Magee Marsh Trip 2024
I’ll have to say I’ve been a little concerned about the timing of this trip. It is earlier than last year and last year was a little too early. This is when they planned the birding festival though. It has been a cool spring which just adds to my concern. As I was loading up my car to go to the airport I was stopped in my tracks by the sound of a Yellow-billed Cuckoo, I’ve never heard one in my neighborhood. I also heard a Northern Paula, a Yellow Warbler and a Back-throated Blue Warbler. It was a High migration night last night and it showed. It was tough to leave. It was a High night for Ohio as well, so I sure hope the birding and weather there will be even better……
This year’s trip to Magee Marsh was planned for 6-9 May, to coincide with the Biggest Week in American Birding (festival). In past years my flight arrival time allowed for time to get some birding in on the first day, but not the case this year. Between the later arrival time and the long wait at the rental car (very poor service), it was already evening. The forecast for the following day was not great, calling for a cool cloudy day with rain in the afternoon. The next day I arrived at the famous Magee Marsh Boardwalk at about 7:15am.
I spent the next 2.5 hours there, I saw 33 species including 11 warbler species.
Most prevalent were the Yellow Warblers (select the image to enlarge) -
Birding Northwest Ohio (Warbler Capital of the World)
ID - YEWA47
ID - YEWA48
ID - YEWA63
ID - YEWA64
ID - YEWA65
ID - YEWA66
ID - YEWA49
ID - YEWA51
ID - YEWA52
ID - YEWA54
ID - YEWA55
ID - YEWA57
ID - YEWA58
ID - YEWA59
ID - YEWA60
Prothonotary Warbler
ID - PROW36
ID - PROW37
Chestnut-sided Warbler
ID - CSWA13
ID - CSWA15
Northern Parula
ID - NOPA30
ID - NOPA29
ID - NOPA36
ID - NOPA35
ID - NOPA33
ID - NOPA34
ID - NOPA31
ID - NOPA32
ID - NOPA37
American Redstart - ID - AMRE17
Black & White Warbler - ID - BAWW21
Eastern Screech Owl - ID - EASO84
Bald Eagle - ID - BAEA-MM-1
Bald Eagle - ID - BAEA-MM
Gray Catbird
I decided to leave the boardwalk and check out the area around the Visitor’s Center. It turned out the trees near the parking lot were great birding. I spent the next 1.5 hours there. I saw 17 species including an additional 4 warbler species.
- Select the arrows below to move through the images -
Cape May Warbler - ID - CMWA36
Cape May Warbler - ID - CMWA37
Cape May Warbler - ID - CMWA33
Cape May Warbler - ID - CMWA34
Cape May Warbler - ID - CMWA35
Cape May Warbler - ID - CMWA38
Cape May Warbler - ID - CMWA32
Cape May Warbler - ID - CMWA31
Nashville Warbler - ID - NAWA6
Nashville Warbler - ID - NAWA5
Nashville Warbler - ID - NAWA4
Black-throated Green Warbler - ID - BTNW23
Black-throated Green Warbler - ID - BTNW28
Black-throated Green Warblers - ID - BTNW24
Black-throated Green Warbler - iD - BTNW27
Black-throated Green Warbler - ID - BTNW26
Baltimore Oriole - ID - BAOR11
Baltimore Oriole - ID - BAOR10
American White Pelican - ID - AWPE13
American White Pelican - D - AWPE15
American White Pelican - D - AWPE14
Canada Geese - ID - CANG51
Canada Gosling -ID - CANG53
Canada Gosling -ID - CANG52
I joined birding friends of mine and we went to Ottawa Nature Preserve for a quick walk as the dark clouds were coming in. I decided to go to the Maumee Bay Lodge & Conference Center to pick up my festival material. It then began to rain, they were calling for a bad storm. I decided to head back to the hotel and review my pictures, calling it a short day. Tomorrow is suppose to be beautiful!
Well it looks like I will not be enjoying the beautiful day - Sadly a medical issue cut my trip short, it was hard to tear myself away. Two days of travel for about 5 hours of birding.
42 species / 15 species of warblers
Northern Waterthrush
Black & White Warbler
Prothonotary Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
American Redstart
Northern Parula
Magnolia Warbler
Blackburnian Warbler
Yellow Warbler
Palm Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Tennessee Warbler
Nashville Warbler
Cape May Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler