Hi all,

I haven’t noticed much on line about people’s experiences during the Biggest Week this year—unlike daily reports and individual postings in the past—I hope I’m not inadvertently violating some new social more…

Magee always calls in May, and for the last years we’ve tried to get there during the Biggest Week, not only because it’s a great time ti bird in that area, but also because we want to be there during this project that we think so highly of. It’s too bad that the birds don’t realize that May is a period that’s kind of busy for a lot of people, but that’s the way it is…

Yesterday was the day for us—we could only get there once this year. So far, as a lot of you know, this hasn’t been a great spring in northern Ohio; we haven’t had the winds to support a big migrant wave. (That should change today—I’ll bet Friday and Saturday will be great!). But I guess some of the birds just got tired of waiting for the wind, because things were really starting to pop yesterday—good variety, though not large numbers of individuals within most species. Here’s what we had, at Magee, Ottawa NWR and Metzger Marsh:


Canada Goose
Trumpeter Swan
Gadwall
Mallard
Blue-winged Teal
Pied-billed Grebe
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Bald Eagle
Common Moorhen (including one making a nest—that was fun to watch)
American Coot
Sandhill Crane
Semi-palmated Plover
Killdeer (lots of both these plovers)
Greater Yellowlegs
Lesser Yellowlegs
Spotted Sandpiper
Sanderling (one!—one Sanderling, how odd)
Ruddy Turnstone
(there were also good numbers of a peep that were just too far away to feel we could accurately i.d.)
Dunlin (many hundreds—probably the most numerous species we saw)
American Woodcock (on nest!—our seeing it depended on the nesting area’s being roped off)
Bonaparte’s Gull (one!)
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Caspian Tern
Common Tern
Mourning Dove
Chimney Swift
Downy Woodpecker
Eastern Kingbird
Warbling Vireo
Philadelphia Vireo
American Crow
Purple Martin
Tree Swallow
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Barn Swallow
House Wren
Marsh Wren
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
American Robin
Gray Catbird
Brown Thrasher
European Starling
Warblers:
        Nashville
        Northern Parula
        Yellow
        Chestnut-sided (the most numerous warbler for us)
        Magnolia
        Cape May
        Black-throated Blue
        Yellow-rumped
        Black-throated Green
        Blackburnian
        Palm
        Bay-breasted
        Black-and-white
        American Redstart
        Worm-eating
        Northern Waterthrush
        Common Yellowthroat
        Canada
        (plus, we had reliable reports of at least 5 other warblers we didn’t see, so a good day for warblers)
Summer Tanager (we had two sightings of a female, which I’m inclined to believe were the same bird—no males)
Scarlet Tanager (a few)
Song Sparrow
Lincoln’s Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
Northern cardinal
Rose-breasted Grosbeak (a couple of females, no males)
Indigo Bunting (several males in different places)
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
Baltimore Oriole

I know some people have trouble with the crowds of birders there these days, but we like the social aspects of birding as well. When somebody sees something special, they spread the word—unlike, say anglers who find a great spot in a stream and try to keep it a secret. And we enjoy the sharing among experts, people with different levels of experience, and beginners. After I helped one woman identify a Black-throated Green (maybe for the first time), she asked, “Where’s the green on this bird?” and said she was going to call American Redstart “American Orangestart!”

One more shout-out to Black-Swamp Bird Observatory for all their great conservation and education work, and for this project!

—Steve Cagan

--------------------------------------------
> Steve Cagan, photographer
> 
> [log in to unmask] <applewebdata:[log in to unmask]>
> www.stevecagan.com <http://www.stevecagan.com/>
> www.elchocomining.net <http://www.elchocomining.net/>http://elchocomining.tumblr.com
> www.pbase.com/stevecagan <http://www.pbase.com/stevecagan>
> www.stevecagan.blogspot.com <http://www.stevecagan.blogspot.com/>
> http://socialdocumentary.net/photographer/stevecagan <http://socialdocumentary.net/photographer/stevecagan>
> 216-932-2753 (USA)
> 322-344-7909 (Colombia)










______________________________________________________________________

Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society.
Please consider joining our Society, at www.ohiobirds.org/site/membership.php.
Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list.


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