We made the pilgrimage to these NW Ohio migrant traps,along with a brief side trip into Ottawa NWR, and were not disappointed.  Magee was the only spot that we visited on both days, and our totals were very similar to Peggy Wangs list, with 18 species of warblers (highlights - singing Connecticut on Weds, Mournings & Canadas on both days), 8 species of flycatchers (highlights - 2 Olive-sides on Weds, 6+ Alders on Tues, Yellow-bellied both days), lots of Swainson's Thrushes & Baltimore Orioles, few cuckoos,grosbeaks,buntings. The riot of birdsong that greets the visitor to the Boardwalk in late Spring has to be heard to be believed.

The entrance road, trails, and nearby Ottawa NWR, didn't seem to attract nearly the diversity of land bird migrants, but made up for it with interesting water birds.  A pair of Sandhill Cranes was along the Magee causeway on Tuesday,then in one of the Ottawa pools on Weds.  There were also lots of herons & egrets looking for shallow water pools; one drying pool in Ottawa had 50+ Great Egrets,40+ Great Blues, and 5 Snowy Egrets.  The handful of shorebirds included Semipalmated plovers & a beautiful Spring-plumaged Dunlin along the Magee causeway, plus 3 Least sandpipers at Ottawa, but we didn't walk all the way out to the Crane Creek estuary.

Metzger,which we visited on Tuesday, was a revelation to me.  If it was anywhere else in the state, birders would be singing its praises, but close to Magee it suffers by comparison.  In 30 minutes, we found 9 species of warblers,5 species of flycatchers, Swainson's Thrushes & Veery, along with the expected vireos & orioles.  Also nice was a fishing Osprey, a Common Moorhen, and a Lesser Black-backed Gull (on the pier).  If the lake levels had been lower, our waterfowl & shorebird totals probably would've been quite good.

Maumee was a disappointment, by comparison.  The boardwalk seemed to have much more phragmites than I remembered from my last visit many years back, and the paucity of shrubby dogwoods & willows made it less attractive to landbird migrants.  We did have 7 species of warbler and 4 species of flycatcher, plus a calling Least Bittern off the NE observation platform, along with a large flock of loafing gulls & Caspian Terns at the beach.  Probably there are migrant hot-spots here that are less well-known to us from outside the area.

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