Thursday, October 7, 2010

Mystery at Magee Marsh!

Of course I have a butt shot!

I'm always excited when I find a file of photos that I forgot about...except when it contains birds I can't identify!

I actually have three different days from my little weekend forays into Magee Marsh with my little camera. These shots are from August 7th of this year. I do remember a lot of fledgling birds about. Very hard to ID fledgling birds...possible Eastern Wood-Pewee...or was it a Eastern Phoebe...hmmm...

And then there's this little fellow. When I first saw him preening, I thought he was a Common Yellowthroat(I'm still leaning that way) fledgling. Look at his bill, he still has the yellow edges, but it looks so big for a Yellowthroat. Too small for a Tanager or and Oriole. Must be a Warbly-thing. Help me out here. I'm tired and can't think. Yeah, I heard that! It's worse than usual.

This is low right along the creek after he was preening.

I followed him(or her) for about thirty feet, until he went up into this tree then back into the marsh.

This is an easy one!
It's a juvenile Bald Eagle with an Eastern Kingbird on his back!
I was taking photos of him as he flew over my head, when I realized he had a passenger.
I shot as fast as I could, but he was zigging as my camera was zagging and this is the best I got.

Pretty cool!

I'll be at the Ohio Ornithological Society conference at the Radisson Hotel in Eastlake Firday and Saturday. Stop by and say "Howdy-do" if you're in the area!

6 comments:

  1. Oh I cannot help you with the ID of the first warbly thing ;-) but I can tell you that your juvenile bald eagle picture is sumptuous, especially with the bird chasing him above ;-)

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  2. Hi Chris! I'll have to get you a book of warbly-things so you can learn them all!

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  3. Gabe Leidy and I both agree that the mystery bird is indeed a juvenal Common Yellowthroat. So you were right after all, or at least leaning the right way.

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  4. Thanks Ben...and everyone else that was being annoyed by my post! Now if we could only convince Larry Richardson...

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  5. Dave - Definitely a Common Yellowthroat, as Gabe and Ben have already stated. WHAT, may I ask, does Larry think it is? The combination of bright yellow throat with dusky olive green area on sides of neck, plus yellow below, and length of undertail coverts to tail feather length, among MANY other characters, eliminates Mourning and Connecticut easily...

    THANKS again for Golden-winged print!

    cheers
    jen

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  6. Hi Jen! First, you are welcome!
    Second, Larry was trying to torment me all day with the hope of a fledgling Mourning Warbler.
    He's a wise guy ya know!

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