Day Three
A very different morning from yesterday - storm clouds are rolling in. I get to Magee Marsh about 7:30AM.
As I get to the boardwalk entrance thunder and lighting starts. I’m thinking this probably isn’t the best time to be birding - but I bird anyway. It wasn’t keeping people away. It began to rain as well, luckily not a heavy rain. It made it harder to get pictures and I had to tuck my camera into my raincoat most of the time. None the less, I got these pictures:
As I mentioned before the prothonotary warbler was not bashful, as seen here.
Prothonotary Warbler
Eventually the sun came out and it was a beautiful day. I heard people had seen a Canada Warbler, this is a life bird for me so I was anxious to see it. The problem was I always got to the spot where it was seen just a little too late. Trying again I moved to another spot and chatted with a young man who had seen it a couple times that morning. I decided to just wait there for a bit and he moved on. A few minutes later I hear him call out “hey lady, it’s here”, he came to get me and took me to the area it was seen (that was very nice of him to do that). It was close to the ground in the thick brush, people called out “there he is” - I saw it!
I spent 3.5 hours at Magee Marsh, saw 23 species of birds (12 warblers). When the sun came out it got a bit warm so I decided to bird at the Magee Marsh Migratory Bird Center and Trails which was just down the road and offered slightly more shade in spots. While there I heard what I now recognized as another Canada Warbler. I followed its movement and was able to get a picture.
I birded at the Magee Marsh Migratory Bird Center and Trails for 1.5 hours, saw 25 species (6 warblers). Next I decided to head over to Maumee Bay boardwalk and check on the screech owls.
When I arrived someone pointed out a blue-gray gnatcatcher nest. She was working on the nest and the pair was defending the area.
I also learned there there were two common nighthawks in the area - another life bird for me.
There is a lot of nesting going on…..
When I was here the day before I located 1 parent and 2 owlets. Today I located 1 parent and all 5 owlets. The owlets are “branching” - that means they have left the nest cavity and are spending time exercising their wings, climbing from branch to branch getting ready to eventually fledge. As they go through this stage they may actually fall to the ground at times, but they will climb (with their beak and talons) back up to a branch. At this stage the parents will feed them where they are. The adult was in a tree, then it flew into a tree cavity (this may have been the original nest).
I birded there for a couple of hours and saw 15 species (mostly just watching the screech owls). After another long day I headed back to the hotel.
