Hi All,
Sam had some nice photos. If you're interested in seeing some additional photos that I took while at IMBD this weekend, I've posted some at: http://caseybirdphotos.blogspot.com/
You can click on the photos to view larger versions.
In some cases the birds were so close that I was using a macro lens to try and photograph them. At one point I had a Bay-breasted Warbler that fluttered down and attempted to land on me, and then later on my camera.
Like Ned, one of the more interesting birds I saw was an unusually-colored sparrow. A leucistic White-crowned Sparrow was feeding on the ground around the feeders at the Crane Creek/Magee Marsh Bird Center. I was able to get an o.k. photo of the bird for documentation purposes: http://photos1.blogger.com/hello/276/4443/1024/IMG_7309.jpg
On Friday afternoon we visited the Black Swamp Bird Observatory's Navarre Marsh banding station where one of the big highlights for me was a first year Sharp-shinned Hawk: http://photos1.blogger.com/hello/276/4443/1024/IMG_7301.jpg
From there we went to the Magee Marsh boardwalk, and before we even stepped foot onto the boardwalk birds were literally dripping off the trees. On one tree, at the western platform entrance to the boardwalk, there were several Magnolia Warblers, Blackburnian Warblers, Bay-breasted Warblers, Black-throated Green Warbler, Eastern Phoebe, and a nesting American Robin, all being photographed and gawked at by a myriad of awe-struck birdwatchers, like myself.
The big highlight for me was seeing a number of Blackburnian Warblers, which I think have to be one of my all-time favorite warblers: http://photos1.blogger.com/hello/276/4443/1024/IMG_7463.jpg
The species that seemed to be on everyone's lips was the Golden-winged Warbler, partly because there seemed to be so many and partly because of the relative ease with which they were found. On Friday we encountered two Golden-winged Warblers, one of which was in song (http://photos1.blogger.com/hello/276/4443/1024/IMG_7373.jpg). On Saturday I saw another, but there were at least three reported from the boardwalk.
Another bird that folks were looking for was a Mourning Warbler, which I was able to get a quick look at.
A couple of additional things that were interesting was that we spoke with Mark Shieldcastle at Black Swamp. He said that the big push of migrants arrived on Wednesday last week, and that they had banded between 500-600 birds that day. Over the course of a couple of days, from when they arrived, he was able to see a deterioration in the condition of the birds, presumably due to the poor weather inhibiting some of the insect activity. Additionally, the cooler nights may also have caused the birds to use more of the fat they were depositing over the course of the day while feeding as well as what they had already packed on before they arrived. Hopefully the weather will improve soon and they'll be able to feed and continue on their way to their breeding grounds.
Tanagers, Grosbeaks, and Lincoln's Sparrows seemed rather low in abundance, and informal reports from other folks there suggest an interesting movement of these birds. A birder from Indiana said that they had had quite a few reports of Rose-breasted Grosbeaks being reported from feeders and backyards through parts of Indiana (note: I haven't checked the Indiana listservs to see what the extent of the reports were). Additionally, a friend from Canton said they took a jet express shuttle over to Pt. Pelee where they encountered quite a few Tanagers.
Lastly we squeezed in a visit through the Ottawa NWR auto tour before the heavy rain hit late in the afternoon on Saturday. The highlights there included quite a few Dunlin, Greater & Lesser Yellowlegs (side-by-side, in the same pose, in the same scope field of view for a nice comparison), and Dowitcher sp.
Hope others had good experiences up there.
Take care & good birdwatching!
Casey
-----Original Message-----
From: MU Ornithology Listserv (ZOO 408) on behalf of Ned Keller
Sent: Sun 5/14/2006 9:34 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Cc:
Subject: Re: pictures from IMBD Crane Creek
Nice pics.
I thought this past weekend was one of the better trips I've had to the
Magree Marsh boardwalk, in spite of (or maybe because of?) the chilly,
drizzly weather. Good diversity and large numbers of warblers, plus
multiple views of golden-wings too close to focus my binoculars.
This may sound weird to some, but the most interesting bird I saw was a
White-throated Sparrow. It was extremely dark overall, but the
light/dark patterns were still discernible; it looked like it had been
rolling around in ashes. I haven't been able to find much about melanism
in white-throats - can anyone give me any leads?
Samuel R. Bugg wrote:
> Hi folks!
>
> Here are some of my pictures from Crane Creek this weekend with my new
> camera. These are only a few of them. More to come soon but I have to
> finish packing for Kenya! .... even better pictures to come after that!
>
> - Sam
>
>
--
--
Ned Keller
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