Magee Marsh 5-15

Hello friends,

Thanks to Shane for getting our blog back online! Hooray! Now, on to the birds. A wave of migrants arrived at Magee Marsh on Friday, greatly increasing the volume of birds here. Most exciting among the new arrivals was a Kirtland's warbler at the wildlife beach! I was very excited to have finally seen this rare migrant. It provided good looks for the entire day on into the evening, but it has not been seen today (Saturday). I have heard that the Kirtland's likes to follow the south shore of the lake west towards SE Michigan, so it may be making it's way through Ottawa, Metzger Marsh, or Maumee Bay. There is a good diversity of species and better numbers right now, but the mass arrival of Friday may not be repeated within the next couple of days. Other rare sightings in the area are a Eurasian wigeon off of the observation tower at Pickerel Creek Wildlife and a Marbled godwit seen a little south of the observation tower at the intersection of Krauss and Stange Rd. A female yellow-headed blackbird was seen in a field further west on Krauss Rd, but it flew off to a woodlot just as I arrived (nuts!). Also, the monthly bird count is coming up next Tuesday, May 18. Feel free to join me at 7:00 AM at the bird center to go search for birds.

Apologies to all that follow these posts

Due to a change in the way Google hosts it's blogs and in their poor instructions in changing to the new format all postings since April 30 have been inaccessible.

I finally managed to figure a method to get the blog back up and running.

My apologies to you all.

Shane
webmaster@friendsofmageemarsh.org

Magee Marsh birds 5-11

Hello friends,

The weather is certainly inclement right now (heavy rain, feels like 40 degrees), but there has been still a good diversity of species seen last weekend at the boardwalk, despite windy and chilly conditions. For whatever reason (possibly the unseasonable and uncooperative weather patterns at the end of April and here in early May), it seems that there just hasn't been the sheer volume of birds that we are used to seeing at the boardwalk at this time of the year. Warbler treats like golden-winged, cerulean, Kentucky, and hooded have been seen, but the total number of birds just doesn't seem like it has been very high. Toward the end of this week hopefully we will get a more advantageous weather system (Low pressure in the vicinity of Arkansas, a warm front with corresponding S-SW winds continuing through the overnight hours when warblers are migrating) that will push some more birds into the area.

For those interested in venturing further afield, a group of 4 White pelicans have been seen recently at Old Woman's Creek in Erie County, a yellow-headed blackbird was seen last weekend on Krause Rd. off of State Route 2 west of Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge, and a purple gallinule has been very cooperative for visitors to Columbia Reservation in Lorain County.