This last week my wife and I went to Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge and Magee Marsh for the first time.  Realizing that it is early for the fall migration, I was as much interested in experiencing and getting familiar with these great natural places as in seeing what there was in terms of bird life.   While we did not visit either in the early morning, we did see a yellow-billed cuckoo and several snowy egrets at Ottawa.   We consistently heard what may have been a second yellow-billed cuckoo in another area but can't verify that it was a different bird.

We made a briefer visit to Magee Marsh where I saw a king fisher and blue heron on the causeway.   After going briefly through the marsh (thunder suggested that we leave all too soon) I can see why it is such a great place for the spring migration.  We hope to revisit both areas next spring.

We also stopped at the Black Swamp Bird Observatory and spoke to one of the staff who was great to talk to about birds and very helpful.  I unfortunately did not get his name but I enjoyed talking to him and he was very well informed.  He mentioned that most of the flyways this year are reporting much lower numbers of birds and that the number they have been able to band at Black Swamp has only been about one half of those banded last year.  I wondered if there are cycles that bird populations go through.  For example, one year of low numbers followed by high numbers a couple of years later.   Or, does the weather up north during summer result in poorer breeding success some years.

Tim Hutson
Columbus, Ohio


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