Black-throated Green Warblers at Magee Marsh during the Biggest Week in American Birding

I'm back home from the Biggest Week in American Birding and am already missing the warblers! I'm definitely returning next year for the event, and I'm adding a day to my stay. This year I was there Monday-Thursday, but next year I'm adding in Friday :-) I'm going to get Matty and Rick up for a few days too. Spending a week birding and photographing warblers at Magee is heaven. I loved it...

A Black-throated Green Warbler (Dendroica virens) clings to a vine looking for something to eat along the boardwalk at Magee Marsh. He was singing up a storm, and all eyes were on him!

It's easy to see where he gets the "Black-throated" part of his name. I don't think that throat could get any blacker! 

...but where does the "Green" part of his name fit in? From below he looks black, white and yellow!

You have to look on top to catch sight of the green. If you look closely, you'll see the back of his head and shoulders are an olive green color. Now the name Black-throated Green Warbler makes sense! 

Black-throated Green Warblers were everywhere along the boardwalk, and they were very vocal. I enjoyed listening to their song. Their constant singing made it easier to find them (just like with the Yellow Warblers)!

This little fellow was just passing through the Black Swamp at Magee Marsh, which provides critical habitat for migrating neotropical songbirds. He was fueling up for his long trip over Lake Erie to reach his nesting grounds further north, but even though this bird prefers cooler northern temps, you can find Black-throated Green Warblers nesting in Ohio. You just have to head to the deep gorges found within the Hocking Hills region in southeastern Ohio. In 2009 we were hiking the Old Man's Cave trail in Hocking Hills in the heat of summer when we heard this bird's call. It took a while to focus in on the bird, but eventually we found him. That's when I really started appreciating the microclimates of the deep dolomite gorges carved out by meltwater from the retreating Wisconsinan glacier 10,000-15,000 years ago. The cooler temperatures of the shaded gorges allow hemlock trees (boreal relics from seeds swept down and deposited by the glacier) to thrive and creates habitat for species that prefer the cooler northern coniferous woodlands. Within a short time of seeing the Black-throated Green Warbler, we heard and saw a Hermit Thrush--another bird that normally nests much farther north. According to the breeding bird atlas map in Peterjohn's "The Birds of Ohio," small breeding populations of Black-throated Green Warblers also nest in northeastern Ohio east of Cleveland.

For migration predictions and info on the birds being seen on the boardwalk, click here for Kenn Kaufman's Crane Creek - Magee Birding blog (covers the Lake Erie Shores and Islands Region of northwest Ohio). Click here for a nice resource on Magee Marsh.

The Little Miami Bike Trail and Red-eyed Vireos

When Matty got home from school today, we decided to head over to the Little Miami River to see if we could catch any spring migrants. The weather was warm (mid 80s) and the sun was shining. The weather report said today would be the last of the summer-like warmth and the rains were moving in, so we thought we had better get out to bird while the getting was good! As soon as we hit the trail, we found Blue-gray Gnatcatchers all around us singing, chatting, scolding and basically being cute, but soon our attention was diverted by the song of a Red-eyed Vireo. Matty used the bird's non-stop singing to hone in on its location and then watched for movement. He seemed to have a sixth sense for Red-eyes today, logging four sightings by the end of the walk. We also saw a Black and White Warbler, a Prothonotary Warbler, a Black-throated Green Warbler (another of Matty's finds found through his "bird" sense), a Ruby-crowned Kinglet, a Hummingbird, and two Northern Rough-winged Swallows (Life Birds for us), plus all the usual woodland suspects, including a Pileated Woodpecker...and three deer!

The two lone Northern Rough-winged Swallows 

were playing just beyond Matty. They chased each 

other and were feeding low over the water, much 

too fast and small to be photographed.

As we watched the swallows, two Canada Geese came honking in, flying wing to wing down the corridor and seeming to announce to all the woodland creatures that, "We have arrived, so please, everyone, look at us. We are here, and we are loud. Yes, we are important. Again, we say, look at us!" It was fun to watch them fly past us at eye level, honking and so close that we could almost feel the breeze from their wings as they flapped past.

"Mabel" and "Floyd" on the wing continued 

to honk all the way up the river...

Matty spotted the second Red-eye from the river bank shortly after the clatter and ruckus of the geese faded away, so we climbed up the hill to get closer and actually got a fairly decent shot.

Look at that lovely red eye...

...and it's red on the other side too!

...yes, you are a gorgeous bird with a very pretty song!

We were starting to get hungry, so we headed for home. As we walked along, we heard the unmistakeable crunch, crunch, crunch of leaves and sticks underfoot and started looking for deer. There were three, and they didn't seem to mind us, so we stayed and watched for a while until they decided to move on.

See you later little deer!

Warblers and a Spring Bird Walk at the Cincinnati Nature Center

This morning I woke up bright and early and joined a bird walk at the Cincinnati Nature Center. Right off the bat, we saw two gorgeous Baltimore Orioles in the tree by the parking lot. Their orange plumage color was spectacular -- a combination of fresh new feathers at the height of their color and the warm 8:00 a.m. sun. What a fabulous photo it would have made. I had decided for this walk I was going to bird like I used to bird, and that was with no camera...just a journal and a pencil. Ack...these orioles alone would have been worth the effort of lugging the big camera around. Also near the parking lot was another nest under construction by Blue-gray Gnatcatchers! Great luck finding a nest Thursday and Saturday.

It was a wonderful trip. I met a lot of nice birders, and our leader, Dave, had a phenomenal ear and was very knowledgeable. We started by hearing a Scarlet Tanager off in the distance. Soon we saw a Chipping Sparrow, a Downy, a Brown Thrasher singing up a storm, many Field Sparrows, a Song Sparrow and all the usual suspects too. Finally, we stumbled across an immature Red-tailed Hawk on the roof of the old cabin. We were so close, but he didn't seem to care. He posed for a long time, eventually swooping down to a Tree Swallow's nest box and perching on top. The Tree Swallows, of course, became quite agitated and began dive bombing the poor thing over and over.  At one point, the mama Tree Swallow hovered right over our group chirping out her troubles, seeming to ask for help in ridding her nest box of That Big Thing on top. Eventually he left, but not before landing in a tree well lit by the morning sun, and once again, striking beautiful poses, which, I know, would have made the best photos ever, and I will probably never again find a Red-tailed Hawk in such a perfect pose with such perfect light, so close that a 70-200mm lens would have been just fine.  ;-)

While watching the gorgeous red-tail, we could hear an Eastern Towhee demanding that we "Drink our teeeeeea!" and so started looking for it. Eventually we found him in a tree claiming his territory. What a gorgeous bird he was. Then not 15 feet from the towhee, Dave heard an Indigo Bunting and we soon found three males singing and foraging in a tree. They were migrating or just beginning to settle in without a claimed territory, otherwise, one would not have tolerated the other two in his space.

Two birders from Michigan dropped in and asked us what we had seen in the way of warblers. We explained we had just started a short while ago, but I mentioned I had briefly caught sight of a Yellow-rumped Warbler in the woods by the front trail. She said, "I've heard a few...I don't bother looking for those..." (demonstrating with her facial muscles it was a junk bird). Whoa.......yikes......I had never heard anyone say anything like that before. I seem to hang with birders that love hearing and looking at all birds (with a few exceptions, and you know which birds those are). "Um...oh....well, I'm an artist and I just like looking at their color and markings," I quietly replied, which is a good example of the different types of birder lovers out there--researchers, artists, writers, photographers, listers, and bird snobs ;-)   

Not 3 minutes after that, we walked on and a Black-Throated Green Warbler started to sing!! (I must admit, it is more exciting to hear and see a bird not quite as abundant as a Yellow-rumped Warbler--especially because it was a Life Bird for me, but I still LOVE my Yellow-rumps and always take the time to look for them when I hear their call.) The Black-throated Green Warbler stayed around for quite a bit foraging in the tree looking very dapper and NEW, and then immediately behind him, a Blue-winged Warbler started singing and eventually dropped very low in a tree not 10 feet from me just under eye level. Wow! What a cutie....and so close....so close he was blurred in my binocs and I had to watch him with my own two eyes!

We crossed the street and a lovely Rose-breasted Grosbeak let us know he was there with his beautiful song and we soon found his rosy patch lit by the sun high in the tree. As we watched him, a Great-crested Flycatcher flew by and started singing. High in the sky, a Red-shouldered Hawk was looking for something to eat. Further up the road, Dave heard a Nashville Warbler, and we had to do a bit of searching to find him, tramping through a mucky, wet, sinking, mudflat (which was kind of fun to squish through). This bird really melted my heart. His little white eye ring and soft coloring were beautiful. After watching him for a while, he finally decided eats were better in a tree not within our viewing range, so we headed back to the road. When we came into a clearing, I looked up and saw another across the road. We were probably about 20 feet....close enough to see him with the naked eye, but far enough to see him really well with the binocs. That was a great surprise, and maybe added to my affection for my NEW Life Bird. Dave said the Nashville Warbler probably arrived early this morning and should be a daily bird for the next couple of weeks in our area.

We crossed the street to reach the great field, and Field Sparrows again were everywhere. I caught sight of one with a bill stuffed full of nesting material. It's really hard to beat the sweetness of a pink bill tightly clamped down on grass strands and a tiny twig. Dave soon heard the call of a Prairie Warbler that was very vocal, but pretty far off. He decided to whip out the iPod and use Bird Jam to lure him in. After a few calls, the warbler decided to come over and investigate and he landed right above us. Yes.......another warbler within feet of me and my non-existent camera lens, but that's okay. I actually wrote about my birds today, which is what I always used to do before I started blogging. I wish I had had time for sketching, but I didn't even try because the group was on the move in between sightings (and I kind of prefer sketching alone), but I have their visions in my mind, and will probably paint a few over the next couple of days. I like both ways of birding...photo journaling and regular journaling (comparing the two sounds like a good blog entry for a rainy day).

As we were heading for home, Dave caught sight of a Hermit Thrush probably getting ready to head north. Hermit Thrushes can be found in our area all winter and head out when the Wood Thrushes show up for the spring and summer. Soon we were back at the visitor's center (and I was getting very hungry). If you count all the "regular" birds, such as the Downies, Cardinals, Goldfinches, etc., our total came to 33, which isn't bad for a couple hours of birding on a Saturday morning. 

...I almost forgot! For the past three mornings, I have heard a White-throated Sparrow singing in my yard. Finally! I don't think this is a bird from our winter flock that went AWOL, but maybe he is. I assume he's a new guy migrating through. Either way works for me as long as I can hear his sweet spring call. I'll try to stick to photos in the future so you don't have to read so much the next time!!