Posts in Category: Magee Marsh
Biggest Week in American Birding! Cape May
Cape May Warbler: Magee Marsh Boardwalk, Magee Marsh Wildlife Area, Crane Creek State Park, Oak Harbor, Ohio, USA, May 2024 — One of the more attractive, and the more present, warblers this year at Magee. There was at least one showing well each day I visited during the Biggest Week in American Birding, and generally several. OM System OM-1Mkii with M.Zuiko 100-400IS zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom bird modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Biggest Week in American Birding: Parula Again
Northern Parula: Magee Marsh Boardwalk, Crane Creek State Park, Oak Harbor, Ohio, May 2024 — As I may have mentioned, there were lots and lots of Parulas along the boardwalk at Magee…almost as many as Yellow Warblers. Actually the numbers might have been “normal” but compared to other species, which were sparse, they seemed high. I came away with one of almost every possible pose. 🙂 (Exaggeration) OM System OM-1Mkii with M.Zuiko 100-400IS zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom bird modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Biggest Week in American Birding: Full on Prothonotary
Prothonotary Warbler: Magee Marsh Boardwalk, Crane Creek State Park, Oak Harbor, Ohio, USA, May 2024 — As I have said before, sometimes the Prothonotary Warblers are too close for comfort at Magee. It seems each year at least one pair builds a nest in one or another of the uprights that hold up the boardwalk rail. A gap tends to form between the upright and the rail where insects gather, and where woodpeckers come to get them, and, in digging them out, enlarge the gap until there is a hole big enough for a Prothonotary nest. The rangers come and put hazard tape either side of the nest to give the birds some space, but they seem totally unconcerned about the passing humans, and may, in fact, get some extra protection from their real predators by building so close to human traffic. While building the nest and feeding young they are busy within in feet of the boardwalk and often perch on the rails right in front of astonished birders and tourists. Fun! And it does not seem to any harm to the birds. OM System OM-1Mkii with M.Zuiko 100-400mmIS zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom bird modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Biggest Week in American Birding! Upstanding Parula
Northern Parula: Magee Marsh Boardwalk, Oak Harbor, Ohio, USA, May 2024 — I like the delicate leaves and catkins framing this bird, and the subtle hues of the bird itself. I think the out of focus branch crossing just makes the bird look sharper. I might, in another mood, edit it out, but for now it stays as part of the natural composition. There were lots of Parulas this year at Magee. OM System OM-1Mkii with M.Zuiko 100-400IS zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom bird modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Biggest Week in American Birding! Song too big for the frame
Yellow Warbler: Estuary Trail, Crane Creek State Park/Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge, Oak Harbor, Ohio, USA, May 2024 — The frame cannot really contain the song. Yellow Warblers, of course, were everywhere at Magee, on and off the boardwalk…singing somewhere nearby just about whenever you stopped to listen. They are nesting birds at the marsh and well into the cycle. This one was along the trail that loops around the back of the marsh on the far side of the channel from the boardwalk. Singing away! OM System OM-1Mkii with M.Zuiko 100-400IS zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom bird modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Common Yellowthroat
Common Yellowthroat: Magee Marsh Boardwalk, Oak Harbor, Ohio, USA, May 2024 and Orlando Wetlands, Christmas, Florida, USA, January 2024 — They call it the Common Yellowthroat because it is just that…common. These two shots were taken over a 1000 miles and 5 months apart. It is still a Yellowthroat wherever you find it. 🙂 OM System OM-1 and OM-1Mkii with M.Zuiko 100-400IS zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom bird modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Biggest Week in American Birding! All kinds of funky blackbird
Red-winged Blackbird: Magee Marsh Boardwalk, Oak Harbor, Ohio, USA, May 2024 — One of the changes since the big blow-down at Magee Marsh is an exponential increase in the number of Red-winged Blackbirds using the area…or at least that is the way it seems to me. RWBB were everywhere…very visible, very vocal…and I suspect competing heavily for the same food sources as the warblers. Now, I like Red-winged Blackbirds, but if they are disrupting the flow of warblers through the marsh I am not sure that is a good thing. Anyway, I do enjoy their attitude, and the large numbers meant that there was always some territorial display going on. OM System OM-1Mkii with M.Zuiko 100-400IS zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom bird modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Biggest Week in American Birding! Kinglets
Ruby-crowned Kinglet: Magee Marsh Boardwalk, Oak Harbor, Ohio, May 2024 — While warbler numbers, individuals, not so much species, were definitely way down this year at Magee, Ruby-crowned Kinglet numbers were definitely way up. They were everywhere…and that’s good from a photographer’s point of view, because if there is anything harder to photograph than a feeding warbler, it is a feeding Ruby-crowned Kinglet. They seem to be trying to be everywhere in the bush at the same time…never setting for more than a second in any one spot. You can waste a lot of bound electrons chasing them. OM System OM-1Mkii with M.Zuiko 100-400IS zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom bird modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Biggest Week in American Birding! Lonely and only
Black-throated Green Warbler: Magee Marsh Boardwalk, Oak Harbor, Ohio, USA, May 2024 — Nothing told the story of the strange year at Magee quite so loudly as the almost total lack of Black-throated Green Warblers…often the most present of warblers in the marsh…everywhere and in your face constantly. There may have been more Black-throated Greens the first week of the festival, but I only saw this one individual, my first day at Magee, and then not a single one the rest of the week. I am glad I took quite a few shots of this one. He might look like he is singing, but he is actually swallowing a spider. 🙂 OM System OM-1Mkii with M.Zuiko 100-400IS zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my bird modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Happy Mother’s Day: The Biggest Week in American Birding
Scarlet Tanager: Magee Marsh Boardwalk, Oak Harbor, Ohio, May 2024 — This is one of my wife Carol’s favorite birds. We don’t see them often in Maine so I am always happy to bring her one home from Ohio, generally just in time for Mother’s Day (or a few days late). OM System OM-1Mkii with M.Zuiko 100-400IS zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom bird modifications. Processed in Photomator.