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.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *