Magee Marsh - Friday May 9, 2014

This was my first time at Magee Marsh for the Biggest Week of Birding.  I have seen pictures of the crowded boardwalk and the crowded parking lot but just never imagined how intense it gets out there. This was definitely worth taking a couple of days off from work for. 

Here is what I managed to get photos of:

 

American Red-start

 

Baltimore Oriole

 

Black and White Warbler

 

Blackburnian Warbler

 

Black-throated Blue Warbler (female)

 

Black-throated Blue Warbler (male)

 

Black-throated Green Warbler

 

Blue-headed Vireo

 

Cape May Warbler

 

Chestnut-sided Warbler

 

Gray-cheeked Thrush

 

Least Flycatcher

 

Magnolia Warbler

 

Mourning Warbler

 

Northern Parula

 

Nashville Warbler

 

Ovenbird

 

Red-eye Vireo

 

Warbling Vireo

 

Wilson Warbler (not very good photo but good for ID)

 

Yellow Warbler

 

Yellow-rump Warbler

 

Canada Warbler (not a good photo but good for ID)

 

A few others photographed but shown: Woodcock (nesting), Rose-breasted Grosbeak (male & female), Gray Catbird and the Bald Eagle.

 

Next stop Detroit Zoo.

Magee Marsh - Sunday 5/4/14

Because I decided to listen to the weather report on Saturday I chose to stay home instead of going to see what was out there to photograph.  Sunday morning I decided whether the weather man was right or not south was the direction I was heading in. So off to Magee Marsh I went.

The crowds were very enthusiastic about what they saw and would see.  The highlight for me was the Screech Owl that definitely drew a crowd.  Can't wait to get out there again this weekend.

In the meantime these are just a few of the birds I managed to photograph.

 

Black-throated Green Warbler

 

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

 

Chestnut-sided Warbler

 

Magnolia Warbler

 

PalmWarbler

 

Pine Warbler

 

Prothonotary Warbler

 

 

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

 

Warbling Vireo

 

White-throat Sparrow

 

Yellow Warbler

 

Yellow Warbler

 

Yellow-rump Warbler

 

Screech Owl

Screech Owl

Magee Marsh 4/27/14

Before it gets too late decided I should post the pictures from Magee Marsh that were taken on April 27th before I display the photos that were taken Sunday 5/4

 

Yellow-rump Warbler

Eastern Phoebe

 

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

 

White-throat Sparrow

 

Palm Warbler

 

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

 

Blue-wing Teal

Ruby-crown Kinglet

Magee Marsh 4/25/14

This morning I went down to Magee Marsh (Ohio) with birding guru Jerry Jourdan to check out any early warbler movement. Not only was the weather good but so was the birding. This Prothonotary Warbler kept a good size crowd of us busy for about 20 minutes. 

This Scarlet Tanager was a first for me.  I had never seen one, except for in the birding books. If this had been the only bird I photographed today it would have been a good day.

 

Other birds that I had the opportunity to photograph are as follows: 

 

Palm Warbler

 

Hermit Thrush

 

 

another photo of the Prothonotary Warbler

 

Yellow-rumped Warbler

 

Black-throated Green Warbler

 

 

Rusty Blackbird

 

Two other birds photographed but not shown: Ruby-crowned Kinglet and a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. 

 

It was a Good Day.

Southfield and Jefferson Avenue - 2/8/2014

It seems the place to be these days is where Southfield runs into Jefferson Avenue.  The main attraction is definitely the number of Bald Eagles that are sitting in the trees just waiting for the waters to open up or for a Heron to catch a fish only to lose it to a single Bald Eagle while four others think one of them has it.  Saturday morning was definitely cold at 7:30.  Half hour watching the ducks - 10 minutes in the car to see if you can get feeling back in your fingers and then another half hour watching ducks and eagles.

Some of the visitors to these waters:

Gadwall

Common Mergansers

Redheads

Scaup

Memorial Weekend - Sunday 5/26/13

With the sun coming up early I decided to travel down to Ohio and head on to Magee Marsh.  I figured one more trip in the month of May couldn't hurt.  When I got there - there weren't very many cars but as the morning progressed the people started heading in.  As usual everyone had their "hot spots".  There were a lot of American Redstarts (female) and someone had mentioned they hoped to see a male, but I was there 4 hours and never saw one.  But I did see these and a few others:

 

American Redstart (female)

 

House Wren

 

Common Yellowthroat

 

Canada Warbler

 

Warbling Vireo

 

Wilson Warbler

 

Magnolia Warbler

 

Northern Water-thrush

 

This was pretty much my trip, even if I hadn't seen a bird, walking this boardwalk is really something.  Til my next post.

Memorial Weekend - Saturday 5/25

Since the weather didn't look all that great on Saturday I decided to just stay in the area. So I stopped off at Lake Erie Metro Park to see what might be on the outside rim of the trail before heading over to Robert's Road.  The only bird out there was a Yellow Warbler.

When I drove down Reaume to reach Roberts Road I happened upon this little beauty, an Indigo Bunting.

 

This was about all that was out there that day.