Posts in Category: Magee Marsh
Louisiania Waterthrush
I am dropping way back to May for this shot of a Louisiana Waterthrush from Magee Marsh in northern Ohio. I still have a wealth of unshared images from my 10 days at The Biggest Week in American Birding. This was taken the last day I was there. After working a full day at our respective booths (that is the ZEISS booth for me), and then packing the booths, my friend Roy Halpin and I dragged our weary bodies out to the boardwalk for one last pass. We were rewarded with some of the best photo ops of the week. 🙂 That included this very cooperative Louisiana Waterthrush. We watched and photographed it for a good 10 minutes as it worked this partially submerged log: perfect habitat for a Waterthrush, and a perfect setting for our images.
Not only is it a bird I seldom see, but it certainly closer and more cooperative than any waterthrush I have ever encountered. And it was not the only good bird of that last pass on the Magee Marsh boardwalk!
Canon SX50HS. 1200mm equivalent field of view. Program with my usual modifications. f6.5 @ 1/400th and 1/500th @ ISO 800. Processed in Lightroom.
Magge at Magee.
The Magnolia Warbler is on of the brightest spring warblers to pass through Magee Marsh and northern Ohio during migration. I heard Bill Thompson describe the Magnolia this way: it has one of every field mark. It has an eye-ring, an eyebrow, a mask, a black cap, wing-bars, streaking on the breast, under-tail patches. and white outer tail feathers. One of every field mark…and yet is uniquely and beautifully, unmistakably, itself. Magnolia!
Canon SX50HS. Program with iContrast and Auto Shadow Control. A collage of two shots, both at 1200mm equivalent. Processed in Lightroom. Assembled in PhotoShop Elements.
Blackburnian Contrast
My on-going lesson in relativity was renewed yesterday when I joined Bill Thompson, the editor of BirdWatcher’sDigest and creator of the “Bill of the Birds” podcast, and local guides for a field trip at Indian Point Nature Conservancy Reserve on Mt Desert Island, ME. It was an afternoon trip so you expect the birding to be somewhat slower, but, really, birding in Maine is hard work…especially compared to my recent “height of migration” visit to Magee Marsh and the shores of Lake Erie in Ohio.
At Magee, on a good day, the warblers drip from the trees, and many, like the Blackburnians, Chestnut-sided, and Black-throated Greens, are feeding at or just above eye-level, often within 10 or 20 feet of the boardwalk. And, of course, there are a lot of each warbler.
Birding Maine on a May/June afternoon is far different. We had Black-throated Green (heard not seen), a single Blackburnian high in the tree tops, and a Magnolia, not quite so high, but still up there! And we had to work for all three. We walked miles, with long gaps between birds, and Bill had to call the warblers we did see in with his iPhone app, after hearing them off in the woods. And the leaves are approaching full out, so we got glimpses of the birds as they worked in and out. It was fun, but it certainly was not Magee Marsh! This second shot is the best I managed of the Blackburnian in Maine.
On the other hand it is my first shot of a Blackburnian in Maine. 🙂 And I am reminded that all things, and that includes birding, are relative. What we experienced yesterday, with 4 or 5 species of warblers, was a good afternoon of Maine birding. In a way, it is more representative of a good day of birding than an afternoon at Magee when a wave of warblers comes through. It is the good day most birders in the US experience, on most of their good days birding. And it was, and is, good.
Both shots with the Canon SX50HS. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
Eastern Screech Owl: Magee Marsh
Each year I have been, there have been a few owls in the mix at Magee Marsh during the Biggest Week in American Birding in May. This year there were three. This Eastern Screech Owl. It, or another like it, have been along the same section of the boardwalk each year. In past years it has been pretty reliable, but this year it was only found once that I am aware of.
We also had Great Horned Owl chicks again this year, though at the extreme far end of the marsh from where they were last year. And we had a surprise visit from a Long-eared Owl. Considering his reception (a crowd of several hundred birders gawking at him over several hours on the boardwalk under him), he is unlikely to return any time soon. 🙁
My Screech Owl tested the limits of the Canon SX50HS. It was a ways off, and in poor light. I am happy of have gotten this good a shot. 1800mm equivalent field of view. f6.5 @ 1/200th @ ISO 800. Program with iContrast and Auto Shadow Control. -1/3EV exposure compensation. Processed in Lightroom for Intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
Swan in Flight: Happy Sunday!
To me there is a “wild beauty” in the lone Tundra Swan flying against the massed clouds of a gloomy Ohio day along the Erie shore, that simply lifts my spirit. (To get an idea of just how big a swan is, this is a 24mm equivalent wide angle shot, and the swan was actually on my side of the trees.)
The image was taken while at The Biggest Week in American Birding, on the “other” trail at Magee Marsh, off the boardwalk. The Crane Creek Estuary Trail, during the festival, was open all the way from Lake Erie, along Crane Creek, across the marshes, deep into Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge. During the slow days between the two waves of warblers that hit while I was there, Crane Creek Estuary Trail became very popular, as there still were a few birds happening there each day .
If nothing else, there were swans, gulls, herons, egrets, shorebirds, and various other open water birds in the Estuary itself, and in the larger enpondments on the other side of the dyke. Tundra Swan winters in Ohio, and, of course, there are increasing numbers of the unambitious, invasive, and troublesome Mute Swans. I was happy to see, when I looked closely, that this swan is a native Tundra.
Canon SX50HS. Sports Mode. -1/3 EV exposure compensation. 24mm equivalent field of view. f5.6 @ 1/1250th @ ISO 200. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness. A little extra attention to the sky with the healing brush set to clone to moderate a few spots where the white burned through.
And for the Sunday Thought. I took this image several weeks ago now, and consciously set it aside for a Sunday post (and then, of course, forgot to use it until now). It is, to my eye, one of those evocative images that sets the spirit yearning for release. Not release from “this earthly coil…this too encumbering flesh”…no hint of death-wish here. Release from gravity. Release from everything and anything that keeps our spirits from cutting across the cloudy skies in beauty, from wringing every drop of significance and substance from each day. Freedom from the habits and passive acceptance of compromise that fog our days with mediocrity. A wild desire to soar, to unfurl our hidden wings, and leap into the sky to meet the future that is growing from our days. From days like this, with swans aflight against the drama of a stormy Ohio day.
Black-throated Blue Warbler: Magee Marsh
Compared to the Black-throated Green Warblers, which were everywhere and very visible…often right in your face, the Black-throated Blue Warblers at Magee Marsh during The Biggest Week in American Birding, were scarce and very hard to see. They were especially hard to photograph as they feed deep in the foliage, not at the edges like the BTGW. I did manage a few half way decent shots over the course of the 11 days I spent at Magee. On the other hand, I have lots of shots of where the bird was when I started to press the shutter. 🙂
Canon SX50HS. Program with iContrast and Auto Shadow Control. -1/3EV Exposure compensation (unneeded for this shot!). 1200mm equivalent field of view. F6.5 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 800. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
Baltimore Oriole: Magee Marsh
Baltimore and Bullock’s Oriole got lumped a few years ago into Northern Oriole…only to be split out again to the two familiar species. This is the eastern variety: Baltimore Oriole, captured visiting the orange halves some helpful soul put out along the edge of the parking lot at Magee Marsh. I would say, at a rough estimate, several hundred other photographers have shots of this same bird on this same orange (or its replacement…it looks about gone in this shot). Still, who can pass up a Baltimore Oriole on an orange? 🙂
Canon SX50HS. Program with iContrast and Auto Shadow Control. -1/3EV exposure compensation. f6.5 @ 1/320th @ ISO 800. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
A Little Flicker Action: Magee Marsh
As much as Magee Marsh is about warblers, warblers, and more warblers…there are other birds along the boardwalk. The Woodcocks were a big hit this year, and there are always a few owls. For a day, a Common Nighthawk challenged the best eyes on the boardwalk, though for at least one day they had about 6 spotting scopes trained on it.
This Northern Flicker of the Yellow-shafted race was making its usual racket. It was easy to see…much harder to photograph…as it was very mobile and very agile. I never did catch the whole bird in the frame. 🙂 I like the “mid-call” pose here. It makes the bird look very alive.
Canon SX50HS. Program with iContrast and Auto Shadow Control. -1/3EV exposure compensation. 1800mm equivalent field of view. f6.5 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 800. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
Blackburnian Warblers: Magee Marsh
There are few warblers that are as striking as the Blackburnian. If they were a rare bird, they would be much sought after, even at warbler-central, Magee Marsh, during spring migration. As it is they are very common at Magee, and are one of the boldest and most closest warblers present. They often feed on the underside of the canopy, and even in the taller undergrowth, and, like Chestnut-sided and Black-throated Green, will sometimes work a branch within a foot or two of birders’ heads on the boardwalk. And, with their flaming orange breast and throat, they are pretty hard to miss, even in denser foliage.
That is not to say they are easy to photograph. They are fast, highly mobile, and rarely (at least at Magee Marsh in the spring) perch. They are not singing at Magee so they do not just pop up on a branch in the sun and sit for their portrait. No, close as they often are, photographing them is an exercise in dexterity, determination, and what some might call luck…but which I call persistence. If you try for enough Blackburnians at Magee, where they are plentiful, then it just stands to reason that you will eventually catch one (or two, or three 🙂
Canon SX50HS in Program with iContrast and Auto Shadow Control. -1/3EV exposure compensation. 1800mm and 1200mm equivalent fields of view. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
Blue-grey Natcatcher : Magee Marsh
They are, of course, seeing Kirtland’s Warbler at Magee Marsh this week, after the official Biggest Week in American Birding is all over, and while I am long back in Maine.
Still I was delighted to catch this much more common Blue-grey Natcatcher near the boardwalk at Magee. I don’t see them often and they are certainly hard to catch. 🙂
Canon SX50HS. Program with iContrast and Auto Shadow Control. – 1/3 ev exposure compensation. 1200mm equivalent field of view. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and brightness.