Current Topic: Thrushes

Tweets from The Biggest Week

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If you are going to the Biggest Week, then I cannot stress enough how important it is to follow @BiggestWeek on Twitter and, if you can, get the tweets sent to your phone while you are at the festival. The tweets had me and my friend, Renee, chasing birds all over the place – with a high percentage of success. There are a number of good birders who have access to post tweets, so the area is pretty much covered.


Note: this post has embedded tweets, please be patient with the loading time.


Thanks to the tweets, our first afternoon at Magee started off with great views of a bird we only barely saw last year.

Gray-cheeked Thrush

Gray-cheeked Thrush at the beginning of >Estuary Trail

Not sure where Estuary Trail is? Do not be shy to ask someone. Birding guides are all over the boardwalk; your fellow birders are also friendly and will be happy to help!


After a long day of birding outside of Magee, we came back to another good find. Once we got to the location, the crowd of people directed us where we needed to look.

This American Bittern hunted out in the open for two evenings in a row

American Bittern along the Magee causeway

I would have never thought I would see a Bittern out in the open like this! He was busy fishing while many birders got great looks.


One of my favorite tweet stories happened on our third day. Renee and I just began the Ottawa wildlife drive and this tweet came in. She saw the tweet first didn’t know what to say about it. I picked up the phone and knew why.

We drove through the rest of the wildlife drive without looking for more birds and made our way to Magee. As we were walking to #13 on the boardwalk, birders assured us that the Owl was still there – and it was.

Long-eared Owl seen by many off the boardwalk

Long-eared Owl at Magee Marsh!


We did have some unsuccessful attempts at chasing tweets – you can’t get them all!

I can’t tell you how many times Renee and I chased the Black-billed Cuckoo in hopes of both of us getting a life bird. Unfortunately, this is one that we did not see. They did not show themselves for long, but the chase was fun. In the process, we did get to see one of the American Woodcocks off the boardwalk.

American Woodcock right next to the boardwalk

American Woodcock found while looking for Cuckoos

Another tweet came through that had us abandon the Cuckoo search that morning…

This one was a success! Thank you, Greg – you helped us both get a great life bird!

Golden-winged Warbler at the loop.

Golden-winged Warbler at the loop

The loop turned out to be pretty popular for good Warblers. At one point, there were so many birds that people were using Warblers to direct birders to another Warbler.

My lifer Canada Warbler off of the "loop"

My lifer Canada Warbler off of the “loop”


Tweets will also be sent for birds that roost during the day. Someone usually has a scope on these birds.

Eastern Whip-poor-will

Eastern Whip-poor-will on the side trail

If it’s a really good bird who is staying in place, the tweeting will continue.

This Clay-colored Sparrow was a life bird!

Clay-colored Sparrow at the entrance of the Estuary trail

And hey, while we’re at the Estuary trail….

Yellow-bellied Flycatcher on Estuary Trail

Yellow-bellied Flycatcher on Estuary Trail

Another lifer!


I hope this post convinced you – getting live tweets sent to your phone can really help you stay connected! You will also stay up to date on the latest event happenings.

And you may just get a really great bird out of it…

That happened after the festival was over, but three Kirtland Warblers showed up and were tweeted about on the previous year during the festival, so you never know!

 

Local Nesting Birds

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I have not been out birding much lately and have been very busy with some big changes in my life – I apologize for slacking with my posting! To make up for it, I will share photos of all of the nesting birds that I found locally this year. Most of the photos are not that great – this is because I observe them from a safe distance and do not want to disturb the nests!!

The only nest I found near my yard, so far, is a Red-bellied Woodpecker cavity. They made it easy to find by constantly calling from the tree. I am still waiting to see the fledglings come to my feeders.

Red-bellied Woodpecker in cavity

Red-bellied Woodpecker in cavity

I found some nests while out in the field just by seeing birds fly into them.

American Goldfinch on nest

American Goldfinch on nest

Red-eyed Vireo on nest

Red-eyed Vireo on nest

Blue Jay on nest

Blue Jay on nest

And others were pointed out to me by friends who already knew the location.

Canada Goose on nest

Canada Goose on nest

Wood Thrush in nest

Wood Thrush in nest on my friends property

There is an abandoned building nearby that Cliff Swallows like to nest on every year. Unfortunately, right after we saw them this year the property owners knocked down all of their work.

Cliff Swallows builing nest

Cliff Swallows building nest

While out on a trip with my local birding club, we found a female Baltimore Oriole building a nest right above the road. I re-found this nest over the weekend, but did not scout it out to see if it was active.

Baltimore Oriole building her nest

Baltimore Oriole building her nest

I’ve also found various birds carrying nesting materials – of course, they are very cautious when someone is watching them.

Common Yellowthroat with nesting material

Common Yellowthroat with nesting material

Dark-eyed Junco with nesting material

Dark-eyed Junco with nesting material

American Crow with moss

American Crow with moss

To end this off on a cute note, I will share a non-avian nest – I found this Groundhog den at a local park. The young would crowd around the opening, forage and play.

Ground Hog den

Ground Hog den with four young

A Breeding Bird Gem in Upstate New York

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I went up to Michigan State Forest in the Pharsalia New York with two of my friends. It turned out to be a great trip! This small gem of a forest is very similar to the habitat in the Adirondacks and is only an hour away from me.

New Michigan State Forest

New Michigan State Forest, taken with my iPhone

As soon as we turned onto the road into the forest, we heard a Mourning Warbler singing right off the road. All we had to do was look up to see him out in the open. This was a life bird for me in Ohio the other week, but I did not get this good of a look at one!

Mourning Warbler singing in the open

Mourning Warbler singing in the open

I did manage to get a quick video of him singing. It’s tough to keep the camera from shaking at 400mm with no tripod, so I kept it short.

We saw or heard ten more individual Mourning Warblers. For me, they stole the show, but had great competition. Blackburnian Warblers were everywhere and did not make us strain to see them. We saw or heard almost forty of them!

One of many Blackburnian Warblers we had great views of

One of many Blackburnian Warblers we had great views of

We also had many Magnolia and Chestnut-sided Warblers, Common Yellowthroats and heard over 60 Ovenbirds. Other great Warblers were Black-throated Green and Blue as well as some Canada Warblers. One of the Canadas surprised us with great looks on a small, bare tree that had a Mourning, Blackburnian and Canada Warbler on it within five minutes.

This Canada Warbler his from the camera, not our binoculars!

This Canada Warbler hid from the camera, not our binoculars!

Mourning Warbler tripping off of a branch

The Mourning Warbler tripped off of a branch after sitting in this tree for a couple of minutes

These Warblers were hanging out in an area that was torn apart by a tornado a couple of years ago. It ended up making great habitat for the birds

An area destroyed by a tornado two years ago.

That little tree to the right is the Warbler tree

Early on, we had the pleasure of instantly finding a Brown Creeper’s nest. Mom and dad were busily going in and out of the bark, most likely feeding their young.

Brown Creeper near its nest

Brown Creeper near its nest

This forest is full of Thrushes, but we actually did not see or hear many of them. We heard the call notes of a Swainson’s Thrush and two Veery’s, heard some Wood Thrushes sing and saw this Hermit Thrush gathering grub for her nestlings.

Hermit Thrush

Hermit Thrush

Other great highlights included a Red Crossbill flyover (yeah… they breed here too!), Ravens calling and flying overhead, A Red-Shouldered Hawk and tons of singing Red-eyed and Blue-headed Vireos. Over all, it was a perfect morning of looking for Warblers. Click here to see our checklist on eBird.

Count this forest on my to-do list for every future summer to come!

Mourning Warbler

Mourning Warbler

First Day at the Biggest Week Starts Off Perfectly

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What a way to start off the Biggest Week! After a long seven hour drive my friend and I headed straight to Magee Marsh to stretch our legs and get some initial birding in. As soon as arrived on the boardwalk we noticed a crowd huddling in one spot. A Mourning Warbler just flew into the brush and they were waiting for it to pop back up. They didn’t have to convince us to stay! This bird was on our most-wanted list last year and we dipped on it – we had to get it this year! We were all staring at a shadow of a bird who was not moving – then he started to flit around.

Mourning Warbler foraging down low

Mourning Warbler foraging down low

Our first warbler at the boardwalk was a lifer! I did not manage to get a good photo yet but he has been pretty reliable so I will try again later in the week.

Nearby, another bird with a similar name was sitting on her nest with two chicks poking their heads up. This is the first Mourning Dove nest I’ve seen – and it is right off the boardwalk.

Mourning Dove Nest

Mourning Dove Nest

We walked around and slowly gathered more birds to our lists with great looks at Blackburnian, Magnolia, Nashville, Palm, Black-throated Green and Yellow Warblers. We stumbled upon an area where a White-eyed Vireo had been seen. It did not take long for the bird to pop back up and give me great life bird views!

White-eyed Vireo

White-eyed Vireo

A little further down, another crowd was gathered looking in a wet area of the marsh. A Northern Waterthrush has been seen. This is a bird that I often heard, but never had a visual on. He wasn’t hard to find as he foraged near the water for food. Three life birds in such a small amount of time – all right on the boardwalk!

Northern Waterthrush

Northern Waterthrush

We eventually met up with another friend in search of life bird number four – the Worm-eating Warbler. We didn’t find it yet, but hope to later in the week. After dipping on that bird, we headed to the estuary trail to look for the Prothonotary Warbler who has been building a nest. There is a Great-horned Owl nest in good view here, but the birds were hidden when we passed by. On our way in, however, we were greeted with a Gray-cheeked Thrush who gave me my best look and my first real photo of this species.

Gray-cheeked Thrush

Gray-cheeked Thrush

Further in, we stopped to look at all the Terns, Gulls, Ducks and Shorebirds having dinner. They were backlit, so the photo op was not good. I only took a general view here.

Terns, Gulls and Dunlin

Terns, Gulls and Dunlin

The path was full of Yellow, Pine and Yellow-rumped Warblers, Warbling Vireos (who were taking over the boardwalk!) and others scattered around. The bird that caught our attention though was an Orange-crowned Warbler – another life bird for the both of us! We did eventually get good looks at this bird, but he made photography difficult. It was still very satisfying! We gave up on the Prothonotary Warbler and started to head back to the parking lot. On our way we heard the bird singing and spotted a small group of people gathered around the brush. He made it difficult to get really good looks of since he was on the other side near the water, but we finally found him! Again, no photos – but who can beat the ones I got last year of the bird practically singing in our faces.

It was getting late, but we did stop at the Owls nest once again to find one of the babies poking its head out of the snag.

Great Horned Owlet

Great Horned Owlet

We birded until 8PM and finally made it to Maumee Bay Lodge to finalize our registration and check in. It turns out that we arrived too late to register – oops! We also had to rush to the Lodge’s restaurant because it was going to close in twenty minutes. Time flies by when you are having a great time! The day ended with a beautiful sunset.

Sunset from Maumee Bay Lodge

Sunset from Maumee Bay Lodge

… And now we are ready for day two. We are heading to Oak Openings in search of four key birds – the Blue Grosbeak, Summer Tanager, Yellow-breasted Chat and Lark Sparrow. Three of those would be life birds for me. Wish us luck!

Songbirds are Slowly Returning

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Birds are on my mind! There is no better way to start the day then taking a walk in the woods or at a park where it is just me, the birds and my camera. Last week was was pretty quiet. All of the fallout birds we had previously have moved on while no new birds were showing up! High winds toward the end of the week made for very slow birding. Things are starting to pick up as I am finding more first-of-year birds.

I hit my first Warbler wave of the year which included Yellow-rumped, Pine and Black-and-white Warblers; along with high numbers of Blue-headed Vireos and Ruby-crowned Kinglets and one lone Blue-gray Gnatcatcher.

Black-and-white Warbler

Black-and-white Warbler

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Pine Warbler

Pine Warbler

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher Silhouette

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher Silhouette

I hear the songs of Ruby-crowned Kinglets everywhere I go. This is a song that I just learned this year and I’ve fallen in love with it – so much that I get their song stuck in my head instead of music…

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

I found my first Eastern Towhees, Thrashers and Hermit Thrushes. The low foragers are making some noise in the leaves. This Hermit Thrush, however, stayed out in the open.

Hermit Thrush

Hermit Thrush

I still have some Fox Sparrows hanging around.

Fox Sparrow

Fox Sparrow

And the Song Sparrows continue to contribute their tunes.

Song Sparrow

Song Sparrow

This afternoon, I heard a House Wren singing so I went to look for him. He hid only for a moment, then popped back up to sing and look around. I think he found a nice spot to settle into.

House Wren

House Wren

House Wren

House Wren

Another interesting recent sighting were three Northern Flickers on one tree. Two of them were doing a small dance to each other. I did catch a little bit of it on video, but it may be too shaky.

Three Northern Flickers

Three Northern Flickers

I also had my first Broad-winged Hawk of the year – he flew over my yard! This was yard bird number 96. I am almost at 100!

Broad-winged Hawk

Broad-winged Hawk

I am hoping that this week brings in more new arrivals. I really love finding birds before work to start my day off right!

Ready, Set, Bird! At the Biggest Week!

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Last Thursday, registration opened for the Biggest Week in American Birding. Hundreds of birders have already signed up to enjoy a 10-day week of some of the best Warbler birding in the country! It’s not just about the Warblers though…

What can you expect from going to the Biggest Week?

Eagles Soaring

Bald Eagles

Bald Eagles soaring near their nest

Phoebes flycatching.

Eastern Phoebe

Eastern Phoebe

Warblers preening.

Black-throated Green Warbler

Black-throated Green Warbler preening

Shorebirds chilling.

Solitary Sandpiper & Lesser Yellowlegs

Solitary Sandpiper & Lesser Yellowlegs

Bobolinks singing.

Bobolink

Bobolink

Teals in love.

Blue-winged Teal

Blue-winged Teal couple

Robins nesting.

American Robin

American Robin in a nest

Goose families.

Canada Goose family

Canada Goose family

Swallows taking a break.

Tree Swallow

Tree Swallow perched at eye level from a platform

Tree-top birds down low.

Blue-headed Vireo

Blue-headed Vireo at eye level

Must-see birds up close.

Cape May Warbler

Cape May Warbler

And don’t forget about the Owls, Woodcocks and Nighthawks that I posted about last week!

I hope to see you there!