The Biggest Week in American Birding!...part one..or so...

 One of the few warblies of the day was this gorgeous Blackburnian Warbler.

For the past two weekends, I've been participating in The Biggest Week in American Birding festival. I drove van loads of happy birders to some of the best areas in northwest Ohio to see some of the best birds! Some folks even managed to get lifers! I was lucky enough to co-lead two beginners and access challenged bird walks at Pearson Metropark in Oregon, Ohio. It's a fantastic park with great treails and a "window on wildlife" as well. Oh, and a playground too...but they wouldn't let me play on it.

This first installment is from Friday May 3rd, a moist and misty day. Of course, I wore shorts and everyone thought I must be a little loopy...and they are right you know. I didn't think about bringing long pants, once the shorts come out, they stay out!

Make sure you come to next years Biggest Week which should be Bigger than ever! I hope to see you there!

A Barn Swallow chillin' on the rocks at Howard marsh.

Yoiks! Those are some long legs. No wonder they them Black-necked Stilts!

This Black-throated Blue Warbly posed nice...for a split second...

...and then he was off to places unknown...

Thousands of Blue Jays were soaring along the shores edge of Lake Erie waiting for the right winds to help them fly across the lake to Canada.

A very shy Cape May Warbly...

Getting the stink eye from that Cape May because I caught him from behind!

Our leader said there was a Common Gallinule swimming across from us...so I took a dozen pics of "across from us." You find him!

Alllllll the way to the right end of the frame, the last frame by the way...

The Dunlin were a little easier to find...there were dozens to pick from!

I picked this Dunlin too...

Not the least of my photos of peeps...this is a Least Sandpiper..ha.... 

Called that because he is the smallest of sandpipers.

Why it's a turtley turtle! A Midland Painted Turtley turtle...

I'm thinking about starting a new spin off blog called "Woodpeckers From Behind"...or not.

This is a Red-headed Woodpecker...and I'll leave that idea alone.

At Pearson's window on wildlife we saw close to a dozen Rose-breasted Grosbeaks!

This solitary sandpiper is called a Solitary Sandpiper...for obvious reasons. Bad breath?

And this sandpiper with spots is called...you guessed it! A Spotted Sandpiper. You kids are catching on!

This wildflower growing in the wild is a wildflower that I do not known the name of.

Woo-hoo! My most favoritest bird song is from this lovely Wood Thrush!

(It's not really made of wood...)

And I'll leave you for today with the appropriately named Yellow-rumped Warbly...from the front though...next time I'll get it right...

Until next time, happy birding!

 

I'm Behind Again...and so are my photos!

 Howard Marsh at sunset...

Howard Marsh is an amazing place! Open for the past three years , it was farm land for the last hundred years or so. Donated to the Toledo Metropark system, they've done an astounding job of transforming the land back to it's original marsh habitat.

There's plenty of trails wrapping around and going through the area. You'll have the opportunity year round to see a number of species that migrate through, ducks in fall and winter, shorebirds in early spring and late summer and all of the wonderful migrants that make the Biggest Week in American Birding so great!

The high point for me was seeing the breeding black-necked stilts! It's been nearly sixty years since they bred in northern Ohio...and now we have TWO pair nesting here! And on top of that they're easy to see with one pair nesting near the benches near the boardwalk.

Next time Magee Marsh...and WARBLIES!!!!

The boardwalk is fantastic for seeing the stilts, grebes and coots...even old ones like me!

A juvenile bald eagle was eating his dinner atop a muskrats home...yummee!

A pair of American wigeons, a couple of gray and white things(ho-hum) and a peep gang!

Black-necked stilt booty!!

A stilt trying to get away from me...I can't understand why...

One of the two pairs nesting and breeding here!

I think I was discovered staring...

Them leggies is long!

Blue-winged teal waaaaaay back in the marsh...

this is cropped quite a bit!

Just a lowly brown-headed cowbird...

Lots of great egrets were fishing in the marsh...

A lonely horned grebe just floating through life...

This killdeer was leading me away from it's nest...

Oopsie...adult supervision required for this Osprey photo!

Baby making time!

Taking a break after his little soiree...

Even the red-winged blackbird was shocked!

Hmmm...a semipalmated sandpiper, a dunlin and a lesser yellowlegs(which is hard to tell from that angle!)

Another semipalmated sandpiper and a lesser yellowlegs...maybe... not the best with shore birds butt I'm trying!

And my little song sparrow buddy!

Stay tuned for the warbly migration at Magee Marsh and the Biggest Week in American Birding!

 

Meanwhile, Back at the "Other" Marsh...

 American Coots are so rude!

This butt flashing is a precursor to a rumble...

This area of north western Ohio by the great Lake Erie is an amazing place to explore in May...or any other time of year. So many parks and wildlife areas! On this day I left Magee Marsh, not an easy thing to do, and headed out to Howard Marsh Metropark. This park has only been open for a year and it's already garnered a lot of attention. In the past few weeks, in addition to the regular marsh birds, black-necked stilts have been spotted nesting, yellow-headed blackbirds have been seen regularly and a pair of red-necked phalaropes are out there somewhere!

If you're anywhere near the area, you must visit! And if you're not afraid of water...like me...you can kayak all through the wetlands...cameras can't swim...

 This is what happens after a coot flashes his bum...rumble!

 This went on for quite a while...they must have got a hold of some bad duck weed...

 This one was laughing at them the whole time...

 A lone Barn Swallow fluffed up cause it was cold and windy!

I tried that, but it didn't work for me...

 Apparently Dunlin run in gangs.

 The only gull I'll take a photo of is the Bonaparte's Gull.

I have yet to see one tuck his wing into his breast pocket...

 The only duck close enough to me was this lone Blue-winged Teal.

I also saw Northern Shovelers, Mallards, Bufflehead and American Wigeon.

 I was so excited when I saw the Black-necked Stilts as I thought they were life birds in the U.S.

I saw them in Panama years ago...and then I discovered I had photos of them at the San Diego Bird Fest. Still new in Ohio and a great bird we don't see often.

 Though they wern't near by, I shot close to 100 photos of them...I can't help myself sometimes...

 Killdeer are the only shorebird I can identify.

I think I need more practice...

 Lesser Yellowbooty...uh...Yellowlegs.

 Once in a while I can get a shot of the other side too!

 A Northern Rough-winged Swallow looking majestic.

 This Pied-billed Grebe spotted me and was zooming quickly into the reeds.

Ya know, I never noticed their black throat before.

 Short-billed Dowitchers should be called Long-billed Dowitchers and Long-billed Dowitchers should be called "Really-long-billed Dowitchers."

What do ya think?

 Gotta love those Song Sparrows!

 Among all of the Spotted Sandpipers out there, this one really "stood" out...he only had one leg.

It sure didn't appear to be a problem.

 We gotta fly now! I'll be back soon with more from Magee!

Stay tuned...