Wilson’s Warbler: Magee Marsh Boardwalk, Oak Harbor, Ohio, USA, May 2022 — The Wilson’s Warbler is not an easy bird to see, since it is one of your classic skulkers…staying deep in the low vegetation most of the time…it’s greenie yellow tones blend in particularly well with the emerging leaves of May. It is a testimony to both the number of Wilson’s Warblers and the number of birders amassed at Magee Marsh this year, that I actually saw several Wilson’s and managed to photograph a few. I am sure this one thought it was well concealed deep in the bush, but the Sony at 600mm was able to penetrate the tangle and focus on the bird. That I caught it singing is a just a bonus. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixomator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 400 @ f4 @ 1/500th. Plus .7EV.

Black-throated Blue Warbler: Magee Marsh Boardwalk, Oak Harbor, Ohio, USA, May 2022 — Some warbler names are just to prosaic…I mean, what is this warbler going to be if not “black-throated blue?” There were many Black-throated Blues along the boardwalk at Magee Marsh this year, and though they like to stay well tucked into the foliage, when there are numbers you can generally find a cooperative bird if you are on the boardwalk often and long enough. This one was within 5 feet of me. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 400 @ f4 @ 1/500th.

Blackburnian Warbler: Magee Marsh Boardwalk, Oak Harbor, Ohio, USA, May 2022 — I started the day, my forth at the Biggest Week in American Birding, with two goals. One was to find and photograph a Canada Warbler…something that has eluded me in the 12 years I have been coming to the Biggest Week, and the second was to find a cooperative Blackburnian Warbler in good light and close enough for a decent photo, something that had so far eluded me on this trip. The Blackburnian is always fun to photograph. I found my Canada Warbler near the Metzer Marsh parking lot at my first stop of the morning. Not a great shot, and a female, but you will probably see it if I don’t get a better one. The Blackburnian on the other hand had to wait for the end of the day, when the sun was getting low and the light was warm, on “one last” turn around the boardwalk. It was not as close I would have liked, but there are few other places in the world, other than Magee Marsh in May, where you can decide to find a Blackburnian Warbler photo and have at least a reasonable chance of coming home happy. 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed (and enlarged from a crop) in Pixomator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/640th.

Kirtland’s Warbler: Magee Marsh Boardwalk, Oak Harbor, Ohio, USA, May 2022 — I reached the west end of the boardwalk at Magee Marsh yesterday morning just in time to meet a solid stream of people coming off in a hurry. A Kirtland’s Warbler had been spotted and was showing well at the west end of the beach where Crane Creek comes in to Erie, along what is called the Estuary Trail. I posed a photo yesterday of the crowd streaming down the beach and assembling in the sand looking into the trees. By the time I got there the warbler had last been seen about 10 minutes before, and as far as I know, did not show itself again. Lots of people, though, got good looks and great photos. Kirtland’s is the rarest warbler in North America with a highly restricted breeding habitat in the young Jack Pine forests mostly of upper Michigan. The trees have to be a certain narrow range of heights. They also have a narrow migration corridor though the US. Seeing one at The Biggest Week here in Ohio will always cause major stir. I went on around the Estuary Trail to check the backside of the little band of woods…but no one was seeing it there, and many others had the same idea. I got back to the boardwalk to hear reports of one right on the boardwalk…just past here the tower stood until it went down in last August’s micro-burst. So I tried again…but, of course, got there moments after it was last seen moving east further along the boardwalk and never seen again. This is why I do not normally chase rare birds. 🙂 I am just not very good at it. So, I went off to do my 7 Fold Path to Better Birding presentation at Ottawa NWR fresh of defeat. As it happens, though, I came back to the boardwalk latter in the afternoon and had a great time with a very cooperative Prothonotary Warbler hunting along the shore of the pond and then helping people to find a Whippoorwill (I was not the first to find it, but it takes some finding even when you have already seen it, and others needed help.) As I moved on down the boardwalk I mentioned to a few other birders that there was a whippoorwill ahead in case they were interested. About the 3rd such group, just looked at me, as they say, glassy eyed, and one of them, said “well yes, but there is Kirtland’s Warbler right overhead here.” “What? Where?” And there was, relatively high in what remains of the Magee Marsh canopy, flitting among the leaves. I took a lot of photos…a few of which came out well enough to recognize the bird. The few other birders there took phone photos of the back of my camera to have proof that they had really seen the Kirtland’s. They evidently have the kind of birder friends who would not believe such a story without proof. Seeing a Kirtland’s that way, with just a few others, in a random sighting…not chasing anything…that is the way I like it. Of course once word got down the boardwalk (which I helped to do), the chase was on again, but the bird was not seen again. That is birding life the way it supposed to be…or at least the way it is. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. (Cropped to maybe 2500mm framing and enlarged in Pixelmator Photo using the Machine Learning Max Resolution.) Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/640th and 1/1000th. Plus 1 EV for backlight.

Chestnut-sided Warbler: Magee Marsh Boardwalk, Oak Harbor, Ohio, USA, May 2022 — I did a little scouting before my Point and Shoot for Warbler workshop yesterday morning along the Magee Marsh Boardwalk, and knew, right way, that it was going to be a good day for warblers. I was greeted by close and cooperative Magnolia, Black-throated Green, and this Chestnut-sided. If you have not been to Magee since last August’s storm, it is a very changed place. Most of the huge cottonwoods are down, and the canopy is mostly gone. It makes for very different light along the boardwalk, but so far, the birds do not seem to mind. It has brought the foliage on the low brush out early (or so it seems to me) so the the warblers have lots of leaves to hid in, but they are there, and that is what counts. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/800th.

Prothonotary Warbler: Magee Marsh Boardwalk, Oak Harbor, Ohio, USA, May 2022 — the Prothonotary Warner is probably my favorite warbler to see on the Erie Shore in Ohio in May…partly because they are such a beautiful bird, and partly because we don’t get them in Maine. This is not a “field guide shot” of the warbler…but it has that certain something that lifts it out of the ordinary portrait class. It is a perfect demonstration of my wildlife photography mantra: right place, right time, and ready! It is also a testimony to the Sony Rx10iv’s focus ability. Auto focus. 600mm. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 160 @ f4 @ 1/500th.