Hi all,
As predicted, last nights ideal conditions brought in a lot of new migrants throughout Ohio, and especially the Magee Marsh region. Many birders took advantage of this and it was great to see a lot of you that I haven't seen since last April/May! Anyways, here are the highlights from today:
Magee Boardwalk/Parking lot (8:15am-noon)
Yellow-rumped Warbler - 100 (conservative estimate)
Pine Warbler - 10
Hooded Warbler - 1
Ovenbird - 1
(Heard reports of Northern Parula and Yellow-throated Warbler)
American White Pelican - 5 (flyover; no doubt the same birds that roosted in the Crane Creek Estuary last night)
American Golden-Plover - 40 (flyover; early in the morning)
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher - 5
House Wren - 1
Good numbers of Ruby-crowned Kinglets, White-throated Sparrows, Hermit Trushes and at least a couple Fox Sparrows, Brown Creepers and Winter Wrens remain. Swallow numbers have noticeably increased with higher numbers of N. Rough-winged and Barn Swallows than before.
By afternoon, raptor migration started to pick up. At 1:30pm I stationed myself on top of the Magee hawk tower and started counting raptors and was later joined by Kenn Kaufman. During a two hour period we had:
Turkey Vulture - 31
Broad-winged Hawk - 24
Red-tailed Hawk - 7
Northern Harrier - 2
Bald Eagle - x
Cooper's Hawk - 4
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 24
American Kestrel - 5
Merlin - 4
Osprey - 3
We stopped at 3:30pm after receiving a phone call from Sherrie Duris who was looking at seven American Avocets at the Maumee Bay State Park inland beach. The 20min drive over was interesting as impressive numbers of Broad-winged and Sharp-shinned Hawks continued to flew over the car. Maumee also produced good raptor numbers, especially of Broad-winged and Sharp-shinned Hawks. The sharpies were flying incredibly low, about a foot of the ground - something I haven't seen before. The seven American Avocets were still present when we left at 5PM.
Heading back to Black Swamp Bird Observatory, raptors continued to move and we ended the afternoon with a total of six Merlins and triple-digits of Broad-winged Hawks.
After sunset, I did some birding along the Magee Causeway - plenty of Soras were calling and a couple Black-crowned Night-Herons barking.
For those interested, we started updating the Biggest Week twitter feed today - if you're interested in what's being seen in the Magee region real-time, check out (https://twitter.com/BiggestWeek)
Good birding,
Ethan Kistler
Education and Outreach Specialist
Black Swamp Bird Observatory
Oak Harbor, Ohio 43449
419-898-4070
2011 League of Ohio Sportsmen Conservation Organization of the Year Award
2012 Eastern Maumee Bay Chamber of Commerce Prism Award for Community Improvement
www.bsbobird.org
www.ohioyoungbirders.org
www.biggestweekinamericanbirding.com
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