Perhaps it’s best to start out by saying I’m not a birder, nor have any intention of becoming one. I like the idea of knowing more about birds, and of the migration. This book helps to satisfy some of that desire, but not fully. What Kenn Kaufman writes in this book is about spring migration in one area, northwestern Ohio, and particularly in the Magee Marsh region.

There is specific information, such as how Kaufman and other birders track migration using weather and radar, which was interesting and perhaps I’ll never look at weather radar the same during times of migration. Although where I live there likely isn’t enough birds to show up strongly on the Nexrad radar. I enjoyed the discussion about flyways, having never heard the term before despite the popularity, then understanding that it is a false concept anyway. Birds fly wherever they can and do, they don’t have highway type systems such as we have for our cars or ships.

Birds are at the center of this book, and so is Kaufman. He tries at times to remove himself from the story and other times inserts himself. This going back and forth was slightly uncomfortable for reading, but understandable, saying we and us when it clearly isn’t himself solely doing certain work. The same for the activism side of fighting against a huge wind-turbine project that was planned at the Camp Perry Military Reservation, which is only around 10 miles away, as the crows fly. Unfortunately huge wind turbines are very deadly for birds.

The discussion of wind power and impending projects was important and necessary to include, yet the placement didn’t work well for me. Maybe for birders the flow of the book will work better. I was trying to get situated and understand things, then this part was thrown in, and back to birds, it made for more difficulty for myself getting into the book.