With the rough weather that prevailed this morning (Thursday May 14), I was
sweating my prediction that the birding would be good today in n.w. Ohio,
wondering if the migrants had made it through. But they had: the birding was
spectacular at Magee Marsh and other nearby areas. From what I saw or heard
about, there were at least 27 warbler species in the area. But of course,
the number of species doesn't tell the whole story; what was more impressive
was the number of individuals, the excellent overall variety (that is, there
was no single species that dominated -- we saw lots of most species), and
the fact that the warblers were foraging very low along the north edge of
the woods at Magee, probably to be out of the strong southwest winds. Many
species qualified as common today: Bay-breasted, Cape May, Black-throated
Blue, Chestnut-sided, Magnolia, Am. Redstart, Ovenbird, etc., while some
earlier migrants like Black-throated Green were in reduced numbers but still
easy to find. The sheer VISIBILITY of these warblers is amazing to people
who visit for the first time -- or even for some of us who have been here a
lot. This contention would be hard to prove, but I'd be willing to bet that
more than 30,000 warbler photos were taken at Magee today, by birders toting
everything from 600mms on tripods to little point-and-shoot cameras.

The winds are now shifting to west-northwest, and by morning (Friday
morning, May 15) they're supposed to be more north-northwest. Probably there
won't be nearly as much bird movement tonight as there was last night. I
assume that there will be somewhat fewer birds in the lakeshore migrant
traps on Friday, but even with reduced numbers it should still be good
birding. Friday night the winds are supposed to go to the south again, so
probably we'll have another big influx on Saturday morning, the 16th,
undoubtedly with a fair amount of turnover. Sunday may be a little quieter,
but the weather prediction for Saturday night still looks a little
uncertain.

Near the east end of the boardwalk this morning was the first (that I've
heard of) Connecticut Warbler for the season. If you're keen to see the
species, though, don't worry about rushing over to try to find this
individual; the peak migration for this species typically is later, closer
to May 25, so your best chance would be late in the month.

Kenn Kaufman
Black Swamp Bird Observatory
Oak Harbor, OH

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