Warblers on the Water events for 2025 featuring field trips on the Beaver Island Birding Trail. Our community is eager to share our beautiful island, which hosts a rich array of migratory and resident nesting birds. Affectionately, Beaver Island is known as the Emerald Isle of American Birding.

After a transition of leaders last year, our event is now back to its traditional full ovffering of activities. For 2025, we have arranged ten field trips (including two that will venture to the outer islands) and two presentations.

Schedule:

May 23, 2025
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Meet & Greet the Warblers on the Water Team
5:00pm
Beaver Island Community Center
26210 Michigan Avenue
Beaver Island, MI 49782

After arriving on the island, plan to drop by the Beaver Island Community Center to meet and greet the Beaver Island Birding Trail team. Light refreshments and appetizers will be served. This will also be a time of handing out suveniers as well as providing any updates or announcements and answering questions.

Our team this year includes:

Terry and Andrea Grabill: Terry is a recently retired middle school teacher and West Michigan birder who made a Michigan Big Year run in 2021. On his way to recording a whopping 323 species for the year, he logged an obscene number of miles, had some great adventures, and met many amazing people along the way. Terry and his wife Andrea have dedicated countless hours to developing beginning birders with their “Beaver Island Group” program through Fremont Middle School. Most of Terry’s introductory birding experiences happened on Beaver Island while he was a Central Michigan University student studying at the CMU Biological Station on Beaver in 1989. He then discovered that there were other individuals, groups even, interested in birding. He has maintained life-long relationships with these people. He and Andrea have developed young birders for 20 years with the groups they’ve brought to CMU’s Biological Station and birding events down-state.

Dr. Nancy Seefelt: Nancy is a Michigan native who grew up in Sterling Heights, near Detroit. After high school, she enrolled at Central Michigan University (CMU) and discovered Beaver Island when she took a class at the CMU Biological Station. Nancy received her B.S. and M.S. degrees from CMU, and her doctorate from Michigan State University. She currently holds a faculty position in the Biology Department at CMU. Much of her research focuses on avian ecology, specifically the breeding biology of waterbirds (gulls, terns, herons and cormorants) in northern Lake Michigan and the stopover ecology of migrating songbirds along Lake Michigan shorelines. The migration work involves censusing, mist netting, and remote acoustical monitoring; the acoustic monitors also track the sounds of migratory bats. In addition, Nancy monitors the breeding activities of the endangered Piping Plover as part of the recovery program for this species.

As a vertebrate ecologist and evolutionary biologist, Nancy has been studying birds throughout the Beaver Archipelago for over 25 years. In her free time, Nancy enjoys long walks in natural places with her dog, especially at sunrise. She also enjoys riding bicycles with her husband, Jeff, and exploring the gravel roads and trails both close to home in Michigan and beyond.

Darrell Lawson: Darrell has been birding since 2012 and has been leading field trips since 2014 for BIBT’s Warblers on the Water. He is a past president (and current vice-president) of the Petoskey Regional Audubon Society, has co-chaired the Sunset Coast Birding Trail Development team, and is a past member of the Michigan Bird Records Committee. He routinely leads field trips around Michigan.

Ed Leuck: Ed is a retired Professor Emeritus of biology at Centenary College of Louisiana where he taught ecology, conservation biology and microbiology and developed the campus arboretum. He has been coming to the Island since 1985 and has taught at the Central Michigan University Biological Station. He is the senior author of Plants of Beaver Island, Part I: Bogs and Fens and Part II: Lake Michigan Beaches and Sand Dunes and spends summers at his house on Sand Bay while continuing to investigate the island flora and participating in island conservation efforts.

Brian Allan: Brian is a recently retired Optometrist living in Manistee. He has been birding for fifty-three years and was fortunate to both be on the crest of the new field birding in the 1970’s and the now technical/digital media birding revolution of the 2020’s. He is a former member of the Michigan Bird Records Committee, one of the editors of the ABA Birder’s Guide to Michigan, the current eBird reviewer for North West Michigan, and bird trip leader for several conservation organizations in Michigan. He enjoys birding in the tropics and has recently returned from birding trips to Brazil and Ecuador. His favorite activity is getting anyone of any age interested in birding by getting them on their “spark” bird.

Brennan Schuler: Brennan is a Dietary Cook at Newaygo Medical Care Facility. However his occupation doesn’t slow him down from exploring the world of birding. Brennan’s knowledge is centralized in NorthEast American Birds, but he is always eager to expand his knowledge. His favorite bird is the Cedar Waxwing. In high school Brennan ran a birding podcast with his fellow birder, Terry Grabill. You can find it at BirdGoober.com Brennan’s love for birding is infectious, he loves to share his passion with anyone willing to listen.

Brennan is 21 years old. Despite his young age, he has almost 10 years of birding experience under his belt. It all started in the 6th grade when an even younger Brennan won a raffle his school was hosting. His prize? To go birding with his favorite teacher, Mr. Terry Grabill. Since that special day spent birding in Newaygo County, Brennan's passion for birding has soared.

The Big Year
6:30pm - 7:55pm
Beaver Island Community Center
26210 Michigan Avenue
Beaver Island, MI 49782

PG | 1h 4om | Comedy, Birding

Presented as part of Warblers on the Water 2025.

Two bird enthusiasts try to defeat the cocky, cutthroat world record holder in a year-long bird-spotting competition.

Director: David Frankel
Writers: Howard Franklin; Mark Obmascik
Stars: Owen Wilson; Jack Black; Steve Martin

Freewill donation suggested | Please support movies at the BIC Center with a donation | Concession stand open for snacks, a meal or both

Register Here