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August 2009

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From:
Kenn Kaufman <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Kenn Kaufman <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Fri, 28 Aug 2009 22:24:33 -0400
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Between rain showers today (Friday August 28 -- it would have been Roger
Tory Peterson's 101st birthday) I made a quick check of the west end of the
boardwalk at Magee Marsh Wildlife Area, Ottawa / Lucas counties, n.w. Ohio.
As expected at this season, the birding is more challenging than in spring.
The very dense vegetation of late summer makes the birds harder to see, and
migrants are strongly clustered in small flocks, with essentially no birds
in between flocks.  Still, in a short visit I was able to find a couple of
mixed flocks and a good diversity of migrants.  The two good concentrations
were near number 6 on the boardwalk and between numbers 8 and 9.  For the
locations of these numbers, see the Black Swamp Bird Observatory map of the
boardwalk -- go to http://www.bsbo.org/Birding/ and follow the links for
"birding hotspots: maps and directions."

It was interesting to see five Veeries and no other brown thrushes; Veery is
quite an early migrant in fall.  Three Yellow-bellied Flycatchers were of
interest also, and migrant warblers included three Chestnut-sided, three
Tennessee, two Nashville, one Wilson's, one Black-and-white, and one
Black-throated Blue.  I also saw one Prothonotary Warbler, something of a
surprise; Prothonotaries nest here, but the species is such an early fall
migrant that it's quite possible that the local nesters have left already
and that this was a stray from elsewhere.  A Philadelphia Vireo and several
Warbling Vireos were feeding on the conspicuous whitish fruits of Roughleaf
Dogwood (Cornus drummondii), as were two of the Veeries, several Cedar
Waxwings, and a couple of Downy Woodpeckers.  The most anomalous sighting
was of a single Red-breasted Nuthatch in the cypress trees near no. 6 on the
boardwalk ... I'm not sure what it was doing here at this season.

Be advised that there are a lot of mosquitoes in the woods at Magee now,
enough that I actually used repellant, which I seldom do.  Be sure to carry
repellant if you want to have an enjoyable birding experience there in the
next few days.

At the Black Swamp Bird Observatory (BSBO -- just north of Ohio State Route
2 at the entrance to Magee Marsh), Karen Zach saw several migrants this
afternoon visiting the water feature outside the Window on Wildlife, the
most notable being a Mourning Warbler.  BSBO will be open 11 to 5 both days
this weekend.

Kenn Kaufman
Oak Harbor, Ohio

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