This is another old trip report that I am putting up as the old version seems to have been corrupted by Google. Once again from the pre-OCD phase of my bird photography. If I knew then what I knew now.... all part of the learning process!
At the end of April
2008 I traveled solo to America
to visit relatives. I had vaguely known that there were great migration routes
in the US, just as in Europe, but at the time of booking my flights I had not
done any real research. So imagine my delight when at Slimbridge WWT earlier in
the year I picked up a book called “Fifty places to go Birding before you die”,
and found one of those locations to be the southern shore of Lake Erie between
Toledo and Cleveland, during the first week in May. I could not believe that my
Grandparents lived a mere 30 miles from this birding hotspot, and had done for
decades! I quickly started looking on the web for more information. Whenever I
go birding abroad, I try to get in contact with those who know the area and its
birds the best, and I have always found local birders to be incredibly friendly
and generous with their time. The Black River Audubon Society members were no
different, and I was soon flooded with offers to take me out birding,
essentially guided tours of the best spots. I was only too happy to accept. And
as luck would have it, BRAS had a scheduled to trip to Magee Marsh Boardwalk on
Saturday 3rd May. Funnily enough, the book at Slimbridge had
mentioned this as being the spot on
that shoreline. Would I like to join the trip? Would I ever!
Thursday
1st May
Birding was not the primary reason for my visit, and
the Magee Marsh trip on Saturday was the only dedicated birding that I had
planned, but not having seen many American birds, no matter where I was, it was
going to be good. I arrived on Wednesday evening just past midnight, and the
following morning I immediately started seeing new birds. I was staying with my
Grandparents in the small college town of Oberlin,
about 30 miles south-west of Cleveland.
They were perhaps slightly surprised that after only one sip of tea I left the
breakfast table and returned with binoculars, but it could not be helped, and
anyway, they are very tolerant people. As is normal with birding on a different
continent, the most confusing thing was the sound tapestry – very different on
the whole, though you can relate certain birds to species back home. The first
bird I saw was of course an American
Robin – these are omnipresent, seemingly by far the most populous species.
The second bird I saw from the breakfast table, and the bird which caused me to
fall off my chair and go get the bins, was a White-crowned Sparrow. For me, this bird will always be remembered
as a gross rarity, one for which I arose at 5am one cold early January 2008
morning and traveled to Cley, one for which I spent 4 hours close to death from
hypothermia, one which I got 3.5 seconds view of before being unceremoniously
manhandled out the way like a sack of potatoes by a great surge of humanity and
ill manners, and one which put me off mega-twitching almost before I had
started. And here it was, joined by a second bird, hopping about on a flowerbed
as I had a morning cup of tea. It immediately put me off listing (though I have
recovered now…), showing it be a futile and wholly unnecessary undertaking
where you don’t actually get to appreciate birds for what they are, somehow
satisfied with fleeting glimpses of a lost bird, no time to study, to
[figuratively] digest, to ponder. And here I was, seeing the bird, not lost,
happily doing what it does best, and actually getting to appreciate it on a
fine spring morning, surrounded by people I love. I watched these sparrows a
lot over the coming days, though they are quite shy and wary, never straying
far from the boundary hedge to feed. So, a mega after 5 minutes. Awesome.
The breakfast table, front garden, and nearby
field continued to be productive all morning, producing mega after mega. Who
needs the Scillies! I just pottered about, taking in my Grandparent’s new
house. The front lawn held a few Chipping
Sparrows, and a House Wren was
flitting about. The hedge had Common
Grackles, a vocal Northern Cardinal,
and Mourning Doves (no mad dash to
North Uist for me!), whilst Barn
Swallows, American Crows and Turkey Vultures
flew overhead. Opposite the house, I found an Eastern Bluebird perched briefly on a post, a flyby Northern Mockingbird, American Goldfinches, House Finches, House Sparrows, Brown-headed
Cowbirds, and a great many Red-winged
Blackbirds in the boggier areas.
Via email, I had been in touch with Marty
Ackermann and Harry Spencer, local BRAS members. Amazingly enough Marty
actually knew my Grandparents, and had known them for years – potentially for
longer than I had! He lived just round the corner as well. Everyone lives just
around the corner in Oberlin. My Grandparents could almost tell me who lived in
most houses in town, and my Aunt could point to houses where her friends had
lived when she was a child. This reinforced in my mind the uniqueness of small
town America, a nostalgic
notion I have somehow picked up despite only having lived in America for six
months, and on the entirely different west coast. Oberlin is the town in America that I
have visited the most often, and it has stuck. 8000 people live on mostly wide tree-lined
streets, a main square with older stone buildings, white boarded houses set on
big lots, with wrap-around porches. Boston Ferns hanging, swing seats, neat
lawns, Stars and Stripes fluttering proudly (or alternatively, a Barack Obama
placard). Big cars. Everyone knows and says hello to each other, the speed
limit is 25 mph, the change in pace was palpable to me. Oberlin is no doubt
pretty unique in American terms, I’m probably just experiencing a localized
exception rather than anything else, but it reinforces in my mind that
Americans are nice people. If you want that feel-good factor, visit a liberal
arts college town near the Midwest, away from
the bustle of the east coast. Where was I? Oh yes, birds. I called Marty, as
per our email dialogue in the preceding weeks, and arranged to meet him at his
house for a rapid pre-lunch stroll around the Arboretum. This is not an
arboretum in the sense UK visitors would understand, a formal collection of
planted trees, but an area of reasonably open woodland abutting the golf course
and cemetery, criss-crossed with paths, and a creek. Its lovely woodland
habitat – in fact all of Oberlin is extremely tree-covered, despite being in an
agricultural belt. So, Marty and his friend Tammy often spent lunchtime in
there at this time of year, seeing what migrants were coming through, craning
necks for year-ticks, and the pleasure of a returning
familiar. They both had excellent ears, and were soon pointing out a succession
of new birds to me. Chimney Swift
overhead before we even reached the trees, and once in the woods, Red-bellied Woodpecker with its curious
call, White-breasted Nuthatch also
on call, White-throated Sparrows, a Blue Jay, Ruby-crowned Kinglets, another House
Wren on a trunk. Birds were everywhere, but it was the Warblers and Vireos
that Marty and Tammy were keen to see, after a long absence. Mostly on sound,
and notwithstanding the fact that they were a little rusty in early Spring, we
found Yellow-throated Vireo, Blue-headed Vireo, and a plain bird
with a wonderful song, the Warbling
Vireo. Yellow-rumpled Warbler
were by far the most common in this woodland, but they also found me a Black-throated Green Warbler, Palm Warblers, a Yellow Warbler up near the pond, and finally a Grey Catbird mewing low down. The bird of the outing was a Scarlet Tanager, way up in the canopy,
simply stunning. All too soon it was lunchtime and I needed to be back home. I
headed back to my Chevvy Impala and drove back, living the dream.
I went for a walk with my Grandparents
in the afternoon up at the Schoepfle Garden, a Lorain
County Metro
Park, near the Vermillion River.
I was not birding really, though the area looked really good. More Cardinals, American Robins and White-throated
Sparrows were present, along with a family party of Canada Geese on the
river, and in the woods I found an Eastern
Wood Pewee, a Blue-grey Gnatcatcher,
and a raptor that I never did manage to identify. My Grandma was a very good
bird-spotter, very drawn to movement, and I did the ID-ing, to the extent that
I could. On the drive back I saw the one and only Eastern Meadowlark of the trip by the roadside. That evening I
watched the White-crowned sparrows
have dinner.
I had arranged to go with Marty and Harry to Caley
Reservation, a few miles outside of Oberlin. This area has a few ponds, and had
potential for some good birds, including a nesting Trumpeter Swan. The area is
one of Lorain County’s
Metro Parks, but one of the less manicured
ones. I met Marty at his place, and together drove over to Caley, where I met
Harry Spencer for the first time. This is one of his local patches, so he was
our guide in this instance. We had to wait awhile for the wardens to open the
car park barrier, and the sky was looking pretty dark – the occasional peal of
distant thunder could be heard, but soon we were on our way. One of the first
birds we encountered was a very smart Baltimore Oriole way up in a tree. First picked up on sound, the
bird was eventually located – it is amazing how a bright orange bird can remain
unseen in a green tree – evolution defies logic and comes out on top. We took a
path towards one of the larger ponds, and via few Grey Catbirds, Red-bellied
Woodpeckers and White-breasted
Nuthatches, we were soon looking at a very large Trumpeter Swan, along with some American Coots. Tree
Swallows glided over the water here as well. We couldn’t locate the other
bird, so decided to try another pond, but as we turned one of my guides heard
an Eastern Towhee. It took a while
but eventually he was found singing away in the open, and gave good views to
all.
The next pond was very productive. Just
before we got there we found another Baltimore
Oriole, a bird I could never tire of, and I also saw a Cooper’s Hawk – not that I knew what it was, but in describing it
to Harry and Marty, they determined it could only be that. As we reached the
pond we were expecting a grebe, but the elusive waterfowl that we at a distance
we could not make out turned out to be a female Hooded Merganser – reasonably unexpected. We also got good views
here of an obliging Green Heron who
flew from the reeds and perched in a tree, as well as a Great Blue Heron. A flash out of my right eye screamed “Kingfisher”
at me, and sure enough a Belted
Kingfisher landed opposite us, along with yet more Tree Swallows, whose aquamarine sheen initially had me thinking
about our own species of Kingfisher.
On the way back from this pond to the
car I caught sight of a large bird flying past, very flappy flight action,
white in the wing with distinct fingers. The only likely candidate was Pileated Woodpecker, and Harry knew
that they were present in this area, and even had a particular dead tree staked
out. We didn’t connect with this bird again despite checking the tree, which is
a shame as I could have got a decent photo in very atmospheric light.
That afternoon at my Grandparents
house, as well as the resident birds, I saw a Northern Flicker fly across the field, and a Killdeer flew over the house, making its distinctive call.
The Big Day had arrived! Marty picked
me up at around 6.30am, and we headed off towards Toledo, there to meet the wider BRAS group at
Magee Marsh Boardwalk. The site is just east of Toledo, and is well sign-posted from the main
highway. Unfortunately the weather looked really grim, though in the context of
searching for traveling migrants, this is not necessarily a bad thing. What
makes Magee special is that it is an area of thick cover right on the lake
shore that birds dive into to feed up in before making the crossing into Canada
and beyond, a real spring migrant trap. Point Pelee in Canada is the
same type of spot, where migrants crash, exhausted, after the crossing. Both
are excellent for the great songbird migration. We saw a few birds en route,
such as Great White Egret, Turkey
Vulture, Ring-billed Gulls and American
Kestrel, but this was a mere appetizer.
We arrived bang on 8, and I started seeing birds
straight away. One point to note is that in wet weather, the boardwalk is very
slippery, and shoes with a firm grip are essential. Even in walking boots I
nearly went over a couple of times. The park authorities really need to overlay
it with chicken wire. Back to the birds, I had hardly finished getting
introduced to the group members when I spotted a Bald Eagle cruising the lake shore right over our heads, and then
whilst the group were catching up, not having seen each other for some time, I
got onto a Ruby-throated Hummingbird,
which sadly not every one else saw, and it turned out to be the only one all
day. Not surprisingly, people are so excited to be seeing birds, that they all
congregate at the start of the boardwalk trail. This many eyes makes for great
birding, and pretty soon I had seen the ubiquitous Yellow-rumped Warbler, Magnolia
Warbler, Rose-breasted Grosbeak,
American Redstart, Yellow Warbler, and there was a very
bold Veery right next to the path,
but I did not have my camera at that point. I also saw one side of a Woodthrush, for about 2 seconds. The
temptation to linger at this first spot, where incidentally there is also a raised
canopy-level viewing platform, was soon overcome by shouts of “Waterthrush”
from a little further down the path. We trooped off and were soon looking at a Northern Waterthrush
hopping around in the boggy undergrowth. The habitat around the boardwalk is
basically wet, marshy undergrowth, really Woodcocky if you know what I mean.
There is a profusion of branches, creepers, fallen logs and trunks, and
obtaining clear views of birds is actually quite difficult, particularly if
they are mobile. Waterthrushes are pretty skulking, but we did get some good
views, more than enough to separate it from Louisiana.
Also on view were plenty of Yellow-throated
Sparrows and Grey Catbirds, Ruby-crowned Kinglets, and Red-winged Blackbirds. The next highlight for me was a Black-and-white Warbler. This was a
species I had been really hoping to see after hours of studying my guidebook.
Initially I only got a flash of it, but it could only be one thing, and soon
enough it showed really well, and true to form, it exhibited its typical
treecreeper behaviour style, very unlike a warbler. We were to see several of
this very engaging species over the course of the day, and I very nearly got a
top class photo of it. The guy next to me, with a top of the line digital SLR, 500mm
lens, and Better-Beamer flash extension ended up getting the decent photo –
clearly he knew about Warbler photography at Magee. For aspiring photographers
out there, the light is poor from the boardwalk, even on a fine day, and on a
poor day it is often unworkable. The built-in flash on mid-level SLRs is
insufficient, and you will need a tripod for telephoto lenses. You therefore
need to pick your location carefully, as the boardwalk is narrow and you cannot
cause an obstruction, plus it “bounces” as people walk past. There are a few
watch-points, like passing places, on the boardwalk, where you could position
yourself, but then the birds have to come to you. This is not a bad strategy
actually, many times over the day we would stop to chat to people and ask what
they had seen, to hear that they had seen xyz warbler (which we had not seen)
exactly where we had just been. So perhaps if you stayed in one place you would
do very well. For someone as excited as I however, the suspense of what might
lie around each bend was to strong to resist, and we walked the entire length,
some portions multiple times.
Next up was Yellow-breasted Chat, a giant amongst warblers. I had heard some
people further up the trail talking about it but had not expected to actually
see it, from what I had read it was uncommon and skulking, but I somehow picked
it up way at the back. I guess I was on super-alert mode due to the excitement
of seeing so many amazing birds – the American Wood Warblers in summer plumage
cannot fail to get one excited. I managed to describe the location to a few
other people. The following will be familiar to many birders: “There, on that
branch!” “Which branch?” “That one at
the back, coming out from the tree near the other branch!” “You mean near the green leaves?” “No, by the brown trunk….” and
so-on. Eventually we got there, but there is not a lot to facilitate accurate
descriptions at Magee, it’s a big tangle of wood, and the birds move quickly,
feeding, so prepare to be frustrated. As Marty said even before we got there,
the consolidated day-list that gets reported will sound very impressive, but no
single person will see everything, and that proved to be exactly right. Anyhow,
a good number of us managed to see the Chat, apparently not a bird that people
see year in year out. For me of course it was a new bird, but just one of many,
so I consider myself fortunate. We also managed to see some Ovenbirds, Swainson's Thrush and Hermit
Thrush, a superb and very close Black-Throated
Blue Warbler, Black-throated Green
Warbler, and an Eastern Towhee
at around this mark. I think that at about this point it started to rain, and
many people headed back to their cars, including Harry who went back to Oberlin
for lunch. Marty (mainly for the benefit of the birding tourist I suspect) and
I stuck it out for a while, but after half an hour admitted defeat (as did my
supposedly waterproof jacket) and retreated to the car, there to be treated to
Ackermann Brownies, very good. We looked up the weather front on my handheld
internet thing, and surmised that there was a gap not too far away, and sure
enough after an hour, it eased up and we decided to have another crack. I think
it was at this point that Marty saw a passing raptor, which turned out to be an
Osprey.
So, back on the boardwalk we tried to add to our
list. Almost everyone we spoke to had seen some warblers that we had not. We
soon added a Northern
Parula, right at the start of the boardwalk, and I then got a Chestnut-sided Warbler, as well as a Yellowthroat. This time we walked all
the way around the boardwalk, picking up a few other new birds along the way.
We saw Blue-headed Vireo very well,
and then a new bird posed the assembled crowd with a few questions. It was
eventually called as a White-eyed Vireo,
but a number of people remained unconvinced, it looked more like a juvenile,
which would not be possible in early May. We also added more Great White Egrets, distant Common Terns, and flyover Double-crested Cormorants. The boardwalk eventually leads back to the beach a few
hundred yards further on, and when we checked out the lake shore we got a group
of Ruddy Duck, a Scaup, and some Tree Swallow and Barn
Swallow, as well as
Killdeer. On the way back to the car we finally got a
glimpse of a very secretive
Hooded
Warbler, another species we had heard many people talk about but had thus
far failed to see. What a great looking bird! You needed to contort your body
to an exact spot about 30cm off the ground which then gave you a clear view
through 40 ft of tangled undergrowth, and then hope that the bird passed
through that viewpoint, which thankfully it did.
We could easily have lingered, gone
round again even, egged on by reports of Cape May Warbler, Prothonotary Warbler
(which I really wanted to see, and also had a great deal of trouble saying!),
an Orange-crowned Warbler, Blackburnian Warbler and others, but we decided that
we would head back towards Oberlin and try and take in a different type of
habitat near Sandusky. One thing is for sure, I will be back, perhaps a little
later to capture a new group of species that were still on their way in early
May. Marty had plans to do exactly that the following week, but by that time I
would be back in my office in London.
On the way out we saw another Trumpeter
Swan, and several Great Blue Herons.
We stopped at the eastern end of Sandusky Bay, at a place called Pipe Creek, very
near to the amusement parks at Cedar Point. Here you have the attraction of the
reasonably sheltered confines of Sandusky
Bay itself, as well as
number of shallowish pools. These had
very good potential, but probably would have been much better earlier in the
year. In the event though, we managed to flush a Sora, and saw Mute Swan,
Bufflehead, Ring-necked Duck, and a lot of Killdeer
and Spotted Sandpiper – a bird I
very nearly saw (ie dipped) in Scotland earlier this year. There were also a
couple of Green-winged Teal, a bird
which I had seen at Slimbridge that same day I picked up the book I mentioned.
On the way back to the car I think I saw a Cliff
Swallow. It could have been over-excitement or tiredness, but I was pretty
sure of the colouring.
Sunday
4th May
I didn’t do much birding today really, but I managed a
short walk at Carlisle Reservation, another Metro Park a couple of miles east
of Oberlin. It’s a much more visitor-aware place than Caley, with a large
visitor centre and a Raptor display area. I took a path that headed back
towards Oberlin, first of all through some woods, and then into an area of
small ponds, and finally through an area of wooded swamp. In the wooded area I
picked up a couple of new species for the trip – a very vocal Carolina Wren, and a Downy Woodpecker. Carrying on to the
ponds produced loads of Red-winged
Blackbirds
and Tree Swallows, and the fields
there were so flooded they had small fish flapping about in them. Walking a
path south of these ponds produced Black-capped
Chickadees in the trees, many Yellowthroats,
and best of all, a skulking Mourning
Warbler that I got really quite good views of, before it vanished into a
tangle of brambles, not to reappear. I didn’t see another person the whole
walk, even though the weather was fantastic. Perhaps this solitude and
stillness helped with the birds, as I got great views of Song Sparrow feeding on the path, and numerous other species really
close.
A quick check of Oberlin Reservoir on
the way back into town turned up around fifty Ruddy Duck, a couple of Bufflehead,
and a Red-breasted Merganser, and an
Eastern Bluebird was seen in fields
near the bridge over the highway.
This was my last full day in Ohio before I headed
home. In addition to doing a lot of gardening with Grandma, I also found time
to go to Sandy Ridge Reservation, about 25 minutes north-east of Oberlin. It’s
a wetland area with mature woods as well. I drove both Marty and Harry over
there and we started seeing birds from the car park – Canada Geese overhead, and plenty of Red-winged Blackbirds – I never tire of these birds, with their brilliant
yellow and red wing patches, and engaging calls. This metro park was a lot
busier, and for the only time since Magee, we actually saw other birders,
something of a rarity (unless of course they were all at Magee). The walk to
the ponds starts at the car park, and wends it way through the forest. We were
aware of birds from the outset, warbler neck started to kick in after ten
minutes. We saw Yellow-rumped Warbler,
Palm Warbler and Black-throated Green Warbler on this
walk, as well as White-breasted Nuthatch,
Red-bellied Woodpecker, and another Baltimore Oriole. Towards the end of
the wooded area we found some Tufted
Titmice, the first of the trip for me.
The path opened up into a wide area
with water on each side of the path, with an amazing number of dead trees
submerged, fully upright. This was woodpecker central, and was teeming with Northern Flicker, Red-bellied Woodpecker, and a single Red-headed Woodpecker, which was a new species for me in America.
Chimney Swifts and Tree Swallows were everywhere, but we
could not find any Purple Martins sadly. The main reason for the visit was the
possibility of waterfowl, and after a short stroll via a Green Heron we came to a viewing platform on the right hand side.
From here we found some Spotted
Sandpiper, and a group of feeding Lesser
Yellowlegs. These latter almost went undetected, so well camouflaged were
they against the reedy, muddy backdrop. It wasn’t long before we found some Blue-winged Teal, Green-winged Teal and American
Wigeon. I had been keen to see many of these ducks up close, as they can
turn up as vagrants here, and this would give me a better chance of recognizing
them, should they ever turn up on one of my patches. We also found Gadwall, Mallard and American Coot,
none in great numbers though. There were plenty of Great Blue Heron and Great
Egrets here as well, all lined up in a row
As we progressed around the perimeter of the lakes, we
began to see smaller birds. Marty got a good view of an Orchard Oriole that I just managed to see fly away – enough to get
an impression of size, shape and colour, and we got good views of some Swamp Sparrows in a marshy field. The
experienced birders’ ears kicked in, and they heard a number of species that
remained hidden, such as Red-eyed Vireo. A sudden burst to our right didn’t
give us much time to form an opinion, but the small size, dangly legs and
colouration all shouted Virginia Rail
to us – the habitat was spot on and after consultation with our
various field guides, that is what it went down as. As we approached the start
of the forest track having completed our loop of the lakes, we had a magical
fifteen minutes where Marty found an Eastern
Kingbird, we got tremendous views of a Warbling
Vireo, I found a pair of Wood Duck
(hurrah! – this had been a main trip target), and finally a Great-crested Flycatcher landed just
above our heads, rather than way up in the canopy as would normally be
expected. A super bird, we were very fortunate.
That afternoon I went for a short walk
with Grandma to Carlisle again, as the weather
continued to be nice, and she would not normally be able to get over there.
Once again she proved an able bird spotter, and we saw a good selection of
woodland species, and we found a White-breasted
Nuthatch nest hole close to the path. Other highlights were some very vocal
Song Sparrows, and a very close Baltimore Oriole.
Final
Thoughts
That was basically it for birding for
the holiday. After Sandy Ridge, I added only two more new birds for the trip, a
Red-tailed Hawk from the back garden
in Oberlin, and two fine Bobolink at
Carlisle on my drive back to Cleveland Airport – I got the gen from Harry, and
they were right where he said they would be.
I’d like to reiterate my thanks to the
Black River Audubon Society for making me so welcome, and in particular to
Marty Ackermann and Harry Spencer (and their wives!), for all the time they
devoted to showing me the birds and the wonderful spots so close to Oberlin.
And also to Marly Merrill who lent me a great video on the Warblers of North
America which I watched the night before I went to Magee. It was there waiting
for me when I walked in at midnight that first evening. If any of them come to England,
I’d happily take them round my local patches.
Throughout my trip, I used the
excellent Sibley’s Birds of the Western United States,
one volume of a two book set of a just-about-pocket-sized version of his
monumental larger work covering the entire country. To my mind it’s the
equivalent of the Collins Guide here. The illustrations are excellent, if not
as good as the Collins.
The
Birds – 107 species recorded
Species Location
/ Counts
Canada Goose
Mute Swan Pipe
Creek
Trumpeter Swan 2 Caley, 1
Magee Marsh
Wood Duck pr Sandy Ridge
Gadwall Sandy Ridge
American Wigeon 3 Sandy Ridge
Mallard
Blue-winged Teal 2 Sandy Ridge
Green-winged Teal Pipe Creek, Sandy Ridge
Ring-necked Duck Pipe Creek
Scaup Lake Erie at Magee Marsh
Bufflehead 3 Pipe Creek, 1 Oberlin Reservoir
Hooded Merganser female at Caley
Red-breasted
Merganser 2 Oberlin
Reservoir
Ruddy Duck
Double-crested
Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Great [White] Egret a few at Magee,
10+ at Sandy Ridge
Green Heron Caley
Turkey Vulture
Osprey 1
Magee Marsh
Bald Eagle 1
Magee Marsh
Cooper’s Hawk 1 Caley
Red-tailed Hawk 1 Oberlin
American Kestrel
Virginia Rail 1 Sandy Ridge
Sora 1
Pipe Creek
American Coot
Killdeer Oberlin,
2 Pipe Creek
Spotted Sandpiper Pipe Creek, Sandy Ridge
Lesser Yellowlegs 6 Sandy Ridge
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Common Tern
Mourning
Dove
Chimney Swift
Ruby-throated
Hummingbird 1 at Magee
Marsh boardwalk
Belted Kingfisher 1 at Caley
ponds
Red-headed Woodpecker 1 at Sandy Ridge
Red-bellied
Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker Carlisle
Reservation
Northern Flicker
Pileated Woodpecker Caley
Eastern Wood-pewee Shoepfle Gardens
Eastern Phoebe
Great-crested
Flycatcher Sandy
Ridge
Eastern Kingbird Sandy Ridge
White-eyed Vireo Magee Marsh
boardwalk
Blue-headed Vireo
Warbling Vireo
Blue Jay
American Crow
Tree Swallow
Cliff Swallow 1 at
Pipe Creek
Barn Swallow
Black-capped
Chickadee Carlisle
Reservation
Tufted Titmouse 2 Sandy Ridge
White-breasted
Nuthatch
Carolina Wren Carlisle,
Sandy Ridge
House Wren
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Eastern Bluebird
Western Bluebird
Veery Magee
Marsh Boardwalk
Swainson’s Thrush Magee Marsh
Boardwalk
Hermit Thrush Magee
Marsh Boardwalk
Wood Thrush Magee
Marsh Boardwalk
American Robin
Gray Catbird
Northern Mockingbird Oberlin
European Starling
Northern
Parula 1
at Magee Marsh Boardwalk
Yellow Warbler
Chestnut-sided
Warbler 1 at
Magee Marsh Boardwalk
Magnolia Warbler Magee Marsh
Boardwalk
Black-throated Blue
Warbler Magee Marsh
Boardwalk
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Black-throated Green
Warbler Oberlin Arb, Magee
Palm Warbler
Black-and-white
Warbler 3 at Magee
Marsh Boardwalk
American Redstart 4 at Magee Marsh
Boardwalk
Ovenbird 2
at Magee Marsh Boardwalk
Northern
Waterthrush 2
at Magee Marsh Boardwalk
Mourning Warbler 1 at Carlisle Reservation
Common Yellowthroat
Hooded Warbler 1 at Magee
Marsh Boardwalk
Yellow-breasted Chat 1 at Magee Marsh
Boardwalk
Scarlet Tanager Oberlin Arb
also Magee Marsh
Eastern Towhee Caley
Reservation and Magee
Chipping Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow 3+ Sandy Ridge
White-throated
Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow 2 Oberlin, 1+ Magee
Northern Cardinal
Rose-breasted
Grosbeak Magee, Sandy Ridge
Bobolink 2
Carlisle Reservation Equestrian centre
Red-winged Blackbird
Eastern Meadowlark nr Oberlin
Common Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
Orchard Oriole Sandy Ridge
Baltimore Oriole Caley, Sandy Ridge
House Finch
American Goldfinch
Eurasian House
Sparrow
