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May 2011

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From:
Kenn Kaufman <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Kenn Kaufman <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Wed, 25 May 2011 20:12:55 +0000
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By this date, in inland areas of Ohio, songbird migration is essentially over: some are still passing through, but they are so scattered that they're hard to detect. By contrast, in the "migrant trap" areas along the Lake Erie shoreline, northbound songbirds will be obvious into the first week of June.

Today (Wednesday May 25), Kim and I took a few friends back to the boardwalk at Magee Marsh Wildlife Area (Ottawa - Lucas counties, n.w. Ohio) to show them this world-famous migrant trap and to see what birds were around. With east-northeast winds, the birds were concentrated back inside the woods, not out along the north edge as they had been during the strong southwest winds on Monday. In a little less than two hours in late morning, covering just a small part of the western section of the boardwalk (west entrance to about no. 12), we saw or heard 17 warbler species, plus a handful of other migrants. Birds are harder to detect now than earlier in the spring: the trees are almost fully leafed out, and most of the warblers passing through now are females or young males, much less vocal than the adult males. So the following numbers are certainly only a small fraction of the numbers actually present, but they do give an idea of relative numbers:

Tennessee Warbler - 3
Northern Parula - 1
Yellow Warbler - 15 (some of these are local breeders)
Chestnut-sided Warbler - 17
Magnolia Warbler - 22
Black-throated Blue Warbler - 3
Yellow-rumped Warbler - 1 (getting late)
Black-throated Green Warbler - 2
Bay-breasted Warbler - 10
Blackpoll Warbler - 12
American Redstart - 24
Prothonotary Warbler - 4 (local breeders)
Northern Waterthrush - 1
Mourning Warbler - 1
Common Yellowthroat - 6 (probably includes local breeders)
Wilson's Warbler - 8
Canada Warbler - 3

No doubt we could have pulled out a few more species if we had spent more time. Also near the west end were all five eastern species of Empidonax flycatchers (we saw/heard Yellow-bellied 2, Acadian 1, Alder 3, Willow 1, Alder/Willow 1 silent bird, Least 2). Other migrants noticed included Swainson's Thrush (2) and Red-eyed Vireo (8) -- the latter species breeds in this general region, of course, but these numbers are still indicative of migration at this site.

With stormy weather in the forecast for tonight and tomorrow, I don't expect the local mix of migrants to change much before Friday. There may be substantial turnover on Saturday, but the weather should be good over the weekend. Our results at Magee today suggest that anyone coming out for a last "warbler fix" this weekend will find at least a few birds to study at the Lake Erie shoreline sites.

Kenn Kaufman
Editor, Kaufman Field Guides series
http://www.kaufmanfieldguides.com/
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