oscoda resident Peggy Ridgway, said it best: “Tawas Point is special to us, but it is crucial to the birds.”

Along with the dedication, the second annual festival drew many people. Tawas Point wasn’t just swarming with birds, it was swarming with binocular-clad people looking for birds.

Many people came from around the state and country to take part in the bird watching.

Included in the large group were Bill and Elsa Thompson, founders of the Bird Watchers’ Digest, a magazine dedicated to birders.

According to Elsa Thompson, the area highly deserved the distinction which was placed on it Saturday.

“This is one of the best birding spots in the country,” she said.

Bill Thompson said he was impressed by how organized the festival was, despite it being only two years old.

Included in the large group were Bill and Elsa Thompson, founders of the Bird Watchers’ Digest, a magazine dedicated to birders.

According to Elsa Thompson, the area highly deserved the distinction which was placed on it Saturday.

“This is one of the best birding spots in the country,” she said.

Bill Thompson said he was impressed by how organized the festival was, despite it being only two years old.

The festival, which was sponsored by the Tawas Area Chamber of Commerce, offered many events from bird watching to seminars. There were many seminars held at the Tawas Bay Beach Resort on birding, planting to attract birds and birds themselves, but on-site demonstrations drew birders off the trails for a moment of instruction.

One such demonstration, the banding or marking of birds for later identification, was conducted by private researcher Ed Pike.

Pike is licensed with the United States Geological Survey, as well as the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, to capture wild birds, record information and band them, then release them back into the wild.

Pike set up a large area of see-through netting, aptly called a mist net, to catch a bird.

As Pike explained the banding procedure to an audience on the edge of a trail, sure enough a bird flew right into the net.

According to Pike, the most crucial time, and time when it is most likely to get injured, is when it is flailing in the net.

Pike, who has been banding birds for more than 30 years, freed the bird, and immediately identified it as a grey cat bird.

After looking the bird up in a reference manual, he banded the bird - with serial number 951-34862 - and weighed it. He put the bird into a stocking and hung it on a scale to measure its weight.

“Obviously the bird isn’t going to stand on the scale and let me weight it,” he said.

Midland residents Dave and Laura Young were in attendance at the festival and witnessed the banding demonstration.

According to Dave Young, their reasoning behind attending the festival was simple; to see as many birds as they could. They have been coming to Tawas Point for 40 years.

Over the course of the two days they indeed saw lot of birds. The Youngs claimed to have seen more than 75 species of birds, including a rare barn owl.

According to a festival representative more than 175 different species were identified over the course of the weekend.

Another birder, Stephany Podolan of Interlochen, said she was there for the warblers, as the location is rife with many different species during migration season.

Podolan said she loves warblers so much her husband even had her automobile license plate inscribed with “Warbler.”

“You look into the trees,” she said. “And they are like little jewels on the branches.”

Other birders were looking for gold in the branches, at least a golden winged warbler.

Word spread fast Saturday that one had been sighted, and a large group of birders gathered off the edge of a trail in the hopes of catching a glimpse.

Jim Stevens, a Rochester resident who also helps with Iosco County Kirkland’s warbler counts in the spring, saw the rare bird.

Stevens speculated that the bird didn’t live around the point area, but we on its way somewhere else to mate.

Festival goers were guaranteed to see a bird in the festival’s Birds of Prey information program put on my Jesse Gabbard of the Michigan United Conservation Club.

Gabbard, a wildlife education specialist, traveled from Lansing with rare and endangered live specimens to for the festival.

Among the examples of live birds was a large bird commonly found in Iosco County, the red-tailed hawk. Other birds included the Northern screech owl, and the large American bald eagle.

The birds, which according to Gabbard were unnamed because although they are captive the animals are still considered wild, lost half of its wing when it was an infant. Like the other animals it was either injured or raised from birth to be kept.

Ridgway said that overall she believed that the event was a success. Ridgway added that she thought that the birders appreciated the expand field trip opportunities, demonstrations, and lectures.

While the event was sponsored by the Tawas Area Chamber of Commerce, it was done with cooperation by other natural resources organizations including the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, the U.S. Forest Service, Michigan Audubon and Ducks Unlimited.