Alder and Yellow-bellied Flycatchers

 

May 19th

          This morning our first stop was to check the beach at Maumee Bay State Park for shorebirds.  We found six beautiful Ruddy Turnstones in breeding plumage and one Sanderling on the main beach and another on the inland beach. Sanderlings are small, plump sandpipers with a stout bill.  They probe the sand of wave-washed beaches, running back and forth chasing the waves.  They nest in the High Arctic on gravel patches and low-growing wet tundra.

          Next, we stopped at a field to look for Dickcissels, but Mike noticed a post about a Connecticut Warbler on the boardwalk.  We abandoned the search for the Dickcissel and immediately went to the boardwalk at Magee.  This was a “birding emergency”.  A Connecticut Warbler is the only remaining regularly seen warbler that we haven’t found this year.  It is a notoriously skulky bird and many years we don’t see or hear one.

          We arrived at Magee hoping to find a crowd of people looking at or at least searching for the Connecticut.  The bird hadn’t been seen for quite some time.  We waited around and searched but no luck.  Finally, we went to look for other birds and found a singing Alder Flycatcher. The Alder and Willow Flycatcher look nearly identical and were considered to be a single species called a Traill’s Flycatcher despite their very different songs.  In 1973 the two were “split” into two species.

          After we finished the boardwalk and had lunch, we went on the Estuary Trail at Magee Marsh.  At the start of the trail, we found another flycatcher.  This Empidonax was easier to identify because it had a distinct yellow wash on its belly which made it a Yellow-bellied Flycatcher. 

After another fruitless search for the Connecticut Warbler, we went back to the field to look for Dickcissels.  We got out of the car and immediately heard at least two singing birds.  The song sounds like dick-dick-cissel, the first two notes being sharp sounds followed by a buzzy cissel which is how the bird got its name.  The song is repeated over and over again from a conspicuous perch on a fence, bush or weed.  Originally, the Dickcissel nested in native prairies and meadows.  Today, many nest in fields of alfalfa, clover, or other crops.  

(4 new species, total 267) 

Sanderling (scarce)

Yellow-bellied Flycatcher (scarce)

Alder Flycatcher (scarce)

Dickcissel

                                               Yellow-bellied Flycatcher

                                                 Sanderling

                                                 Ruddy Turnstone

                                                 Dickcissel

                                                 Indigo Bunting

                                                 Northern Parula

                                                 Common Nighthawk









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