Canadian Send-off...OHIO (15 May)

After yesterday's "Kirtland's madness" it was hard to see that I could get a better send off. Today, I flew out of Ohio, for a bizarre and long journey back home, (Cleveland-Las Vegas-Los Angeles-Miami-Quito!) However, with winds shaping the migration scene at Magee, and with very favourable conditions overnight, rather than sleep in before my marathon journey home, I was up and out early. I just had to have one more session in the field. After all, this was to be my final fling of the spring, until next year. I always leave with sadness at this, I simply love the ebb and flow of migration, and today was all about a significant flow. 

We (Scott Watson and I), arrived to see hordes of Blue Jays migrating overhead, (an under-appreciated migration phenomenon), and regular flocks of Cedar Waxwings (which had been near non-existent this spring at Magee until today) passing over too, with the odd party of Pine Siskins dropping in too. We had not left the parking lot and it was looking good. On top of that there were significant bursts of warbler song creating quite the dawn chorus, indicating that a new batch were in. After all, the singing Blackpolls were not around the day before. I had precious little time, and made precious little progress along the boardwalk but managed to find Chestnut-sided Warbler, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Prothonotary Warbler, Veery and absolutely loads of male American Redstarts which seemed to decorate every nook and cranny along the Magee boardwalk. I even managed to luck in on a male Mourning Warbler, if only briefly. My final bird of the spring was to be a classic one: Canada Warbler, of which I had seen very few this year, let alone photographed. 

This supremely tame male singing Canada provided the ultimate send-off, and I headed for the airport with a spring in my step, with my mind even now already turning towards the (very different) warblers of China, which I will be headed for next week!