Kirtland's Warbler Festival
Saturday we ventured out to Kirtland Community College's Kirtland's Warbler Festival. There is this beautiful little bird that has a VERY narrow range, and part of it happens to be in this tiny corner of Michigan in the jack pine forests. They are really pretty and have a very distinctive call. Zeb has been itching to do this for about 5 years now, and so we decided this year was the year..A new family tradition might have even been born. A weekend birding trip each May to a different location. Isaac really had fun and behaved very nicely on the bus ride and time out in the forest. He didn't scare a single bird off and Daddy saw 3 Kirtland's Warblers. We also saw on our trip: a Bald Eagle, Blue Jays, Flickers, Eastern Bluebird, and a lot of very common birds along the way..
At the festival, Isaac got to build a bird house. We're still trying to figure out where to hang it, but it is sturdy and designed well to be reused each year (you remove one nail and a side wall swings out so you can clean it out each year and let the birds return to use it again!).
Enjoy the pictures..
Walking down the dirt road next to prime warbler habitat!
Daddy and some others looking at one of the several that were spotted...
Amazingly enough, Isaac never once asked for the binoculars until we were back on the bus and on our way out!
"Aha! I see a tree!" "Aha! I see a window!" and on and on and on...
Isaac was soooo excited to get to ride the school bus.
He asks everyday to ride the bus,
and everyday I remind him that he is too small to ride it by himself.
We went on a horse-drawn carriage ride down through a red pine forest.
It was beautiful, cold, and just generally a lot of fun.
I think this might have been my favorite part of the day!
Every child under the age of 14 got to build a free birdhouse!
We let him take a few cracks at it without any assistance...but just a few.
I know it's not in focus, but it's the best we were getting because he wanted to be on the move!
His masterpiece is complete!
