By late July we're a full month into the fall shorebird migration, and
starting to think about fall migration of other groups of birds. In a brief
check of several spots around the Magee Marsh area (Lucas and Ottawa
counties, n.w. Ohio) today, I didn't find any obvious migrant songbirds,
but there was plenty of activity of summer residents.

At the Magee Marsh boardwalk, the water level was higher inside the woods
than I've ever seen it.  Despite that, I saw essentially no mosquitoes
there; I was carrying repellent today, but never used it.  Currently the
Warbler Capital has morphed into the Yellow Warbler Capital: this is a very
common nesting species near the lake shore, and the woods are full of
adults and fledged juveniles.  Prothonotary Warbler haven't departed yet,
and I saw at least four, near numbers 5, 9, and 14 along the boardwalk.
(For a map of the boardwalk showing the locations of the numbers, see this
link: http://www.bsbo.org/birding/pdf/magee_marsh_boardwalk_map_and_text.pdf
).  Among the other species along the boardwalk were Red-eyed Vireos,
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Carolina Wren, and Orchard Oriole.

One of the attractions of birding at this time of year is the chance to
study juvenile plumages of many species.  In addition to the abundant
Yellow Warblers, I saw juvenile Downy Woodpeckers, Eastern Wood-Pewees,
Warbling Vireos, Common Yellowthroats, and many Gray Catbirds, all readily
recognizable but still noticeably different from the adults.  The juvenile
Eastern Phoebes along the boardwalk are looking incredibly scruffy right
now, and they would pose an ID challenge if it weren't for their typical
tail-wagging behavior.

Along the Lake Erie beach I saw more than 20 Bonaparte's Gulls, in addition
to Ring-billed and Herring gulls; their numbers are picking up.  On the
Magee east beach (wildlife beach), a surprise was a juvenile Northern
Mockingbird - full-grown and independent, but still heavily streaked below.
 It must have hatched somewhere nearby.  We don't get a lot of confirmed
breeding records of mockingbirds in this part of the state.  Since Gray
Catbirds and Brown Thrasher were visible at the same time, it was a mimid
trifecta.

So even without migrant songbirds, it was a rewarding day to be out.  Any
day now we should see the first migrant warblers - Tennessee, Nashville,
Bay-breasted, and Wilson's are all among the species that are possible in
the first week of August, or even the last days of July, so there's plenty
of reason to get out and look.

Kenn Kaufman
Oak Harbor, Ohio

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