First, Superman landed there to film some scenes, and now another spectacle is soaring into Headlands Beach State Park. While it's a more familiar sight, it's one that'll draw new visitors to the area.
"Yes, I am a birder, obviously," said Sarah Preston.
She laughed as she said that because she was wearing a birding shirt and holding binoculars hooked around her shoulders.
“It’s a sanctuary, it’s calm, it’s good for mental health, and it’s good exercise,” she said about birding. “There’s also an occasional adrenaline rush when you see something rare or that you can’t identify.”
Preston loves watching birds at Headlands Beach State Park in Lake County.
"Right now, in the fall, the birds are coming from Canada," she said. "They’ve nested. They’re done. And they’re now going south to their wintering areas."
She said this is the first land they see after the long flight across Lake Erie.
"There's food here," she said. "All kinds of food and shelter. So, they have a place to rest and hide from predators and refuel for the rest of their journey."
From shorebirds to little Warblers in the trees, Preston said there’s so much to see.
"You could just pick out all kinds of things when you’re standing in one spot for an hour, maybe," she said.
The Headlands Birding Festival will take place Friday, Sept. 19, through Sunday, Sept. 21, offering guided bird walks and presentations for birders of all ages and skill levels. Click here for more info.
"We’re really excited about it," said Neil Stein, executive director for Tour Lake County.
This is the second year for the birding festival that last year drew about 400-500 people, he said, over the three-day event.
Stein said it’s the perfect place to host the festival and offers them the opportunity to show off all the area has to offer.
"We're here in Mentor obviously and there are several hotels that we partner with for this event," he said. "We know people come in from out of town whether it’s Toledo, Columbus, or Pittsburgh or Erie, and they will stay here for the weekend, and you know go to restaurants, go to the wineries, go to the different places while they’re in town.”
Stein said Headlands is the epicenter of the festival, but the event also includes bird walks and events at:
- Mentor’s newest park, Springbrook Gardens and the Mentor Lagoons Nature Preserve and Veterans’ Park
- Chagrin River Park, Lake Erie Bluffs, and Painesville Township Park at Lake Metroparks
- Mentor Marsh State Nature Preserve
Stein also highlighted the 17 lakefront parks along Lake Erie in Lake County.
"We're lucky that so many of our communities are adding more access to the lake and upgrading their parks so that more people can access the water and put their toes in the water," he said.
He said places like the Lake Metroparks Farmpark, Holden Arboretum, and the 30 different wineries in the Grand River Valley are among the attractions drawing people in.
"It's a great weekend getaway for locals or for those out of town," he said.
Tourism tax dollars spent in Lake County save each local household $698 in state and local taxes, according to Tourism Economics.
"We are so blessed here with so many things here in Lake County," said Stein.
Birding is big along Ohio's shoreline from Lake County all the way west to Lucas County.
The Headlands Birding Festival also benefits Friends of Headlands Beach State Park, the nonprofit arm of the park that pays for upgrades, like adding a blue accessibility mat this past year at a cost of about $8,000 they covered.
"We're doing things like that that without us really the park would not be able to afford these extra amenities for the public," said Preston.
Preston is a board member of Friends of Headlands Beach State Park.
She hopes the festival builds community among birders and helps preserve this special place where both the public and birds come to rest and refuel.
"This dunes area to the east of us is one of the last remaining areas of that type of habitat," said Preston about Headlands Dunes State Nature Preserve. "So, that’s a very rare habitat. Hopefully, people start to realize, and we'll have some talks about conservation, that, 'OK, we like birds, we want to see birds and so hand-in-hand we need to protect the areas that they need to survive.'"
