Shorebirds in the Heartland
Each spring and fall, the Central Flyway of the U.S. and Canada is crammed with hundreds of thousands of shorebirds making their way to and from their arctic nesting grounds. During this time, feeding areas such as mudflats resemble shopping malls at Christmas – birds scurry from site to site, lunging for prey, squawking at intruders, and scrambling for resting sites. For birders, it’s a glorious time, and thanks to a $25,000 grant from the Wild Birds Unlimited Pathways To Nature Conservation Fund, Columbus, Ohio, is the place to see it all.

Visitors to the Hoover Nature Preserve, near the Village of Galena, will soon enjoy a 1,500 foot boardwalk planned for completion in 2005. From the boardwalk, you’ll enjoy extensive views of the mudflats where you can search for Hudsonian Godwits, American Avocets, dowitchers, Whimbrels, Baird’s, Buff-bellied, and Stilt Sandpipers, and dozens more species. If all the shorebirds take off in a hurry, look up quickly – there is probably a Bald Eagle or Peregrine Falcon passing overhead.

This new boardwalk will help bring people and nature together in a way that is sure to quicken the pulse of birders who yearn to join the shorebirds on at least a small portion of their annual migration trek.

For more information: www.columbusrecparks.com

The Pathways To Nature Conservation Fund (http://www.pathwaystonature.com) is a partnership between Wild Birds Unlimited stores and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (www.nfwf.org) to fund environmental education and wildlife viewing projects. We encourage all of our customers to visit these incredible places. Your patronage helped make these projects possible!
 

This is a Pathways To Nature® Travel Log