Posts in Category: Magee Marsh
Cuckoo! Happy Sunday!
Black-billed Cuckoo. Magee Marsh Ohio
I don’t often get to see cuckoos. In fact I can count my sightings, all well away from my Maine home, on the fingers of one hand, and I have never, until this week, had what I would call a really good view. Not that this is a really good view…but it is my best so far. 🙂 I post it this morning, in part, as a reminder that Magee Marsh and the Biggest Week in American Birding, while it is justifiably famous for warblers, is not just about warblers. The Black-billed Cuckoo, for many people was the best bird of the past two days.
The woods at Magee are full of migrating birds. There are droves of Orioles, flocks of Blue Jays, at least two species of Tanager, White-throated Sparrows, Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, singing wrens and flitting gnatcatchers, and several varieties of Thrush. And that is on top, of course, of all the warblers.
That is, again in part, the wonder of birding. No where is the amazing variety of creation more obvious than when studying birds. And no where is that variety more obvious than at Magee Marsh in the spring. It is good to be here. And that, along with the Black-billed Cuckoo, is enough reason to give praise and thanks this Sunday! Happy Sunday!
Yellow!
Yellow Warbler, Black Swamp Bird Observatory, Oak Harbor OH
A bad day at Magee Marsh during the Biggest Week in American Birding is better than a good day most other places, so, even though the warblers were not dripping from the trees yesterday, there were still a lot of birds. They were sticking high and tucked in to the foliage, so it was a frustrating day for photography, but bird song was all around. I managed to track this Yellow Warbler down, skulking in the brush across the road from the Black Swamp Bird Observatory and Optics Alley were I am working the booth for ZEISS. It always takes me a day or so to get my warbler eye on…and to train my hands for the warbler catch 🙂
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 280 @ f6.5. Processed and cropped slightly in Lightroom.
Chestnut-sided Warbler
I told you my posts would be erratic these next few days. I an at the Amsterdam airport with 30 minutes of free wifi. Now or never. This is of course not a Dutch Bird. A Chestnut-sided Warbler from Magee Marsh and the Biggest Week in American Birding.
Olympus OM-D E-M10 with 75-300mm zoom. 1200mm equivalent (600 optical plus digital tel-extenter). Shutter preferred. 1 /640th @ ISO 2500 @ f6.7. Processed in Snapseed on my tablet.
Red-winged Blackbird
Red-winged Blackbirds are hard to photograph. You end up loosing detail in the black plumage, or in the red, or in both! And, of course, you do not want to do that, because the Red-winged Blackbird is one of the most beautiful of North American songbirds. Really. Take a close look.
Fortunately, they are also relatively cooperative. They will hop up on a cattail or branch right in front of you and sing lustily. This one, at Magee Marsh during the Biggest Week in American Birding, certainly posed nicely…and in good light to catch the subtlety of the plumage.
Olympus OM-D E-M10 with 75-300mm zoom. 600mm equivalent. Shutter preferred. 1 /640th @ ISO 2500 @ f6.7. Processed in Snapseed on my tablet.
Black-throated Blue (female)
This warbler gave me absolute fits in identifying it. Not a Tennessee, but close. Not a Warbling Vireo, but close. I totally gave up on it for a while there. I did not dare post it under any name! Then this morning I decided to flip through Ken Kaufman’s ”Field Guide to the Nature of New England, just on the off chance that I had overlooked something common enough to be in his selection of common New England Warblers, and it jumped right out at me. I had not been looking at female birds! This is the female Black-throated Blue Warbler, photographed at Magee Marsh in Ohio during the Biggest Week in American Birding. And a nifty bird it is. Subtle pattern and color, but elegant and beautiful. Totally worthy of a full plate in any field guide!
Olympus OM-D E-M10 with 75-300mm zoom. 600mm equivalent. Shutter preferred. 1 /640th @ ISO 2000 @ f7.1. Processed in Snapseed on my tablet. Assembled in Pixlr Express.
American Redstart in the Sun
I mentioned a few days ago that I do not have many Warbler pics from this year’s Biggest Week in American Birding that are well lighted. Sunshine was at a premium while we were in Ohio…with lots of rain and dull grey days. Still, at Magee Marsh you work with what you have, and what you have is abundant warblers. This American Redstart is from one of the rare afternoons when the sun broke through. Of course, direct sun poses it’s own challenges with such a starkly colored bird. It is easy to lose detail in both the black and the orange. This shot is just about perfectly balanced…no thanks to me. The camera’s exposure system did it all. I just pressed the shutter and applied minimal post processing in Snapseed. Still, I am happy to take credit for the image!
Olympus OM-D E-M10 with 75-300mm zoom. 600mm equivalent. Shutter preferred. 1 /640th @ ISO 4000 @ f7.1. Processed in Snapseed on my tablet.
Uncommon Yellowthroat
As I might have said before, I think they should outlaw the use of the word “common” in the common names of birds. It invariably does the bird that wears it an injustice. Take the Common Yellowthroat. Who looks at a Common Yellowthroat? I mean they are so common. It would clearly be a more interesting bird, and more worthy of our notice every time we see it, if it were only the “Masked Yellowthroat”, or the “Bandito Yellowthroat” or even the “Black-faced Yellowthroat.” Because it is definitely worth a look every time we see one. Such a striking little bird, caught here skulking below the boardwalk at Magee Marsh in Ohio during the recent Biggest Week in American Birding.
Olympus OM-D E-M10 with 75-300mm zoom. 600mm equivalent. Shutter preferred. 1 /640th @ ISO 1600 @ f7.1. Processed in Snapseed on my tablet.
The Magee Marsh “In Your Face” Award
Each year at Magee Marsh during the Biggest Week in American Birding, some Warbler wins the “In Your Face” award for the most and the best close encounters. Last year it was the Chestnut-sided, hands down. The year before it was the Black-throated Green. This year it was a close run event between the Prothonatory and the Magnolia, with the Magnolia, in my experience and opinion, winning by a feather…and a breast feature at that. (Some birders may differ.) I will even admit that for me it might just be a trick of the light. I caught the Magnolia in full sun a few times, and never did manage a really well lit image of the Prothonatory.
Olympus OM-D E-M10 with 75-300mm zoom. 600mm equivalent. Shutter preferred. 1 /640th @ ISO 500 @ f6.7. Processed in Snapseed on my tablet.
Sing Lady Sing!
In most bird species it is the male that does the singing. In a very few both male and female sing. The American Redstart is one of them. This female American Redstart, at Magee Marsh in Ohio during the Biggest Week in American Birding, is head back, full-throated, belting her song out.
Olympus OM-D E-M10 with 75-300mm zoom. 600mm equivalent. Shutter preferred. 1/640th @ ISO 1250 @ f6.7. Processed in Snapseed on my tablet.
Sing Prothonatory Sing! Happy Sunday!
My encounter with this bold male Prothonatory Warbler was certainly one of the highlights of The Biggest Week in American Birding for me. I posted another extreme close-up a few days ago. The bird landed within 4 feet of me, right at the shortest focus of my lens. This is a full frame, uncropped shot. It does not get any better than that!
I did use Handy Photo’s retouching tools to remove a viney twig in the foreground that came right down across the bird’s neck. It was a good shot with the vine in, but it is better without it. 🙂
Olympus OM-D E-M10 with 75-300mm zoom. 600mm equivalent. Shutter preferred. 1/640th @ ISO 2000 @ f7.1. Processed in Snapseed and Handy Photo on my tablet.
And for the Sunday Thought: I seem to have featured a Prothonatory Warbler in last Sunday’s post as well. I have no excuse. I just think the Prothonatory is among the most attractive of Spring Warblers, and with their propensity to sing loudly and long from visible perches, they brighten any marshy forest and any spring day! They are such a cheerful bird. That might be anthropomorphsizing, but, then again, it might not. I can not escape the feeling, especially when the Prothonatory Warbler sings, that they are just full of, and bubbling over with, the joy of life. And honestly, why should we assume that they are any less capable of feeling joy than we are? Are we not all expressions of the one creative life that is living the universe around us into being? Okay, I know, that is a stretch from some of you…but it is an article of my faith, rooted in my experience of that life at work in me and around me…providing sufficient evidence so my answer to that question is, and always will be, resoundingly “yes!” We are all part of one life, and if that life contains so much joy for me, certainly the Warblers have their share!
And may you have yours today as well. Happy Sunday!