For the birds

The last two weeks, Jesse was (sort of*) on break between finishing finals and starting his internship, so we had some time to play! 

*By "sort of," I mean he finished finals at the beginning of the first week, but then had some journal citations to correct and has been substitute teaching early morning seminary for some friends of ours that moved, so I'm not sure how restful his "break" was ;)

A few weeks ago, I got an email from the Toledo Zoo informing me that May 8-17 was going to be the "Biggest Week in Birding" for Northeastern Ohio. Because it's migration season, birds are winging northward, and lots of them (especially warblers) stop on the edge of Lake Erie to rest and refuel before heading further north. 

Obviously, this was something that Jesse-son-of-Dave-the-wildlife-biologist would LOVE, so I planned a little day trip for us! 

(Ok, I'm pitching this as something I planned for Jesse, but let's be real, I loved it too! Also, planning things that make Jesse happy makes me super happy, so that was a bonus too ;D)

As soon as Jesse got back from teaching seminary, we got the kids up, ate the quickest breakfast we could manage, and hit the road!

The morning was cool and refreshing and the parking lot was packed with senior center vans and cars bearing stickers that announced cheerily "I'd rather be birding at Magee Marsh." 

Masses of people stood silently on boardwalks, binoculars in hand, peering serenely up at the foliage above. Our resident 3 year old did a great job keeping quiet while we scoped out the birds.

Me with Miri in the baby carrier.

We saw lots of pretty Warblers, along with some gratuitous woodpeckers and red winged blackbirds.

My favorite part was that a large portion of our little walk looked like this: 

So lovely!

After about an hour an a half, our little birder was pretty beat, so we called it a day. On the way back to the car, though, we took a quick little path to say hello to Lake Erie.

Though we've lived in Michigan for 2 years now, this is the first great lake that we've visited! Here's hoping we stay in the region post-graduation so we can visit them all :)