The wind direction has changed so many times in the last couple of days,
along with temperature fluctuations and passing storms, that it's hard to
summarize what the weather's impact on migration might have been.  But this
afternoon (May 1) there were pleasing numbers and variety of migrants in the
vicinity of the Magee Marsh boardwalk (Lucas Co., n.w. Ohio).  I personally
saw a dozen warbler species, and heard about one other being present.  To
give a rough idea of relative abundance of the warblers today, these are
just my own personal numbers from three hours on the boardwalk:  Nashville
20, Yellow 15 (but there were many more in areas where they breed south of
the boardwalk and away from the lake), Cape May 3 males, Yellow-rumped 180,
Black-throated Green 12, Blackburnian 1 male, Pine 1, Palm 50, Bay-breasted
1 or 2 males, Black-and-white 20, Northern Waterthrush 2, Common
Yellowthroat 2 (plus more in the marsh south of the boardwalk).  Again,
these are just my own numbers to indicate relative abundance, not an attempt
at the total numbers present, since I didn't even cover the whole boardwalk.
Greg Miller and others also reported an Orange-crowned along the boardwalk,
but I didn't see it myself.  A Cerulean was present the preceding day.

Hermit Thrushes were common: I saw at least 30, along with 10 Veeries, 4
Swainson's Thrushes, and 2 Wood Thrushes.  Ruby-crowned Kinglets were
abundant -- I saw at least 170, often there were 5 or 6 visible at once, and
the total numbers present in the area must have been staggering.
White-throated Sparrows were numerous (80-plus), and one Fox Sparrow seemed
a bit late.  Other migrants seen included Baltimore Oriole 5, Rose-breasted
Grosbeak 2, Great Crested Flycatcher 5, Least Flycatcher 2, and
Whip-poor-will 1 (a roosting bird that had been pointed out to me and many
others by the helpful birding community on the Magee boardwalk).   The only
rarity that I saw was at the end of the afternoon, about 5:15, just before
the rain started: at the east end of the parking lot, near the east end of
the boardwalk, a Clay-colored Sparrow was loosely associating with a lone
White-crowned Sparrow.

Kenn Kaufman
Rocky Ridge, Ohio

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