Birding the Great Lakes Seaway Trail

The Great Lakes Seaway Trail is not a “birding trail” of the kind developed in Texas. Rather, this trail highlights the various tourist activities along the 518 mile shoreline of the St. Lawrence River, Lake Ontario, Niagara River and Lake Erie in New York and Pennsylvania. But it also happens to have some excellent birding.

Birding the Great Lakes Seaway Trail features 75 birding sites along the trail, divided into 18 sections. Each section starts with a summary page that features a painting of a key bird in a prominent habitat of that region. The page also lists the sites covered and shows, in a handy graph, how good the birding in that region is during each month of the year. A detailed and relatively lengthy overview of the section follows. Finally, there is a section map and a chart that lists the “best” birds found in the region each month. These section introductions are very well done, and I found them to be very helpful.

Next, each site is discussed. Overall, the guide does a good job of describing the site, what birds to expect there, and when you should go. Unfortunately, it doesn’t do as well directing birders in how to get there. The sites are labeled on the section maps, but for the most part I couldn’t tell specifically where on the map the site was supposed to be. The best it will do is to indicate the general location. A more detailed and helpful map is included for some sites, but not nearly enough. Likewise, directions are given in some site accounts, but not all. GPS coordinates, however, are given for every site.

I found this trail guide to be very well designed; it includes just about all the information you could want in a relatively small space, but without feeling cramped. Complementing the design is a good utilization of color. This is not your usual drab, black-and-white bird-finding guide. Color bands on the outer edge of each page indicate the section, and a color square within the band shows which season of the year the site is most productive.

Again, unlike most similar books, Birding the Great Lakes Seaway Trail is profusely illustrated. Besides the large chapter intro paintings previously mentioned, smaller illustrations are also scattered liberally throughout. Even though the same illustrator did them all, I found them to be remarkably inconsistent. For the most part, I really liked the chapter introduction paintings (though for some, it feels like the bird isn’t well integrated with the background, as if it was just slapped on afterward). But the smaller, individual images aren’t nearly as good. Most are done in a very simplistic style that looks out of place. The birds are clearly identifiable, but just don’t do anything for me, personally. But the good news is that they don’t detract from the guide’s usefulness; any illustrations in a book such as this can be considered a bonus.

Chapter introduction. The bird just doesn't really fit in.

Much better

One more annoyance should be mentioned. My copy was bound so that the text is too close to the center, making it hard to read unless you open the book wide. This is a minor complaint, but it could affect usefulness in the field. However, I don’t know if this was just a random bad copy, or if the entire print run is this way.

Recommendation

I applaud the Great Lakes Seaway Trail for promoting the birding opportunities found along it and for producing this guide. Birding the Great Lakes Seaway Trail isn’t perfect, but it should be very helpful for any birder preparing a trip to this area. I know that it will be accompanying me when I finally make it there.