Alex Goetz has photographed wildlife in places like Tasmania, the Marshall Islands, and Botswana.
Those travels have only heightened his appreciation for the ecosystems back home.
“I feel like every single time I come back from a trip, I always come back realizing that we have equally exciting animal species and ecosystems here in northwest Ohio,” Goetz said.
IF YOU GO WHAT: Community Conversation with Alex Goetz
WHEN: Saturday, 6 p.m.
WHERE: Imagination Station, 1 Discovery Way, Toledo
COST: Free
INFORMATION: imaginationstationtoledo.org/programs-events/
Goetz, an award-winning wildlife filmmaker and photographer, resides in Toledo and is one of Imagination Station’s artists-in-residence this year. Co-founder of the production company Running Wild Media, Goetz’s work has been featured in publications like National Geographic, BBC, and PBS.
On Saturday, Goetz will debut at Imagination Station a photography series on birds migrating through northwest Ohio.
In early May, birders around the world flock to Toledo to glimpse birds migrating from South and Central America up into Canada. Places like Magee Marsh, Ottawa Wildlife Refuge, and Howard Marsh become birding hotspots, as birds stop at the coast of Lake Erie, to store energy (and insect food) before crossing the Great Lakes.
The result is a spectacular display of migratory birds.
“I think I’ve gone out in one day and seen over one hundred species of birds in one of the parks,” Goetz said.
Such neotropical migrant birds breed in the United States or Canada. They then migrate south in the fall to Central or South America, and then make the journey back in the spring. There are four general routes birds take across North America: the Atlantic, Central, Rocky Mountain, and Western routes. Northwest Ohio touches both the Atlantic and Central routes making it a special spot for birding.
The birds are notoriously tricky to photograph. Small, quick, and flighty, it can be difficult to get clear shots. To get clearer photos, Goetz worked with local researchers cataloging migrating birds.
One researcher Goetz worked with is Tom Bartlett, a research associate at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. Working on the Lake Erie islands, Bartlett would set up “mist nets” or very thin nets made out of polyester or nylon, to catch birds.
“We check the nets every twenty to thirty minutes, we take out any birds that are caught, and we bring them back,” Bartlett said.
Bartlett would then collect information about the bird’s age, sex, wing chord, and body condition before releasing it back into the wild.
Ideally, the moment of release would be the ideal time for Goetz to snap a picture.
In practice, even with the aid of researchers, photographing the small birds still proved tricky. Many birds would fly off in unanticipated directions when released. Some birds — especially cardinals — would peck researchers.
“Animals being animals, they always tend to do the thing you don’t want them to do,” Goetz said.
On Saturday, Alex will debut his bird photography after a “Community Conversation” from 6 to 8 p.m. During the talk, he will discuss the techniques he used to capture the photos and conservation efforts in northwest Ohio.
He hopes the exhibition can shine light on local biodiversity.
“I feel like so often we go to these cool places like Australia, and film animals that a lot of people in Ohio are probably never going to see in their life,” Goetz said. “This project gave me an opportunity to photograph local bird species.”
Goetz will also host a similar private workshop at the Middlegrounds Metropark, where he will teach attendants how to take photos on their own camera.
The photography workshop will take place on Aug. 18, and is capped at 15 spots.
“At Imagination Station, art is part of the scientific process,” Sutton Reekes, communications and media manager for the science center, said. “It’s really great to have artists in residence, which combines science and art.”
Imagination Station has three to four artists in residence at a time.
Goetz grew up in the Cleveland area. His love for animals started at a young age: he liked visiting parks and hiking in the area, and loved visiting the Cleveland Zoo. Though Goetz knew he wanted to work with animals, he didn’t enjoy math and disliked the thought of getting a biology degree.
“Stumbling upon TV shows [on] Animal Planet or National Geographic really opened my eyes to the fact that you could work with animals, but in a very artistic way–a different capacity than biology or being a zookeeper,” Goetz said.
He attended Bowling Green State University to study film and minor in environmental science, and moved to Toledo after graduating. And while his work has taken him all over the world, he retains a deep love for the Oak Openings region, which stretches from northwest Ohio to just north of Detroit.
At Oak Openings, one can walk through marshes, oak savannas, and wildflower prairies all within one mile. When Goetz walks through the openings, he is reminded that the region was formed during the last ice age. The sand he walks through was deposited by a giant continental glacier, which melted leaving behind a huge lake, called Lake Warren. That lake gradually became what is now Lake Erie. The Oak Openings region represents 10,000 years of history, conspiring to make a rare ecosystem, right in Toledo’s backyard.
“I hope people can get excited when they see all the different species of birds and all the different species of plants and ecosystems that we have here,” Goetz said. “Because it is really something special.”
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