It's time for another annual trip up to Magee Marsh, or Crane Creek is what it was called in the 80's. This year marked the fourth year in a row I got to bird there. During spring migration, the northwest shores of Lake Erie is a hot spot for warblers, cuckoos, orioles, bluejays, etc. Birders from all over the U.S. and, internationals birders come to see the wood warblers diversity of the east.
This year, we did it a little different. It was going to be a true day of #24hoursofbirding. Sun up to sun down--same day. We left Delaware at 5am for the two hour drive up to the boardwalk.
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| Beautiful rocky beach at sunrise |
The plan stayed the same, start at the West entrance at 7am and bird that and the Estuary trail by 10am, then head over to Ottawa NWR for the auto tour. Note to self, don't do the auto tour any more. The water was too high, so no ducks or peeps to see, just a lot of slow driving, and you can waste an hour. Next year I think we are going to hit up Maumee SP boadrwalk first, then Magee Boardwalk around 10ish.
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| Where's Brad?? |
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| #Brambleon |
This is what happens when you are on the boardwalk, and someone says "Black-billed Cuckoo" . . . birders mass in together to get best looks. All looking up a the trees. It can get crazy when specialties show up.
So what happens next is crazy. We are on the auto tour, stuck, driving slowly, not seeing any birds but Yellow Warblers. We are getting ready to head to Metzger Marsh when we can exit this mess. I start to check twitter #biggestweek, and a tweet comes out, "Curlew Sandpiper" with a picture of the bird from a camera screenshot, from a reliable birder and a Google GPS coordinate. Then, we get a text from Sammy, who's at work, but following reports online. Curlew Sandpiper? I thought this was a joke. I look again, another positive report. I check the directions on the app, only 50 miles west of here. What do we do??
Time to chase an ABA Code 3 rarity lifer that has no business being in Ohio. I mean, there is one being reported at the same time in New Jersey, so migration is a real thing for these birds, but interior states is not included. We hustle over there by 2pm and sure enough, when you see a lot of cars and a lot of birders, you know something big is going on.
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| What are we looking at? |
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| ABA lifer #586 |
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| Curlew Sandpiper |
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| Dunlin on left |
The curlew sandpiper (Calidris ferruginea) is a small wader that breeds on the tundra of Arctic Siberia. It is strongly migratory, wintering mainly in Africa, but also in south and southeast Asia and in Australasia. It is a vagrant to North America.
The breeding adult has patterned dark grey upperparts and brick-red underparts.
So, with that, another day of birding and another day of adding an unexpected LifeBird. Boy, we needed that. Its days like this that make it worth while. After this, we dediced to head back south to home. We stopped at Big Island wildlife refuge and picked up Bobolink, Common Gallinule, Black-bellied Plover, Red-headed woodpecker.
Big Day numbers:
88 total species
26 FOYs
15 wood warblers
1 life bird
History Big Day birding:
2013--94 species
2014--120
2015--111
2016--88
Curlew Sandpiper:
Red&Louise--saw it as bird #655 in 1983, then again in 1985, 89', 94'
Buddy--saw this bird, but I don't have a date or location. Probably Alaska.
Next up: Where do I go from here?
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