While perhaps not as exciting as yesterday with todays' east wind, the birding at the Magee Marsh Wildlife Area Boardwalk and East Beach were still fairly good this morning.  The Hooded Warbler and the Orange-crowned Warbler (with the orange crown to prove he was properly named) were still present in the western half of the Boardwalk.  Although I didn't see it myself, there was an Ovenbird at the short loop, which is where I had it yesterday.  I had a Wood Thrush on the East end before the loop working its way along the water with a couple of Hermit Thrushes.  East Beach was fairly windy and cold but we had my first-of-year Gray Catbird there along with many gnatcatchers and kinglets.

The Navarre Banding Station reported similar variety with large numbers of Gnatcatchers both days and large numbers of Yellow-rumped Warblers on Saturday. Highlights yesterday were Yellow warbler, Common Yellowthroat, Red-eyed Vireo, and Scarlet Tanager on Saturday and Summer Tanager and Indigo Bunting today.   All of the birds today have been foraging very low and often very close to the boardwalk which made for some excellent photography.  The birds at the boardwalk have always been very photogenic but today it was particularly true.  Unfortunately this is a result of these birds not doing well with the cold temperatures, and associated lack of food. Energetic condition is very poor from the extremely cold temperatures. Many of these birds that are in poor condition have been forced to stick to fairly small areas and sift through the leaf litter for food due to little insect activity.  While this is great for birders and photographers this is not great for the birds, so let's hope the temperatures warm up in the next few days!  After all, a little warmer weather wouldn't be so bad for us birders either!
Ryan Steiner
Research & Education Intern
Black Swamp Bird Observatory
13551 West State Route 2
Oak Harbor, Ohio 43449
419-898-4070
www.bsbobird.org

Find us on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/bsbobird
http://www.facebook.com/ohioyoungbirders

BSBO is proud to sponsor BIRDING OHIO on Facebook

______________________________________________________________________

Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society.
Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list.
Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/.

You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at:
http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS
Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]