Posts in Category: Ohio
Biggest Week in American Birding! Chestnut-sided Warbler
Chestnut-sided Warbler: Magee Marsh Wildlife Area, Oak Harbor, Ohio, May 2023 — Some years the Chestnut-sided Warblers are so thick at Magee Marsh that they dominate all other species…and the are feeding down so low and so close that it is hard to get them in frame when taking a photo. Not this year! While I was there they were few in number and all feeding high in the canopy. Most of my shots you can not see the yellow crown at all, they are taken at such a sharp upward angle. OM Systems OM-1 with 100-400mm zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my evolving bird modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro. ISO 200 @ f9 @ 1/1250th. -.7EV
Biggest Week in American Birding! Warbling Vireo
Warbling Vireo: Magee Marsh Wildlife Area, Oak Harbor, Ohio, USA, May 2023 — Not a warbler, but a Warbling Vireo. There are always lots of Warbling Vireos at Magee during the Biggest Week in American Birding…but nothing like this year. It seem as if every other bird you saw as a Warbling Vireo. And they were close and cooperative for the most part. Certainly on my first days there, if not for the Warbling Vireos, I might have been disappointed. OM Systems OM-1 with the 100-400mm zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my evolving bird modifications. Processed Pixomator Pro. ISO 250 @ f6.3 @ 1/640th, -.3EV.
The Biggest Week in American Birding! Virginia Rail
Virginia Rail: Magee Marsh Wildlife Area, Oak Harbor, Ohio, USA, May 2023 — Yes, Magee Marsh’s very own Virginia Rail. When I got to Ohio, a pair of them were building a nest in a crushed patch of reeds only about 15 feet from the boardwalk at the east end…well in under the reeds so you only saw them when the made runs for nesting material. By the 3rd day they were on the nest, and you had to catch either the male of the female out on a foraging expedition which were more infrequent and less predicable than the nesting material runs had been. Given that all this as happening in and under the thick brush right against the boardwalk, getting a photo was not easy. 🙂 This is the best I could do in several attempts. There was one guy who was camped out at the spot with a Canon 800mm lens and massive monopod for most of two days. I am pretty sure he got better shots. 🙂 OM Systems OM-1 with 100-400mm zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my evolving birds modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro. ISO 800 @ f6.3 @ 1/500th. -.3EV.
The Biggest Week in American Birding! Blackburnian Warbler
Blackburnian Warbler: Magee Marsh Wildlife Area, Oak Harbor, Ohio, USA, May 2023 — The Blackburnian Warbler is almost certainly my favorite Warbler, especially when it is in fresh spring plumage as it is when it reaches Magee Marsh on the Erie Shore. It burns like an ember in the trees. They tend to arrive late in Ohio, so I was surprised to find this one my first day at Magee. Turns out the migration is all jumbled up this year, again, so maybe we are looking at a developing new normal. This bird was high in the foliage, above the deck where the observation tower used to stand. These shots, taken with the OM Systems OM-1 and the 100-400mm zoom at 800mm equivalent, were further copped and enlarged using the super-resolution tool in Pixomator Pro. As above in Program with my evolving bird modifications. ISO 200 @ f7.1 @ 1/1000th.
Biggest Week in American Birding! Yellow!
Yellow Warbler: Magee Marsh Wildlife Area, Oak Harbor, Ohio, USA, May 2023 — Here is male Yellow Warbler doing what it does best…sitting out in the open and singing at the top of it lungs! This is certainly a bright spring bird, ready for breeding. OM Systems OM-1 with 100 to 400mm zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my evolving birds modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro. ISO 250 @ f6.3 @ 1/640, -.7EV
Biggest Week in American Birding! Female American Redstart
American Redstart: female, Magee Marsh Wildlife Area, Oak Harbor, Ohio. USA, May 2023 — I encountered this female American Redstart on my first trip around the boardwalk at Magee…before I saw any males. The female is, of course, just as striking as the male, just with yellow replacing the orange and the addition of the white bib. And of course, they share the same long tail with the flashy outer tail feathers. OM Systems OM-1 with 100-400mm zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my evolving bird modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro. ISO 320 @ f4 @ 1/640th. -.7EV.
Biggest Week in American Birding! Eastern Screech Owl
Eastern Screech Owl: Magee Marsh Wildlife Area, Oak Harbor, Ohio, USA, May 2023 — On my first walk around the boardwalk at Magee, someone pointed out this tiny Eastern Screech Owl perched in a hole in a dead snag right beside the boardwalk. This is one of a pair that is often along that section of the boardwalk where there is a nest box for their use. It was somewhere along there every day I was there, though it moved its day perch to a leafy tree just down the boardwalk where it was much harder to see. Here you see it doing what it does best…blending into its environment well enough to be all but invisible, while it keeps a sleep watch on what is happening around it. This is a small owl: as small as 6 inches or as large as 10, and weighing between 4 and 9 ounces. Not much bigger, really, than a robin…just rounder. OM System OM-1 with 100-400mm zoom at 1600mm equivalent (using the built in digital teleconverter). Program mode with my evolving bird modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro. ISO 200 @ f7.1 @ 1/1000th. Minus .7EV.
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! More Swans in love, happy Mother’s Day.
Trumpeter Swans: Metzger Marsh Wildlife Area, Beno, Ohio, USA, May 2023 — The Trumpeter Swans at Metzger Marsh were displaying a lot of courting and mating behavior during the Biggest Week in American Birding. As I mentioned, a few were already on the nest. I got to see several different kind of displays. This pair were really at it! OM System OM-1 with 100-400mm zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with, actually, my evolving birds-in-flight modifications. Processed in Pixomator Pro. ISO 1000 @ f6.3 @ 1/3200.
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.