Deb Tefft left her Reno Beach home shortly after midnight heading for Mio, Michigan. She had the call of the Kirtland Warbler emanating from the tape deck to keep her awake during her six-hour drive. At 7 am, she was in the jack pine forest with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to spot one of the world’s rarest birds. Less than two hours later, she was on the road home again, the elusive endangered warbler checked off her life list.

No shopping.

No canoeing.

No fly fishing on the famed AuSable River.

Just one glimpse of one small bird and head back home, 500 more miles on the odometer.

That first safari was six years ago. Since then, Tefft has traveled to such exotic locales as Trinidad, Panama and Oaxaca, Mexico as well as 17 states in her quest to log 1,000 bird species. She’s getting close, although she won’t divulge the exact number due to the competitive nature of birders. Well, at least, between this birder and her arch-rival.

Who knew?

Tefft, a Clay grad who works for Martin-Lark Insurance, has always had an interest in birds, one that was fostered by her parents, Floyd and Ina Tefft. She said she has always been an “outside kid” who spent her childhood in the ditches looking for snakes and baby rabbits and walking the Crane Creek boardwalk looking at birds. But, the hobby didn’t morph into passion until after she raised her son.

Deb Tefft has travelled to exotic locales in her quest to log 1,000 bird species. (Press photo by Ken Grosjean)

Since then, Tefft has sought out both exotic species and exotic locales. In Trinidad, armed guards escorted her and other members of the Toledo Naturalist Organization to the Asa Wright Nature Center, a small resort famed for its wildlife diversity. The rare Oilbird, a nocturnal bird that feeds on the fruit of the Oil Palm, was among those she added to her life list.

Another trip saw her drive 17 hours to the coast of Maine, board a boat and brave rolling seas to catalog a number of Pelagic birds including the Black-footed Albatross, the Gannet and the Atlantic Puffin. “The boat was rolling, people were sick. It was awful. I thought, ‘I don’t want to die but if I did die, I’d die happy because I saw the bird.’”

Tefft’s trip to Oaxaca, on the southern tip of Mexico, garnered the Oaxaca sparrow, a bird threatened by loss of habitat. Her trip to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan netted the Great Gray Owl, a Canadian bird which had migrated south in search of prey.

These outings have taken Tefft to some of the most beautiful wild places in the world. “There’s really no downside to that,” she said. “I just can’t describe how beautiful the world is from what I’ve seen and there’s a lot more out there.”

So, what is her Holy Grail of Birds?

Was it the rare Kirtland Warbler?

The Ivory-Billed Woodpecker, a bird from the southeastern United States thought to be extinct?

No. “It’s the next bird,” she says. “Whatever it may be.”

Costa Rica with its 850 species of birds is the next planned destination. Australia with its 56 species of parrots is also on the dream list.

Tefft is just one of 48 million birders who, in 2006, contributed $36 billion to the U.S. economy, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. These birders chase an estimated 10,000 recorded species around the globe. But, if you are just starting out, our backyard is a birder’s paradise. Kim Kaufman, executive director of the Black Swamp Bird Observatory, said a birder can expect to add 300 or so birds to a life list from resident and migratory birds without leaving Northwest Ohio.

The Ottawa Wildlife Refuge, Crane Creek, Magee Marsh, Pearson Park and Maumee Bay State Park are all hot spots in the spring for migratory birds resting before crossing Lake Erie on their way to Canada. During the first two weeks in May, in what she calls The Biggest Week in American Birding, more than 50,000 birders visited our area. They flew in from such faraway places as Australia, Guam, Kenya, New Zealand and Ecuador.

Pearson Park is the area’s newest hot spot. The restoration of a 300-acre wetland has attracted shore birds, wading birds, grasshopper sparrows and osprey, according to John Jaeger, retired director of natural resources for the MetroParks. In the summer of 2009, Jaeger cataloged 97 species at the park.

Tefft offers you a tip if you want to join in on the craziness of getting up before dawn, driving long distances while listening to tapes of bird calls and fighting nausea on a bobbing ocean boat: Do your own research and beware the wily birder. “Some of them will tell you the truth. Some won’t. And, some don’t know what they’re talking about.”

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