Saturday at the boardwalk was pretty good for the birders. The pond area
still had a Belted Kingfisher, good numbers of Ring-necked Ducks and Lesser
Scaup. There were three real highlights for the day and one noticeable
tragedy. Ok, the good news first. Birders like Darin Miller saw at least six
Purple Finches yesterday. They were eating the White Ash seeds which look
just like canoe paddles. They're sandy tan in color and about 2-1/2 inches
long. One of the male Purple Finches starting singing for Delores Cole,
Darin Miller, a couple from Philadelphia and myself. The group took photos
while I watch this RASPBEERY COLORED bird sing very softly. It was being
drowned-out by a male Northern Cardinal and a Red-winged Blackbird.
The next highlight was seeing and hearing the Rusty Blackbirds and Eastern
Towhees. Delores Cole took a couple of real nice photos of a Rusty Blackbird
with a fair amount of rust color on its back while it was flipping leaves
looking for food. We saw one dig-up a snail, crush it, and then eat it. How
cool is that.
The third real exciting thing was around 4:30 PM, Lee Garling and Jeff Abke
heard not one, but maybe even two Northern Saw-whet Owls singing on the
boardwalk somewhere down around the bridge area. They unfortunately could
not find these secretive little rascals. What an experience to hear them
during the late afternoon hours of the day. I'm so jealous guys as I have
never heard one in the wild!
Ok, now for the bad news people. The White Ash trees that are scattered
throughout the boardwalk in small numbers are starting to show signs of
Emerald Ash Borer. Several trees are already covered with their holes and
some have even died. The ash trees of North America produce wonderful seeds
(canoe paddle shaped) that the finches and grosbeaks love to eat. This
supermarket of food is about to close-up at Magee Marsh. I guess they'll
have to find their food at Wal-Mart like the rest of us! Hello China! Maybe
the ash trees will recover one day. Keep those bird feeders full people. Ok,
so I'm preaching to the choir.
Sunday Morning 6:00 to 7:00 AM on the boardwalk. I didn't hear or see any
owls, but I did get to hear the Winter Wrens sing, sing, and sing. It was so
awesome to once again here the fastest flute players in the world. They
started singing at about 6:44 in the early morning light. Eastern Towhees,
Song and Swamp Sparrows, American Robins, Pied-billed Grebes, Red-winged
Blackbirds, Killdeer, and a few ducks also started to begin their wake-up
calls.
The most exciting thing for me was the scary sound coming from a Wilson's
snipe down near the east end of the boardwalk. If you came to presentation
at the Black Swamp Bird Observatory on American woodcock you learned that
these shorebirds make this sound from their tail feathers as they descend
from the sky. The males do this on their breeding grounds 24/7. I looked up
the sound in Kenn Kaufman's book and he says it sounds like a "winnowing".
Mark Shieldcastle who did the program was up on their breeding grounds and
heard this all day and night. I only heard this sound one other time in my
life when I lived in western, PA. We also played a tape of the sounds from
the American Woodcock and Wilson's snipe for everyone to hear. Oh, by the
way, we saw the woodcock do his dance, song, and crazy flight. Priceless.
Later birding fans,
Christopher J. Knoll
Education Director
Black Swamp Bird Observatory
13551 West State Route 2
Oak Harbor, Ohio 43449
Phone: 419-898-4070
Fax: 419-898-1363
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