A Season on the Wind: Inside the World of Spring Migration

What would birding be without migration? Maybe it’s because I’ve always lived in the eastern United States and not in, say, Southeast Arizona or the neotropics, but I consider migration an integral part of the birding experience. It would be weird to not have different birds around in different seasons. Similarly, migration figures prominently in birding literature. Now Kenn Kaufman, one of the preeminent birding authors, tackles the subject in A Season on the Wind: Inside the World of Spring Migration. Does he have anything new to say about it?

One thing that is different about his book on migration is that he focuses on one particular place – northern Ohio. Why there? Well, that so happens to be where he lives. But it also happens to be an incredible spot for witnessing migration due to its geography. Butting up against the southern shore of Lake Eerie, migrants congregate in northern Ohio, especially in the spring. Relatively unknown until about a decade ago, when the Black Swamp Bird Observatory started The Biggest Week in American Birding, a ten-day birding festival, birders now come from far and wide to this area to see migrants pouring through.

Besides the location, little else seems to tie the chapters together at first, making this book read like a collection of unrelated chapters. Several of the chapters focus on a specific group of birds, such as waterfowl and shorebirds. But as you continue reading, a pattern and a thread appear. You’ll notice that the chapters advance in time. Kaufman actually starts in winter, when birders are eagerly anticipating the first migrants. But he shows that migrants are already there and birds are moving much earlier than is normally thought. You will also come across a thread woven through the chapters – conservation. It’s often subtle, not the main focus of a chapter. But one particular topic – the Black Swamp Bird Observatory’s battle to prevent ill-sited wind turbines on the Lake Eerie coast – comes up repeatedly.

Another topic, though, is surprisingly absent, at least at first. Given this book’s subject and geographic scope, one word immediately comes to mind – warblers. After all, this region bills itself as The Warbler Capital of the World. And yet, Kaufman doesn’t mention them until chapter twelve. But, like waiting all winter for these birds to return, it’s worth it. From the yearly routine of excitement over the first Yellow-rumped Warbler to “just another yellow-rump” to the last few stragglers passing through, Kaufman perfectly captures the appeal of these birds and the birder’s experience with them. As he writes, “It’s a treasure hunt with living, moving treasures, and we just can’t stop looking.”

Just be aware: if you don’t already, Kaufman’s vivid word pictures – accentuated by a few actual pictures of what awaits you – will have you yearning to visit Magee Marsh in spring.

As the spring migration that he’s describing builds to a crescendo, so does Kaufman’s writing. Chapter 16 is one of the best of not just this book, but of any. Kaufman describes an amazing morning of birding the Lake Eerie shoreline as the weather comes together to produce birds dripping off the branches. It’s impossible to read without thinking I want to be there. The story then shifts to look at the miracle – his word – that is the Blackpoll Warbler. If you aren’t familiar with their unbelievable migrations, then you really need to read this chapter. Suffice to say, it is every bit of miraculous. The author spends this entire chapter lauding this one particular place and these particular birds. But then he makes an abrupt turnabout. He reminds us that it’s not just this one place or this one species, that should leave us awestruck. “Every little bird in the woods today is its own living, breathing miracle, whether it’s a chickadee that survives extremes of winter and summer or a lookalike blackpoll warbler that survives a flight from Brazil to Alaska. We are surrounded by miracles on all sides, every day, if only we open our eyes and notice them.”

Well put. I still really want to go see warblers from the Magee March boardwalk, though!

Recommendation

In A Season on the Wind: Inside the World of Spring Migration, Kenn Kaufman’s goal is “to illuminate the whole worldwide phenomenon of migration by taking a deep dive into the details of one region.” So even if you live nowhere near northern Ohio, even if you have absolutely no plans to visit there, this is still a book worth reading. It’s informative and a good read, but even more than that, it encourages you to appreciate – and do what you can to protect – wherever you happen to be.