Hi all,
Yesterday Both and I spent the day at Magee Marsh and Ottawa National
Wildlife Refuge.
Obviously, like most birders in the Cleveland area, we have always looked
forward to making a couple of trips out there during Spring migrations. But
now we enjoy it even more because we feel we¹re participating in our small
way in the Greatest Week activities. We can¹t spend much time out there,
which we¹d like to, because unfortunately the birds don¹t consult us about
when would be the most convenient time fro us for them to have their
migrations.
The thing about the Biggest Week, though, is not only the chance to see and
interact with friends‹and with strangers‹about the birds and the
environment. The work that has been done in that part of the state by the
organizations we all (should) know and (should) support is clearly having an
impact on opening the eyes of people who are not themselves birders to the
value of the activity and of conservation efforts. Black Swamp Bird
Observatory, and both the staff and supporters of Ottawa NWR and Magee
Marsh/Crane Creek State Park are doing great work, and it¹s good to be able
to salute them for it.
Of course, we do actually spend the day birding‹although some people were
complaining that things were slow at the Magee boardwalk, I suspect that¹s
because we¹ve been spoiled by those great periods, like last Spring. It¹s
true that the numbers of individual birds were pretty low in both places,
but there was a nice variety of species. We didn¹t do as well at the ONWR
monthly census, but then there were only two of us. Here¹s what we had:
At Magee:
Canada Goose
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Bald Eagle
American Woodcock
Common Tern
Eastern Screech-owl
Great Horned Owl (owlets, really)
Chimney Swift
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Eastern Kingbird
Blue-headed Vireo
Warbling Vireo (this is one species we did see a lotof)
Purple Martin
Tree Swallow
Barn Swallow
Red-breasted Nuthatch
House Wren
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Swainson¹s Thrush (friends also saw Veery and Hermit Thrush, but we couldn¹t
get Œem)
American Robin
Gray Catbird
European Starling
Tennessee Warbler
Nashville Warbler
Northern Parula
Yellow Warbler
Chestnut-sided Warbler
Magnolia Warbler
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Blackburnian warbler
Palm Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
American Redstart
Prothonotary Warbler
Northern Waterthrush
Common Yellowthroat
Wilson¹s Warbler
Song Sparrow
Lincoln¹s Sparrow (!)
Swamp Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
Baltimore Oriole
American Goldfinch
Not bad‹friends also had Cerulean and Cape May Warblers, and Scarlet Tanager
At Ottawa, we added the following (I¹m not listing birds we had already seen
at Magee):
Gadwall
Mallard
Blue-winged Teal
Green-winged Teal
Pied-billed Grebe
Double-crested Cormorant
Turkey Vulture
Bald Eagle
Common Moorhen
American Coot
Killdeer
Greater Yellowlegs
Dunlin
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Northern Flicker
Blue Jay
Savannah Sparrow
Best wishes‹good briding to all...
Steve Cagan
Cleveland Heights, Cuyahoga County
--------------------------------------------
Steve Cagan, photographer
[log in to unmask] € www.stevecagan.com
www.pbase.com/stevecagan € www.stevecagan.blogspot.com
216-932-2753 (USA)
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