Black Tern

 

May 9th

          Every year there is a 10-day birding festival in northwest Ohio called The Biggest Week in American Birding.  The festival organizers are very humble and refer to our area as “The Warbler Capital of the World!”   The festival attracts more and more people every year and hordes of birders descend upon us.  Mike and I have a love/hate feeling about it.  On the one hand, it is really crowded and crazy.  On the other hand, there are many excellent birders scouring the area and finding rarities.  We can’t stay away but we do try to avoid some of the worst crowds.

Last night the winds shifted and started blowing from the southeast.  We were expecting more migrants today and that’s what happened.  We went to Magee Marsh this morning along with lots of other birders.  It was very crowded but right away we found a new warbler, the Chestnut-sided Warbler.  During the festival, the guides tweet whenever they find something special, so Mike and I keep a close eye on those Twitter alerts.

          Not long after we had arrived, someone tweeted about a Prairie Warbler being seen on the Estuary Trail.  We did an about face and headed for that trail.  We were able to see a very cooperative Prairie Warbler and Mike got some nice pictures.  We finished walking the boardwalk and after lunch we headed to the Metzger Marsh woodlot.  We saw a nice variety of warblers including a Bay-breasted Warbler.

          Our last stop, Mallard Club Marsh, is a place I hate to go.  It always has long uncut grass on the dikes, numerous gopher holes, and lots of ticks.  We do go here sometimes, often in the dark, because there can be good birds here.  Today there was a report of a Black Tern, so we went to try and find it.  We ran into a birding guide on the dike, and she helped us locate a Black Tern.  This was a great way to end the day.

(3 new species, total 240)

          Black Tern

          Chestnut-sided Warbler

          Bay-breasted Warbler  

                                       Prairie Warbler (male)

                                       American Redstart

                                       Black-and-white Warbler

                                       Nashville Warbler

                                       Pine Warbler (1st year female)





     

Comments

  1. AnnMay 10, 2022 at 4:54 AM

    I would never have recognized that 1st year female as a pine warbler.

    ReplyDelete
  2. SharonMay 10, 2022 at 10:44 AM

    Fantastic as always!!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

January Summary

Image
  February 1 st           The first month of our Birding Big Year has drawn to a close.   Mike and I have worked hard to find the important winter target birds as well as some rarities.  We are pleased with our progress.   Here is a list of the winter target birds that we have found:           Snow Goose                                           Snowy Owl           Ross’s Goose                                        Long-eared Owl ...
Read more

Pine Siskin

Image
  February 6 th On the road again Goin’ places that I’ve never been Seein’ things that I may never see again And I can’t wait to get on the road again Willie Nelson After surviving the recent snowstorm and a mild case of cabin fever, I was ready for a road trip.   There have been reports in the past week of a Harris’s Sparrow in Holmes County.   Holmes County is south of Wooster and has a large Amish community.   It is rural, quaint and includes towns like Millersburg, Berlin, Charm and Walnut Creek.   I always love to see the well-kept farms and the residents getting around with their horse and buggy.   It was a 2½ hour trip on lots of country roads and unfortunately we were unsuccessful in locating the sparrow.   As we were leaving the area, a small flock of Eastern Meadowlarks unexpectedly flew right in front of our car.   Normally meadowlarks are not around in the winter, so this was a surprise.   Apparently, meadowlark...
Read more

Florida Specialties

Image
March 8 th           We spent last night in Ocala which is between Gainesville and Orlando.   This morning we drove about 1½ hours to the Three Lakes Wildlife Management Area south of Orlando.   The area has both a grassland habitat and several lakes with waterfowl and shorebirds.   We did not see anything unusual, but it was a very rural part of Florida which was new to us.   The area surrounding the wildlife area had lots of horse and cattle ranches.           Two Florida specialties that we saw today were the Mottled Duck and the Limpkin.   The Mottled Duck is closely related to the Mallard and the Black Duck.   Some authorities suggest lumping all three under a single species.   However, the Mottled Duck generally occurs throughout most of Florida and the gulf coast of Texas and Louisiana.   In these areas the Mallard is uncommon.    ...
Read more