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Famed KW photographer Austing makes encore performance in 2004
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By JEREMY LAND
ROSCOMMON – Famed Kirtland’s warbler photographer Ron Austing is
making an encore appearance at this year’s festival.
The world’s leading photographer of the warbler and several other
rare species, Austing will show his work – including still photos
and some remarkable video footage that show young warblers feeding
and fledging.
His presentation, The Birds of the Jack-Pine Ecosystem, will be
shown twice on Saturday.
In it, Austing welcomes his audience into the wilderness of the
jack-pine ecosystem.
Most of his pictures – which will be on sale at the show – were
taken in a roughly 10-mile radius of Mio.
This is only Austing’s second visit to the Kirtland Warbler
Festival; he was the festival’s featuredphotographer last year.
Interestingly, he says he never attended before because the season
for the warbler was just beginning and there weren’t enough birds
in the woods as there are in June.
That’s when Austing packs his gear and leaves his Ohio home to
spend a couple weeks with the warblers in Michigan. That’s when
the males sing and they are most visible.
Austing’s career in wildlife biology was a major factor in
securing permission from state and federal authorities in Michigan
to roam the restricted areas of warbler habitat. The result: the
kinds of photos and videos that awe even the scientists on the
Kirtland’s Warbler Recovery Team. They saw his work when they met
for their annual summer meeting at Kirtland last year.
Several of Austing’s photos adorn the entryways of many of
Kirtland’s academic and office buildings as well.
Among his most memorable moments amid the jack pines: when a
fearless little warbler landed on him. It’s happened several
times, and both he and the bird just continue going about their
business. No other subject he has studied and photographed has
done that. The birds tend not to mind when people are around, he
said, “as long as you’re careful and very quiet and don’t move
around too much.”
Austing has been studying the elusive bird for more than 50 years.
Some wildlife biologists like Bob Hess, retired DNR and program
co-chair of the festival, say Austing has the best photographs of
the Kirtland warbler ever recorded.
Born in Cincinnati in 1931, Austing developed an interest in the
warbler from his childhood, which he spent hunting birds not for
sport, but rather to feed his pets. It took little time for
Austing to become fascinated with the birds he was hunting, so he
started taking pictures of them.
As his love of photography grew, he sought more challenging
subjects, and through his knowledge of birding discovered and fell
in love with the Kirtland’s warbler. “A lifetime target species,”
said Austing of the small bird.
But don’t expect much help or advice from Austing regarding how
best to find the birds and photograph them.
“I spent my life learning how to approach my subjects,” he said,
“and I don’t necessarily want to give out that information.” |
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