New Festival for Birders

Enlarge Image Image Gallery Wading birds like this great blue heron are a common sight on Michigan’s scenic Leelanau Peninsula, where local birders are launching the four-day Leelanau Peninsula BirdFest in June. iStockphoto.com/Daniel Cardiff

TRAVERSE CITY, MI – Each year, hundreds of birdwatchers migrate to the dunelands of Northwestern Michigan with their binoculars and notebooks to enjoy the region’s many birding opportunities.

This spring they’ll get a little extra help from their fellow birders on the scenic Leelanau Peninsula, who are organizing a four-day “festival” of lectures and guided excursions to some of the area’s birding hotspots. The inaugural Leelanau Peninsula BirdFest is scheduled for June 1-4, and is sponsored by a coalition of local community groups who want to draw more attention to the area’s wealth of bird species.

“We think this will be a uniquely conservation-themed festival,” says BirdFest organizer Dave Barrons. “We have some great trips planned, and our focus is going to be on what we can do to help reverse the decline of some of these species.” 

A broad wedge of glacier-carved land northwest of Traverse City, the Leelanau Peninsula has long been a favorite vacation destination for well-heeled Midwestern urbanites. But it’s also a popular resting spot for migratory birds and an important refuge for one endangered shorebird: the tiny piping plover, which nests on open beaches.

But the same natural features that attract avian migrants to Traverse City’s beaches, lakes and forests also make it a favorite destination for the humans who follow them. The local tourism industry is belatedly taking notice of the phenomenon – and rightly so, since birding is now the country’s No. 1 outdoor sport. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates that there are currently 51.3 million birders, and the number is still growing. Several local resorts and lodges list nearby birding areas in their promotional literature, and a few even arrange guided outings on request.

The Leelanau Peninsula is also home to the 44-acre Charter Sanctuary, established by veteran birders Jim and Kay Charter as a safe haven for over 130 species of migrating, nesting and resident birds – including black-billed cuckoos, grasshopper sparrows and bobolinks. Next door to the sanctuary is the Charters’ educational center, Saving Birds thru Habitat, which teaches private landowners how to adapt backyards, woodlots and vacant property as bird habitat.

But the peninsula’s greatest asset is the diversity of its terrain, and the fact that much of it is in public hands and is accessible to birders at no cost.

“We don’t really have what you’d consider world-class birding here, but we have almost unlimited access to over 80,000 acres of public land, with a tremendous variety of habitat and more than 300 bird species,” Barrons says. “Some festivals have to make do with a single small private preserve, but we can provide a very diverse birding experience.”