Saturday, April 26
Of all the astonishing places I’ve been, Magee Marsh Wildlife Area on Lake Erie during the last week of April…is the most. Pretty much. Bryce Canyon was cool to the max, and the wildlife in Yellowstone was awesome. But the boardwalk at Magee Marsh is a long, winding pathway through little trees and swampy ground…and birds. They’re all over—at times I felt like I could point my binoculars at a random location and wait two minutes…and see a bird.
Sure, most of them were Yellow-rumped Warblers and Palm Warblers and Yellow Warblers, and a whole lot more were Red-winged Blackbirds and Tree Swallows, plus Downy Woodpeckers, Song Sparrows, and a Ruby-crowned Kinglet. But there was also a spattering of Blackburnian Warblers (new Life Bird!) and Nashville Warblers (not completely sure about that one, but I got a good look and Merlin heard one, too), Hooded Warbler (seen in South Texas), and probably a lot of other cool birds I missed. And a Screech Owl, too. And several Bald Eagles, including a nesting pair right by the parking lot.
Palm Warblers
Hooded Warbler
Merlin recorded a Black-throated Green Warbler. Wish I’d seen that.
And there were a lot of people. We arrived at ten or so, when all the real birders would have already been and gone, but there were still lots of people there. When we left at noon or so there were even more people. All happily oohing and aahing and sighing over the birds. Funny thing about that—everyone was quiet and everyone was polite. I very rudely passed in front of people using binoculars a couple of times, stooping down not to interrupt their view. But I later learned an interesting point--although I was violating boardwalk etiquette, so were they. Etiquette decrees that when viewing a bird, you should move to the rail so that people can pass behind you.
Besides, the times I did that were when I was rushing for the exit to get to the porta-potties. Lesson learned: do not drink three cups of coffee before heading out for a morning of boardwalk birding. Do not drink any coffee. Or anything the previous day. Trust my memory—you won’t want to stop.
We also saw hordes of Trumpeter Swans, one of the two native American swans. (We’d seen Mute Swans—the European species-- in the Sand Dune park in northern Indiana) I looked at a lot of the Trumpeter Swans in hope of finding a Tundra Swan, but no luck.
The place also held a ridiculous number of geese, a lot of rabbits, and quite a few muskrats. We saw at least two.
Visitor Center was cool:
Oddly enough, it was probably the best of all birding weather. But miserable for human beings. It was cold with strong winds out of the north which was probably keeping the birds grounded. Next day the winds died and most likely the birds left. But so did we.
Took a trail with Molly in the afternoon, but not much to see there.
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