We drove the 40 minutes or so from our hotel in Maumee, towards Magee again, arriving at 8.15am. Before heading out to the masses on the boardwalk, we stopped a few miles away at a farmland site called Stange / Kraus Road to look for some prairie specialities. En route 5 Sandhill Cranes showed well including one almost half the size, a Lesser Sandhill Crane. I had not heard about this type before, but is apparently a subspecies from a different part of the USA?
We pulled into an empty view point car park where a dozen White-crowned Sparrows and 2 Song Sparrows fed around the edge and a pair of Northern Flickers gave away a nearby nest site in a tall rotting tree stump. Killdeers were ever present running around the roads and a nearby wet field held 15+ Dunlin and a Spotted Sandpiper. 2 Double crested Cormorants flew over.
A birder driving past kindly stopped to give us a tip about a singing
Henslow's Sparrow just along the road at Grimm Prairie, a large flat dead grassed area. As this was a main target for Bob we headed straight along and soon found our bird. It was a mere dot, singing the worlds most boring bird song ( google it) a long way off. A few hundred yards of stalking soon secured decent identifiable views of this quite rare species. Also new for me here was an
Eastern Meadowlark, a female
Northern Harrier or Marsh Hawk, 2 Horned Larks and 2
Buff bellied Pipits.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihCsmiNsyvcMyX82eXaqCec92tOtPmtQiVymhfu1DR892WdZAHiWOKRGFjK7N68u2cNKTihXgvyuctYUnoo9a4sH-MaYB7wL_0MYsZiwgBL3PZNUZetf59Gqkt8bGxmqi5FUr-Qg/s640/jwr05.jpg) |
Henslow's Sparrow twitch. Is over there somewhere. |
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsROmam2ArpXBiveunyp9RHlVkbfiWnYcIcK0gjdegTWqPOnGscxmu3iBPIHydsPt_q55jGGAPS03SEjIT1kWhFJMjnisqyblxpO18dE7I5pCO-0nArD1to7N83cWhG5pYHQNEbA/s640/magee02.jpg) |
Andy grilling some warbler or other.. |
So it was on to the main course, a morning at Magee Marsh. 9.30am - 11.30am.
Warblers arrived on cue and a wide variety of guises. There were 6+
Magnolia Warblers ( what a bird), 6+ American Redstarts ( mostly black and red firey males), 4 Nashville Warblers, 3 Blackburnian Warblers, 8+ Chestnut sided Warblers, 3+ Northern Parulas, 5+
Bay breasted Warblers, 2 Palm Warblers, good numbers of Yellow Warblers and Yellow rumped Warblers down to arms length, 6+ Cape May Warblers, 1 male
Black throated Blue Warbler, 4
Black throated Green Warblers, 3 Black and White Warblers, 1
Prairie Warbler ( a rare species here caused a twitch) and 1+ Orange crowned Warbler.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTJEGV5awlK17lEyvDCmNa3dPG8YwMyBi9cMYZWFUaAlEheCoshjpdGUFsWSQVgST7iml7u7dTl044ZxNigsP9LwDJQKVvQVbx56C6R7L43jGMw7E1hRQCb1g79JpLKa_sStCI6Q/s640/baybw2.jpg) |
Above two - Bay breasted Warblers. |
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv7l77z2N4eb4Gop9hL-0WhgPS0yJBiw2OklJyt6qfWxqJJ6uKyHr9p0QnUIApNbmZrXyFv44D2Tl4OJjrhZCjIMtY2wdy_kmIm-EkGV-cFK7kQdesR6FezAzxhG3WEmsE7AoSmg/s640/bbw4.jpg) |
Above two - Blackburnian Warbler, a male. A fire in the woods. |
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv5dm00VcBqR3qJmizB3kdc6TrhygHrA5S4p95ruMnXkcE1ItghNjBPkh1q1CKiaqvjnbGCgL40vFDHknE_PrarcxU-zkeIormylGb8BTnM2pNlHm4OjZ0pxp_C8FrxmG2XSQ_Pg/s640/CAPEMAY2.jpg) |
Above two - Cape May Warbler taking midges from cobwebs. Down to 6 feet. |
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1j72ahocfvhIc_GAAs2gjGLzFsjr0c7jt7CsqrC4_DgHiOok6IiWYSYM3BiFirjdjX2Ni81FMCfrCweIYgXTB9c-7DzXbdVdiecCL3wE7sn-IwAKd7cxAEAjzh71SCpx3GgcB_g/s640/parula1.jpg) |
Northern Parula female too close to focus, in danger of being stood on. |
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJRRXXixRNYItRhJDQF45lT7VgfBFIfu2ugjVgybZhuAx2akC2Fi7DYrJQdpTYwFvb55_yU3V6aDMdU2J81kkdxZOijpEdplCzYJ4LXsWZ8Vo_OMMCMzPPmDz8b3ZFrGbInBu1KA/s640/chestside1.jpg) |
Chestnut sided Warbler, a common species here. |
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcyy3RKZBCdGOERdLNCkfHtT2stpxC7O_tP6eekrQbHLVgUadXjfbPrhaeORN9gxD1Tv7Ipm2Rn-QsnSMNUFk2Pq_RxUMfpIrdP0VUqSWY2ibTwdCNNv2wHkwLvxbpQxS9q3Hlzg/s640/amred.jpg) |
American Redstart, never sits still hard to photograph even though quite tame. |
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0ZNT8w3XjW63Jg6gfj9OMFfxBpnKnw6W0NH-G3kUBCW88XRYc8QHHHX-BMYj01-hUCsBnUVj3soTS3xL5Ve-trtMHAqciZG_dikA42zDbQSL-ieSE8-B_OAzv1vUyHT4XJ4rQhA/s640/yellowwarb.jpg) |
Yellow Warbler. |
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxwVs4fNarPm1ATkTPSYUgN8Pph8HBlpAesRV6aubJBHnDo8tKD2MG-Ryg4KfE_PdDaaCph4iuD2OvbTHXRBsBKOAHWSFMVZCPd26kqOJ_tqPPg8nRSCbn15LofsWpVr1nao0vrA/s640/maggie.jpg) |
Magnolia Warbler, shade your eyes.... |
What can you say about that! They are truly amazing birds and a real joy to hunt out. At some American migration spots these are canopy feeders but here many were at eye level. What a treat.
You think that cast looks good for 2 hours at one site, well its not over yet. As a support cast, this looks as impressive as it actually was - 2+ Ruby-crowned Kinglets,
1 male Ruby throated Hummingbird, 2
Blue headed Vireos, 3 Warbling Vireo, several Baltimore Orioles ( common), 6+ White crowned Sparrow, 1 Indigo Bunting, 5 Rose breasted Grosbeaks, 1
Lincoln Sparrow, 2 male Scarlet Tanager, 1
American White Pelican flew overhead, 3 House Wren ( more like a gropper than a wren), 1 Veery, 1 Swainsons Thrush, Andy found a fs male
Summer Tanager that almsot landed on Richard as it flew to the ground to snatch an insect, 1
Eastern Bluebird and nearby several
Purple Martins at speciall hung gourd nest boxes in a garden.
Phew! This is going to be a long post by the time I get the photos in here, please bear with me.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUB_jKj87kMecHkRqBlrPPKPXkDTsjw3sbasYGS3Hf9tEP6WlnRN4dr4EUt50nnJd5JnoStiUEPQd6cwBj5wBI1IDLjOdv8Fi_mp4jOZqFQnLOy19TJ3SP2PmHNVyOLmulNYUwPw/s640/summer.jpg) |
Summer Tanager, not sure if FS male or reddish female? |
Day three to be continued this is just till lunchtime.....
3 comments:
Stuart, what an amazing set of ornithological gems. Outstanding. Jim
The Americans have much better warblers than we do!
We had a lot of first year male summer tanagers like that in Costa Rica
Post a Comment