Yesterday afternoon from 3:00 to 4:30 pm I was in the parking lot across
from the sledding hill at Maumee Bay State Park. The Sharp-shinned Hawks
were migrating at eye level. Several went right-over the hood of my car. All
nine were immature birds along with one Cooper's hawk. I also had three
Red-tailed Hawks, and over 12 Turkey Vultures. At 4:02 pm, I noticed a group
of five Turkey Vultures migrating by me and only about 100 feet in the air.
The last bird was being attacked by a Bonaparte's Gull and it wasn't rocking
in the wind like the others. I decided to look closer at the vulture and
suddenly noticed that it was pushing its wings in a slow, down motion;
unlike the other 4 birds. Its dihedral was only slight and its wings bowed
down slightly towards the tips. The color was very dark brown over all and
it never rocked in the 30+ MPH wind. My God, it was an adult Golden Eagle,
my first of the year! If it hadn't been for the Bonaparte's Gull attacking
it, I would have counted it as a Turkey Vulture as it was right-in with
them. I will check groups of vultures more closely in the future.



The pond across from the parking lot by the bathhouse had a medium sized
flock of Ring-billed Gulls on it and as the Sharp-shinned Hawks came across
at eye level the gulls went crazy. I noticed several loud ear-piercing
screams that didn't seem like gull cries at all. What on earth was making
these noises? So I decided to sneak behind the bathhouse and look-out at the
birds along the shore. Many gulls including Bonaparte's and Ring-billed
Gulls were on the edge of the water standing in the sand. Then I saw them,
eight Caspian, five Forster's, and one Common Tern. Suddenly the lone
Cooper's hawk came across the pond at about 50 feet high and all the terns
and gulls flew-up and started screaming. Birds were everywhere in the sky.
The five Forster's Terns actually flew-out over Lake Erie and only one came
back about 20 minutes later. I also had 4 species of swallows in the area;
Tree, Barn, N. Rough-winged, and Purple Martins.



Today at the Black Swamp Bird Observatory we had one of our Wetland
Investigation Network (WIN) school programs. Fifty Perrysburg High School
kids learned about and assisted with the banding of two Virginia Rails, a
male Ruby-crowned Kinglet, the Myrtle race of the Yellow-rumped Warbler (in
the west the Myrtle's cousin is the Audubon's Warbler), a huge male Common
Grackle, an immature male Red-winged Blackbird, a Hermit Thrush, Tree, Song
and White-throated Sparrows, and several male American Goldfinches. One of
the students was so enthusiastic about birds that our director gave him a
Black Swamp Bird Observatory sweatshirt for free. How cool is that.



Kim Kaufman saw two Brown Thrashers at the Magee Marsh Wildlife Beach
carrying nesting material into the shrubby area. Kim also saw Eastern
Towhees, Hermit Thrushes, and Yellow-rumped Warblers along with lots of
Bonaparte's Gulls. The beach area yesterday had over 30 Bufflehead and lots
of Lesser Scaup and a few Ruddy Ducks despite the rain and sleet.



Final note: The John F. Gallagher Walking Trail behind the Black Swamp Bird
Observatory building has lots of American Woodcocks displaying in the
evenings if anyone still wants to see them.



Later birding fans,



Chris Knoll

Education Director

Black Swamp Bird Observatory










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