The Biggest OWL Twitch...OHIO (9 May)

Well, high hopes were afoot after a depressingly slow day's birding at Magee Marsh the previous day. Early on, things looked positive for me, lots of Yellow-rumped Warblers adorned East Beach, along with a nuthatching Black-and-white Warbler, a Halloween male American Redstart, and a buzzing Black-throated Blue Warbler there too, before things fell quiet. It was actually a pretty slow day, although when the word went up that there was a LONG-EARED OWL ( a rare bird in this season), along the boardwalk, all thoughts of warblers were put on hold. I arrived to see grackles an robins taking a distinct objection to its presence, it's fierce eyes looking perturbed at being bothered, and its deep orange facial disk only lending to the impression of anger, and gave it a testy appearance. All too soon it upped sticks and took off, but thankfully dropped down just a few trees along in a great position, where it sat, glaring intently at the gathering crowd, which merely absorbed this wonderful bird in for a long, long time. Who needs warblers when you have owls I ask-my all-time favourite bird group!

Having said that, I hope the promise of a significant warbler drop in tomorrow comes to fruition, and I can post some colourful images of this soon?!...

Woodcocklets...OHIO (6-7 May)

With warbler numbers on the wane, after a a prolonged period of northerly winds, and a band of rain to the south of us here at Magee Marsh in Ohio, blocking birds from moving north, it was good to have other avian distractions to relieve the relative lack of warblers. Namely, two nesting American Woodcocks had been sitting on eggs over recent days by the parking lot no less, and finally one of the clutches had emerged to the delight of many. When I heard the news I rushed over to find the "hen" American Woodcock bobbing (as only woodcocks can do), with four fuzzballs walking behind, and even, on odd occasions, trying, badly, to imitate their mothers distinct gait. Comical does not even cut it. This was birding at its very best and this was thoroughly absorbing. This was my first ever sighting of young woodcocks, or "woodcocklets", and it was every bit as exciting as I thought it would be. The news spread fast, and pretty soon a crowd had gathered to enjoy the experience.

I visited later and was alarmed to find that a lone chick, calling desperately, seemed to have lost the three other chicks and the adult bird. At times the chick wandered, precariously, towards the parking lot, initiating some people to shoo the bird back towards cover, and hopefully away from danger. Thankfully, the next morning I and a few others found the mother again, complete with all four chicks, and saw them wander across the potentially dangerously car park, emerge unscathed, and disappeared off into the safety of the woods, and were soon lost from view. A happy ending to a great story from the natural world.

With winds changing soon, and warblers stacked up further south, I sincerely hope to be posting more migrants, and especially warblers, soon...!?

24hrs/24 warblers...OHIO (5 May)

So the Tropical Birding guides treading the boards at Magee Marsh decided to run a personal competition between ourselves - The World Series of Warblers (i.e.who could rack up the most warbler species in a day?) So Cameron Cox, Scott Watson and myself pursued all we could with the shame of loss a constant threat, as well as the incredibly predictable punishment of a round of beers looming too...

The day started well for me, with a male Cape May Warbler singing sweetly in the car park; however as we were all together at that point, no advantage was played! In the morning I also walked into the lingering Worm-eating Warbler again with remarkable ease, and caught up with many Bay-breasted Warblers, seemingly one of the more numerous species decorating the Magee boardwalk on this day. Similarly, Hooded Warbler, ordinarily one of the trickier warblers, from a set of scarce southern species, also proved easy, and I nailed killer looks at a hooded male early on. However, the Cerulean seen by others, including Scott, one of my co-competitors, proved elusive all day long, and cost me dearly. Picked up one my first Wilson's Warbler of the season, along the "new" Crane Creek Estuary Trail on Ottawa NWR, a trail has proved productive since it opened for its first spring last year (i.e. Kirtland's ALL day), and is proving so again for this season. It took me an age to find an Ovenbird and Blackburnian, and even a Halloween bird-American Redstart-and I added a late found Pine Warbler, although it was all too little, too late. Cameron Cox walked away as top dog with a remarkable 27 species, equalling my best ever day total at the site, while Scott sat just behind him on 26, and I came in with a shameful 24 species! What did I miss you ask (that was seen that day)? Answer: Northern Parula, Cerulean, Prothonotary and Blue-winged. The game is due to be played again soon with Andres  and Keith also joining the game to spice things up. All-in-all though this was widely touted as quiet day at Magee, with low warbler numbers, but high diversity of species with at least 28 species recorded on the day. Not bad for a "poor" day!

On top of that the local Tree Swallows were in fill song and in full colour as the spring sun lit up their metallic blue coats...

More from Magee very soon...

WarblerFEST...OHIO (4 May)

Anyone who has experienced the warbler viewing at Magee Marsh/Ottawa rarely does not return, and days like this one make it easy to understand why. By the end of the day I had totaled 24 species for the day, with the top dogs among them being male Cerulean, male Hooded, Worm-eating, male Golden-winged, a pair of Blue-winged, and lots and lots of Blackburnians who seemed to be completely unaware that there was a perfectly good canopy to feed in overhead, and so hung out low down and photogenically, all day long...

In between all of these warblery treats, I happened to be in the right place at the right time, and managed to get a last minute bus ride to a local Ruff within Ottawa NWR. I was particularly pleased with this one as it was a male in breeding plumage, with a black ruff, chestnut head, and beautifully black-scaled underside, and an almost ruddy turnstone like upperside. In short, one of the best shorebirds I have ever seen.

More Magee Marsh updates, and yet more warbler to come...

Birding with Sam..OHIO (3 May)

Today was a special day in a number of ways, I racked up a personal total of some 23 warbler species (not your average day anywhere); AND I got to bird with some "budding birders", the young Hinklets, Sam and Madison Hinkle. They are young birders becoming keener with every single bird. They, as many children are, are discerning, and particular in their approach. Sam stated early on he liked seeing the same birds again, but really liked seeing new birds, and so our objective was clear, find Sam a new bird.

Madison is a little different, she is doing her own BIG YEARin her local area which just so happens to be the Ottawa NWR/Magee Marsh area of Ohio, and so is sure to get a good total. So Madison needed a new bird for her year list. We managed to kill two birds with one stone, with the help of their birding mother Rebecca (a good friend of mine), and found them an American Woodcock, a lifer for both of them and a new year bird for Madison's BIG YEAR. On top of that warblers dangled invitingly in front of them. I sincerely hope Madison and Sam keep up their birding and continue to enjoy nature as much as they appeared to on this day!

More from Ohio soon...

Magee Marsh...OHIO (2 May)

While we (Scott, Andres and I) skimmed around the various hotspots in this Ohio Migration Mecca yesterday, today we focused our attentions on just the one site: Magee Marsh, and its now-famous boardwalk. Never had warbler viewing been so easy as at this venue, and by the end of the day I am sure everyone present would agree. Early on it appeared the day might turn out to be a dud, with precious little warbler activity compared to yesterday, but slowly but surely birds were picked up and the Magee punters (and I include myself firmly in that category) were persuaded to beam at the action, which by the end of the day included a couple of stellar warbler species.

Early pleasers for me at least was my first male Cape May Warbler of spring, always a key moment in spring for me, followed after by the citrus tones of a male Prothonotary Warbler yelling his "SWEET-SWEET" song at me.

Then things went quiet for me until an afternoon flurry when I caught up with a foraging American Woodcock, a showy and photogenic Cape May, and then a ridiculously tame Kentucky Warbler, which had a male Mourning Warbler for company too at times....

More from Ohio soon

Warblering....OHIO (1 May)

And so we (Scott Watson and Andres Vasquez and I) moved on from the Upper Texas Coast, landed in Cleveland last night and were checking out the Ohio migration hotspots today. We stopped in first at Magee Marsh where we enjoyed a flock of four cranes flying over and another Sandhill Crane along the Crane Creek Estuary Trail, while warblers were provided by Palms by the dozen and the odd Blackburnian and Tennessee. Next stop was Ottawa NWR where we found a powder blue male Black-throated Blue Warbler feeding in the South Woods, and then the Boss Unit (better known to local birders as simply Benton-Carroll Road), of the refuge revealed 3 Pectoral Sandpipers from their bright shiny new shorebird viewing platform (good work to all who donated and were involved in producing that-a great addition to the season!) 

Lastly, we stopped in at Metzger Marsh (once we had worked our way around the rather inconvenient-for the timing with the birding season-detour), which provided the best birding of the day. The tiny lakeshore lot held both male Blue-winged Warbler and male Hooded Warbler, and both behaved in a way that they were determined that every birder would see them! Along with them were Blackburnian Warbler, male Scarlet Tanager, Great Crested Flycatcher and Northern Parula. Along with all of this first-rate action were tons and tons of Yellow-rumped Warblers in full spring regalia. A great first day on the shores of Lake Erie. I am fired up for more...

Updates to come regularly here and on my twitter feed (@samwoodsTB) soon...