Day Two
First Full Day of Birding
I headed for Magee Marsh, got there about 7am to see a beautiful sky as the sun was in the last stage of rising over the landscape.
It was clear, 64-68F with N winds 10mph. I did a bit of birding before meeting up with my friends and fellow volunteers from CBEC, Anne & Dave. It was their first time at Magee Marsh and I wanted to make sure I was there to meet them at the boardwalk entrance. It was wonderful to see their smiles as they took in all the sites and sounds - the birds, the birders and the songs and calls. I birded there for about 4 hours (walking 2 miles) and saw 33 species, including 9 species of warblers. One of the highlights was seeing an American Woodcock on a nest. Now, when I say “seeing”, that is a somewhat relative term. She was very tucked in and very camouflaged. Look closely at the pictures below.
Next I went to Ottawa Nature Preserve which was just next door on rt. 2. I had stopped by there last year but didn’t walk the paths. This time I decided to walk the Walking Trail Woodland (1 mile), where I bumped into Anne and Dave and we continued to bird together. We saw 22 species and added a Cape May to the warbler list.
I went back to the lodge to check out the vendor booths and called it a day at 5:00pm.
