By CELESTE BAUMGARTNER
Ohio Correspondent

WEST UNION, Ohio — The Adams County Amish Bird Symposium will be March 6, from 9:30 a.m.-4:15 p.m. at a new location this year – the Wheat Ridge Amish Community Building.

Those in attendance will have an opportunity to hear prominent speakers on a range of birding topics, vendors will offer bird-related items for sale and RAPTOR, Inc. will have live birds of prey on hand during the lunch hour (the lunch will feature Amish-made food).
There will be opportunities for bird photography. The day will end with a trip to Adams Lake State Park to look for winter water birds. This popular symposium began a couple of years ago when Amish resident and local bird authority Roman Mast stood in his back yard and dreamed of gathering the Adams County Amish community at an event to celebrate birds and birding.

Mast spoke with Chris Bedel, director of the Edge of Appalachia Preserve, and local resident Randy Lakes. They liked the idea, so the trio worked together and the symposium was “hatched.”
That first event was expected to attract a couple of dozen attendees to the basement of Amish businessman Larry Miller. More than 100 Amish and other people flocked to the event.
“We were sold out pretty quickly,” Bedel said. “It was amazing. We held it there again and then realized it was bigger than we thought.”

In 2006 the event moved to a new location with a capacity for 270 people. Another sellout crowd demonstrated the intense interest in birding.

“It grew legs,” Bedel said. “Folks took to it. Probably 70 percent of the people come back time and again to the event. It has been published in magazines, and people hear about it and come.”

The event is not a field day event except for the option to go to Adams Lake at the end of the day, Bedel said. It is an indoor event at “cabin fever” time to get people to start thinking about spring. The first birds that come in, usually woodcocks, are back, and red-winged blackbirds.

Bedel said his personal goal in helping with the event was to encourage people – Amish and non-Amish – to manage their land more effectively for birds and conservation.

“Selfishly, I thought I might be doing something for conservation by getting more people interested,” he said. “Educating people is what we do at the preserve.”

The Edge of Appalachia Preserve consists of 14,000 acres and is managed by the Cincinnati Natural History Museum and the Nature Conservancy. To accommodate the event’s continued growth, the Adams County Travel and Visitors Bureau is now involved in the planning.

For registration and other information visit www.adamscountytravel.org/amishbirdsymposiuminfo.htm or phone the bureau at 937-544-5454 or toll free at 877-232-6764.