After a 2020 COVID skip year, the SWMLC Land Larks dove headfirst back into the 32nd Annual Southwest Michigan Team Birdathon with a new challenge and a new team line up. Mitch Lettow, Dave Brown (SWMLC Stewardship Staff), and Ashley Cole-Wick (Conservation Associate at Michigan Natural Features Inventory) kept the Birdathon tradition alive by packing a mini van full of snacks, coffee, and gear – and setting the alarm clock for the absurd hour reserved for this one time of the year.

As if Birdathon wasn’t challenging enough, we decided to bird throughout the entire SWMLC service area (usually just Berrien County) and only count birds on SWMLC preserves. Despite the added challenge, The Larks ended the day with an impressive 103 different bird species resulting in over $4,600 raised for a marsh boardwalk at Bow in the Clouds Nature Preserve!

Adding new territory in which to look for birds added new options, but also required a new strategy. Luckily, SWMLC alumnus Nate Fuller had been dreaming of such a challenge for his 18 years at SWMLC and passed along his mental map to help create a driving route. Thanks, Nate!

We started our day at the north tract of Wau-Ke-Na, WE Smith Preserve in Allegan County, hoping to call a barred owl out of the deep woods. While our human hoots and hollers only resulted in spooked deer and an excitable wild turkey, a distant “peent” call added the dawn-loving American woodcock to our list. We quickly zoomed down to Wau-Ke-Na’s south tract to hunt down open country bird species that love its combination of wetland, grassland, and scrub habitats – and walked away an hour later with around 50 species already on our list!

Species were added more slowly as the afternoon warmth set in. As the caffeine in our bodies started to wear off, we steadily checked off the new species that we knew we could find at our preserves that provide such a range of unique habitats. Osprey at Portman Nature Preserve, yellow-breasted chat at Sora Meadows, Louisiana waterthrush at Black River Preserve, and an elusive black tern at Justin’s Marsh.

Our last stretch came at a perfect time as we drove through the rain from southern Kalamazoo County to northern Barry County, trying to tip our list over the 100 species mark with some “Hail Mary” birds. Wind and rain made Hidden Pond Preserve more quiet than normal, but we were able to add the aptly named savanna sparrow, spotted in our savanna habitat restoration.

With just ten minutes to go, we jetted down the hill at Carter Lake Preserve to try for a glimpse of the charismatic trumpeter swan that we knew had nested there. Looking out to the lake we spotted bank swallows – new for our list – and with two minutes to spare we heard the bucolic trumpets of our swans!

Feeling satisfied and a little loopy, we trudged back up the hill reflecting on the wide diversity of bird species we had just seen. The impact of our conservation work through our nature preserves really hit home in the amazing biodiversity of birds we had just seen in these special tracts of habitat scattered throughout southwest Michigan.

We are immensely grateful for the thirty years of community support that has created this dynamic network of natural areas that is so biologically rich that we could even consider such a unique challenge.