I love your pictures, too, Casey!! What camera are you using? Man, I am so
jealous of your weekend. Just give me a few more years to get these kids
out of the house - not that I want to rush them out or anything. I totally
loved staying home this weekend, and making them all sorts of fattening
goodies - but, I sure would have loved to have been with you at the
boardwalk!
Jill
----- Original Message -----
From: "TUCKER, Casey" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, May 15, 2006 12:45 AM
Subject: Re: pictures from IMBD Crane Creek
> 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
> [log in to unmask]
>
>
>
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