MAY 9, 2011

The Biggest Week in American Birding continued today,
with a feast of birds at the many locations visited as part of the
event. While nothing particularly rare was seen there were good numbers
of birds around, and to top things off, a beautiful day meant it was a
great day to be outdoors and enjoying nature.

The day started with a
pair of BOBOLINKS recorded on Darsch Rd, just down the 2 from Black
Swamp Bird Observatory, but the mainstay for the day was still the Magee
Marsh boardwalk. A male SCARLET TANAGER was one of the first birds to
welcome the visitors, luckily staying around for most of the day and
giving everyone good views. There was a good selection of warblers to
keep everyone on their toes, with BLACKBURNIAN, BLACK-THROATED BLUE,
BAY-BREASTED and MAGNOLIA WARBLERS all seen near the start of the
boardwalk, while TENNESSEE, ORANGE-CROWNED and WILSON'S WARBLERS had
people running in time to the tweets, as they tried to track them down.
PROTHONOTARY WARBLERS required no effort, being found up and down the
boardwalk, including some ridiculously friendly birds. There are a lot
of Prothonotary Warbler photos headed for the recycle bin tonight.

The
family of AMERICAN WOODCOCKS performed on cue, giving those keen eyed
observers a chance to get onto this great bird. For those who didn't get
a good look though, another was found later in the day; it was
incredibly only a couple of yards off the boardwalk, and stayed there
for several hours in the afternoon allowing everyone to get great views.
Other good birds on the boardwalk included the regular EASTERN
SCREECH-OWL, several Bleeding Hearts (ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAKS), a good
selection of thrushes and both WARBLING and RED-EYED VIREOS.

The Ottawa
NWR bus trips visited both Cedar Point and the Darby Unit, where the
highlights were BLUE-WINGED WARBLER (Cedar Point) and CANADA WARBLER
(Darby). On return a quick stop on County Line Rd produced a nice array
of waders, with GREATER and LESSER YELLOWLEGS, DUNLIN, SOLITARY,
SEMIPALMATED and LEAST SANDPIPERS, RUDDY TURNSTONE and SEMIPALMATED
PLOVERS.

The afternoon BSBO trip visited Metzger Marsh where there were
some good birds to be seen. The long staying TRICOLOURED HERON was found
again, accompanied by RING-NECKED DUCKS and REDHEAD. The shorebird trip
for the afternoon turned up a couple of interesting species, with
YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRD and COMMON MERGANSER both being seen within the
Ottawa NWR.

The levels of activity from the last couple of days look
set to continue for tomorrow at least, so the birding should continue to
be good. We are looking for a big pick up though some time this week,
with some prognosticators prognosticating weather conditions for
Wednesday that will hopefully result in an influx of migrants. If you
think you might be stuck at work that day, tomorrow might be time to
start showing some of the symptoms of an impending bout of the 'flu.
When you aren't at work on Wednesday, your boss won't suspect a
thing!
See you on the boardwalk.

NICK LESEBERG


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