Posts in Category: warbler
The Biggest Week in American Birding! Female Yellow Warbler
Female Yellow Warbler: Magee Marsh Wildlife Area, Oak Harbor, Ohio, USA, May 2023 — Though the male Yellow Warblers are very visible at Magee this spring and every spring…singing from, it sometimes seems, every branch tip, the females are there and busy too. This one has been gathering spider web or plant fuzz for her nest. The rim-light effect of the pose and the lovely background of out of focus leaves makes this look a little like a studio portrait. 🙂 OM System OM-1 and 100-400mm zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my evolving bird modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro. ISO 320 @ f6.3 @ 1/640th. Minus .7EV exposure compensation.
Biggest Week in American Birding! Canada!
Canada Warbler: Magee Marsh Wildlife Area, Oak Harbor, Ohio, USA, May 2023 — Canada Warblers are one of the “less seen” warblers at Magee Marsh in May. They certainly come through and certainly in numbers, but they can be very hard to find, and very uncooperative when found. They tend to sulk deep in foliage, and they are very active, never posing nicely for a good look or a photograph. This nice bright male keep a crowd of birders along the boardwalk entertained literally all morning. It was there and being seen when I got to the boardwalk at 7:30am, and it was still there at least after 1PM when I left. I have no reason to believe it did not stay through the afternoon. Getting this photo was a three step process. First you had to insert yourself into the scrum of birders and photographers on the boardwalk that extended many yards on either side of the brush where the warbler was feeding, then you had be in the right place at the right time when someone gave up their place at the rail facing the warbler, and then you had to wait for the warbler to appear in the open for long enough to achieve focus, and then you had to be ready to shoot. (So that is actually four steps!) Fortunately the Olympus OM-1 with the 100-400mm zoom is a very capable camera, with about as fast and accurate bird’s eye focus as you can get, and I managed 3 good shots in about 10 minutes before I surrendered my place at the rail to another. OM-1 at 700mm equivalent. Program mode with my evolving bird modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro. ISO 500 @ f6.3 @ 1/640th.
Tennessee Warbler
Tennessee Warbler: Metzger Marsh Wildlife Area, Oak Harbor, Ohio. USA, May 2022 — While looking for my life-photo-op for a Canada Warbler around the Metzger Marsh parking area, I spent a while in front to this tree long the dike above the parking watching a variety of warblers hunting among the catkins. This Tennessee was among them. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Mourning Warbler
Mourning Warbler: Magee Marsh Boardwalk, Oak Harbor, Ohio, USA, May 2022 — The Mourning Warbler is a hard bird to see, let alone photograph, at least at Magee, where they tend to say low in the vegetation, mostly under the ground cover. And there is a LOT of ground cover at Magee this year, due to the massive blow-down of the mature cottonwoods that used to provide shade for the forest floor. This one hopped up on a twig two inches above ground for a brief look-around, just as I came up on a group of birders who had been tracking it by the movement of the undergrowth for twenty minutes already. 🙂 Right place, right time, and ready! That is my wildlife photography recipe in a nutshell. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixomator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 250 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Prothonotary: I spy a spider!
Prothonotary Warbler: Magee Marsh Boardwalk, Oak Harbor, Ohio, USA, May 2022 — All the warblers at Magee during the Biggest Week in American Birding are busy hunting and gleaning, but none more obviously than the Prothonotary. I caught this one picking spiders out of webs right by the boardwalk, paying no attention to me only a few feet away. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/640th.
Prothonotary: prodigious singer
Prothonotary Warbler: Magee Marsh Boardwalk, Oak Harbor, Ohio. USA, May 2022 — The Prothonotary Warbler is a prodigious singer, as anyone who lives in their nesting territory can testify. And, at least at Magee during the Biggest Week in American Birding, they often sing right in your face! They are not shy about it at all! Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Magnolia Warbler in Ohio
Magnolia Warbler: Magee Marsh Boardwalk, Oak Harbor, Ohio, USA, May 2022 — though I have been sharing some local Odonata and wildlife, I am only half way through the photos I took in Ohio in May during the Biggest Week in American Birding…and some of the remainder simply MUST be shared ( 🙂 ) This is one more of the thousands of Magnolia Warblers who begged to have their photo taken during the week I was there. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 200 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Palm Warbler
Palm Warbler: Magee Marsh area, Oak Harbor, Ohio, USA, May 2022 — This photo was actually taken on the Estuary Trail beyond the boardwalk at Magee, while I was out there the first morning the Kirtland’s Warbler was spotted…and, surprisingly, it is the only Palm Warbler I saw in my week of the Biggest Week in American Birding. I did not see the Kirtlands that morning, but I did see one along the boardwalk later that day. 🙂 I was happy with this Palm, and a bunch of the more common warblers as I worked both sides of the forest stand on the point where Crane Creek meets Lake Erie. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 500 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Chestnut-sided Warbler with lunch
Chestnut-sided Warbler: Magee Marsh Boardwalk, Oak Harbor, Ohio, USA, May 2022 — I mentioned in a previous post that the magic of Magee Marsh is as much about bugs as it is birds…it is the combination of location, right up against a large water barrier, and the abundance of insect life in the wet forest, that cause the pile-up of migrating and resident warbler species along the boardwalk. And the reason the warblers are so easy to observe and photograph is a combination of access (the boardwalk itself) and the fact that the warblers are feeding at eye-level, and so busy feeding that they pay little attention to the people gathered to see them. My best guess would not be much use as to what kind of insect this is…so I am not going to try…but it is large enough to give the Chestnut-sided Warbler pause before swallowing. Happy bird. Happy birders. Happy bird photographers. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 320 @ f4 @ 1/500th. Plus .7EV exposure compensation.
Nashville Warbler
Nashville Warbler: Magee Marsh Boardwalk, Oak Harbor, Ohio, USA, May 2022 — I try not to be one of those “shoot first and ask questions later” types of bird photographers, but I have to admit that I only “found” these photos of a nice Nashville Warbler when going through my photos for processing the week after my visit to Ohio and the Biggest Week in American Birding. I do not remember taking them, and I certainly did not identify this bird as a Nashville Warbler at the time. I would have been more excited…as it would have been a new species for the trip and the year. Still, here is the evidence that I did see one. This was a favorite tree for Warblers the whole week I was there, and I photographed several different species there, so maybe I thought I was photographing something else. 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4 and f5 @ 1/1000th. + .7 EV exposure compensation.