May 16, 17, 18, 2019....Lake Erie...Howard MetroPark, Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge, Magee Marsh

Tom and I spent three days at Lake Erie birding in some of the parks along the coast.  Howard MetroPark has been open since last year.  It is part of the Toledo MetroPark system.  The park personal are in the process of turning the Howard farm back to its natural marshy state.  Already, the birds have found it.

Tom and I have seen Horned Larks in the past but we have never seen one as close as this one.  For a while it perched on a big rock and sang its beautiful song.

Later, it, or another one, sat on the gravel beside the van as we ate our lunch.  We looked at it and it looked at us.

We got really good looks at its tiny "horns".  

Another bird we rarely see up close is this Caspian Tern.  Usually we see them flying.

We saw lots of Trumpeter Swans. Trumpeter Swans are one of the successful Conservation projects  in this area. For many years there were none in the area.

Tom is good at spotting Snowy Egrets. If you click on it, you can see the red between its bill and eye which only appears in breeding season.

This Great Egret has the distinctive green patch between its eye and bill. The patch and fluffy feathers tell us it is in breeding plumage. This one has wet "fluffy' feathers so they are stringy, not fluffy.

The bird I was elated to see was this Yellow-headed Blackbird.  They nest in the area but they are not often seen.  The last one I saw was years ago at Cheyenne Bottoms in Kansas.  Tom had to take this picture through the front window so it is not as clear as it might be.  The situation was beyond Tom's control.

Our next stop was Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge.

One of the most noticeable birds was the Eastern Kingbird.  Tom took some photos that showed the entire bird better but this one shows the identifying white band across its tail best.

We drove the Ottawa dike drive on Thursday and again on Friday.  On both days we saw many Eastern Kingbirds and also large numbers of Trumpeter Swans and Great Egrets.  We heard Yellow Warblers all along the drive and toward the end of the drive we came across this one in its nest.

The boardwalk at Magee Marsh is the place to see a big variety of warblers.  Sometimes the warblers are close to the railing.  Other times they are further away.

Sometimes they are high in the trees.

Below are portraits of some that were close enough to see without binoculars.

Bay-breasted Warbler (male)

Chestnut-sided Warbler (male)

Magnolia Warbler (male)

At all three locations , we saw families of Canada Geese.

Trip to Lake Erie, Monday, March 12, 2018

All of the photos in this blog were taken by Tom, either on Monday or on other trips we've taken to Lake Erie.

The day was overcast when we started out and never improved.  Before we left Lake Erie we drove through mist and light rain.  As we headed home Tom drove through two nasty snow squalls.  fortunately, neither one lasted long.  Nevertheless, we had a good birding day.  Ducks aren't bothered by the weather and we birded from the van.

At Magee Marsh we were pleased to see that at least one eagle pair had returned to their nest of previous years.  One eagle was on the nest.  The other was nearby.

Tom offered to drop me off at the boardwalk.  He said he would read if I wanted to walk.  I told him, "No."  There was a mist falling and the temperature was 31 degrees.

There were ducks along the causeway and the red-winged blackbirds were back. 

Northern Shoveler

Red-winged Blackbird


There were ducks at Metzger, too.  We were pleased to see a few Northern Pintails.  We don't see them every year.  Usually we are too late.

Tom decided he would like to go to East Harbor which is about a half hour to the east.  We never have gone to the state park because we didn't want to waste time driving when we could be birding.  however, Tom has been following the Ohio bird sightings on EBird and he said there had been a lot of birds sighted there.

This is what we saw...birds from one shore to the other.  We will go back to East Harbor again.

Trumpeter Swans Everywhere, A Vist to Lake Erie Shore to Bird Watch...March 19, 2017

Tom and I made a day trip to the Black Swamp area of Ohio on Sunday, March 19. Magee Marsh Wildlife Area, Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge and Metzger Marsh are part of the remaining Black Swamp which once covered thousands of acres. Most of it has been drained and is now used for farming. 

Photo by Tom Persing

We expected to see a variety of ducks.  We did. Tom counted sixteen species of ducks.  We could see them through our binoculars and spotting scope but only a few were close enough to photograph like these male Northern Shovelers (Anas clypeata).

Photo by Tom Persing

What we did see in abundance were Trumpeter Swans (Cygnus buccinator).  They are the United States's biggest native waterfowl.

Three photos of Swans by Tom Persing

In 1935, the total number of known individual Trumpeter Swans was 69.  They had been  hunted nearly to extinction for meat, skins, and feathers.  There were none breeding in Ohio until they were reintroduced in 1996.  Trumpeter Swans are still listed as Threatened in Ohio.

Trumpeter Swans have been a classic conservation success story although they are still listed as Threatened in Ohio. According to an article from the Cornell Lab of  Ornithology..."between 2000 and 2005 a continentwide survey found that Trumpeter Swan numbers had more than tripled, from 11,156 to 34,803."

The swans breed on wetlands in Alaska, Canada and the northwestern United States.  Most of the swans we saw are on their way to Canada.  We hope a few stay to breed in Ohio.

Great Day at Magee Marsh, May 15, 2016

Tom and I decided to take a day trip to Lake Erie and do some birding at Magee Marsh, Metzgar Marsh and Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge. Migrating warblers and other birds stop at all three places before starting the next leg of their journey across Lake Erie to nesting grounds in Canada and the far north.

We invited a friend who is a beginning birder to come with us.  This was his first time to walk the Magee Marsh boardwalk.  It was a perfect day, a Fall-out Day.  There was a wind in the upper trees which drove the birds down.  We saw many of them within a couple feet of us at eye level.  To make the day even better, the temperature was in the sixties. (Fahrenheit)

When we arrived at the boardwalk, we were hungry so we had a picnic lunch before starting out on the boardwalk.

The birds were flitting about in the branches in front of the van.  I laid out lunch.  Tom and our friend birded. One of the first warblers that checked us out was a Northern Parula.  Our friend had seen the bird earlier in the week while on the Miami County Bike Trail but could not positively identify it.  He had no doubt this time.

"It's the bird I saw on the bike trail."

Northern Parula

We also saw a Baltimore Oriole during our lunch.

Baltimore Oriole

We were birding one day after the end of the Biggest Week in American Birding so there were still quite a few people on the boardwalk.

In the parking lot we saw cars and vans from all over the country as well as a few from Canada.

My favorite sighting was a Black-throated Blue warbler.  Tom was off down the boardwalk making his own discoveries.  John and I watched it with delight.  Better than seeing the bird was sharing it with someone who was seeing it for the first time.  Even though I have seen the bird beforeI didn't know that the blue feathers on its back are iridescent.  This time he was so close it was easy to see his shining feathers.

Black-throated Blue

Other warblers that we saw...

Black-throated Green

Cape May

Bay-Breasted

Blackburnian

Blackpoll

Chestnut-sided

Magnolia

American Redstart

Magee Marsh, Metzger Marsh, Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge, Spring Bird Migration

Early this month, May 4, 5, and 6, Tom and I made our annual pilgrimage to Lake Erie to see the warblers stopping there before most of them flew across the lake to their nesting grounds in Canada.

We don't get up early like the truly dedicated birders do who are out at the stopping areas shortly after daylight.  Nor do we continue searching for special species till dark.  But we thoroughly enjoy seeing the birds we find as we casually bird.  My favorite activity is finding a "show-off" bird and watching it for ten or fifteen minutes.

We arrived after lunch on May 4 and birded for three hours on the Magee Marsh Boardwalk.  There was not a huge crowd.  We birded from the van in the parking lot until the light rain stopped.

Photograhers had cameras set up near the entrance platform.  A Scarlet Tanager male and female were having a flirting session.  Here is the male, stopped for the moment and a photographer taking advantage of the situation.

This was a great year for seeing Scarlet Tanagers.  Usually we only see them high in the trees.  This year we saw them flitting among lower branches along the fringes of the woods.

On May sixth Tom and I decided to see what birds were at Metzger Marsh. At the turnaround at the lake edge Tom took this photo.

Below are a few other photos from the trip.

Cape May Warbler

Black-throated Green Warbler

Common Terns

Ruddy Ducks

Busy Week

Last weekend was a busy week, this week has been busy as well and today we are expecting company for this weekend.  Here are a few photos from what has been happening but not much commentary.

We headed north on August 4 to attend a cousin's birthday party. We arrived in  northern Ohio early enough to take a quick driving tour of our three favorite birding areas beside Lake Erie.

At Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge, I made a bathroom stop and noted a flyer on the receptionist's desk describing the American Lotus. I had been calling all the flowers with the big leaves growing in the water waterlilies. But now I know American Lotus grows on stems that extends well above the water.

Tom took this photo from the van at Metzger Marsh.

We had a good time at the potluck birthday party but were chased back to our van by an approaching storm since we were sitting outside.

The next day we went to the annual Smith family reunion. I have a photo of me attending it when I was six years old. The reunion has been held at a variety of places...the farm of Lena and Charles Smith, and then the farms and homes of their children. For the last ten or twenty years it has been held at what most of us call "the Ratner cabin".

There is always a potluck dinner at noon. I didn't take a photo until most people had had dessert but you can see there is some left for the nibblers.

We old folks talk and talk and talk and look at photos from reunions of the past.

 

The children have fun, too.

The reunion was lightly attended this year, probably because there was rain all morning. Some years there are close to two hundred attending. This year there were more than fifty but less than a hundred. But as Helen pointed out, "When there aren't so many people here, we get to talk with each one more. When there are a lot of people here, we get to see and say "Hi" to a lot of people."

She also told me about this beautiful fungus on one of the trees. The fungi is close to the size of a soccer ball.

When we returned home I immediately started gathering supplies for a Children's Drawing session on Tuesday. Other artists in the area teach on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. There were seventeen or eighteen young students, ages almost six through nine. Here is one drawing from the drawing session. I'll put all of them up this coming Tuesday.