Migration Outlook May 3 - 7

Nashville Warbler playing hide-and-seek with the rain, Magee Marsh Wildlife Area, May 2007. photo/Kenn Kaufman.

After Sunday’s big day on the Lake Erie shoreline, things were quieter on Monday May 2, with fewer birds around. The sites on the immediate lake shore slowed down the most, as many birds probably filtered to areas a short distance inland; there were still large numbers at some of the woodlots on Ottawa NWR, and around the Black Swamp Bird Observatory, for example, while the woods at Metzger and at the Magee boardwalk were somewhat less active (but still with good diversity). This is about as expected when a big arrival is followed a day later by winds shifting more northerly: in these conditions, birders need to check other sites besides the famous lakeshore spots.



Today (Tuesday May 3) is chilly and raining, with light north winds, and the birds that are here now won’t be leaving soon. The rain should clear out before Wednesday, but northerly winds will persist Wednesday during the day and most of the night. A small high-pressure area may move over us and shift the winds to southerly by sometime Thursday morning, but it looks unlikely that it will happen early enough to bring a new arrival of birds for that day. Regardless, Thursday May 5 should be a pleasant day outdoors, partly sunny with moderate temperatures. If the winds stay southerly through Thursday night, as currently predicted, Friday May 6 could see a good arrival of migrants, although I don’t expect it to be a huge one unless rains hit just before dawn. Forecasts for Saturday May 7 don’t seem clear yet, but given the conditions between now and then, it’s reasonable to expect that we’ll have a very good diversity of bird species around over the weekend. I’ll update as the weekend gets closer.


A couple of notes: on Monday, May 2, two Lesser Black-backed Gulls were resting with other gulls and terns on the concrete pier at the end of the road at Metzger Marsh. Birds congregate here when no one is fishing from the pier, but at this season that doesn’t happen often. (If anyone is really keen to see a Lesser Black-back, or other gulls and terns, I’d recommend the beaches at Maumee Bay State Park or East Harbor State Park. Lesser Black-back is rare at this season but is a possibility at those sites.)


The causeway across the marsh at Magee Marsh has fewer ducks now than earlier in the season, but other marsh birds are picking up in numbers. On Sunday evening, May 1, a Least Bittern was calling consistently from east of the causeway near its north end, and Virginia Rails and Soras could be heard from the same spot.


At Pickerel Creek Wildlife Area, off Route 6 east of Fremont in Sandusky County, 19 or 20 American White Pelicans have been present for the last few days, visible from the observation platform on the north side of Route 6.


A pair of Trumpeter Swans has been highly visible on the Entrance Pool at Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge recently. These are from the (re)introduced population, and opinions differ as to whether they’re “countable,” but it’s still a great opportunity to study the species up close.


Good numbers of Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, White-crowned Sparrows, White-throated Sparrows, and other birds have been coming to the feeders outside the “window on wildlife” at Black Swamp Bird Observatory. If you’re in the area, please consider stopping in to tell us what you’ve seen.

Sabine's Gull 11/25 at Metzger, plus access to Magee Marsh

On Thursday, November 25, Delores Cole reports that the Sabine's Gull is still present at Metzger Marsh Wildlife Area, still providing good looks from the area of the parking lot at the end of the road at around 10:30 a.m. See previous posts for more information.

Delores (along with observers Bill and Ann Toneff) also saw large flocks of Snow Buntings along the entrance road into Metzger. The fields on the north side of the entrance road, just after the turnoff from State Route 2, are often very good for open-country birds like Snow Buntings, Lapland Longspurs, Horned Larks, blackbirds, etc., and are always worth a look.

On a different listserve, I received a question about access to the causeway at Magee Marsh Wildlife Area (where a Northern Shrike has probably settled in for the winter). According to information from the Ohio Division of Wildlife, the causeway and the areas beyond (boardwalk and wildlife beach) will be open to the public on Saturday afternoon, Nov. 27, and all day Sunday, Nov. 28. These areas will be closed the rest of the time for the next week and a half, through Friday, December 3. Then they should be open on Saturday, December 4, and for the rest of December. So if anyone is considering coming up to look at the Sabine's Gull -- it may not stick around after today -- it has already stayed longer than most previous Sabine's in Ohio. But if you can't get here until Saturday, looking for the Northern Shrike on Saturday afternoon would be an additional possibility.

Sabine's Gull at Metzger 11/24

The Sabine's Gull at Metzger Marsh Wildlife Area, mentioned in the previous post, is still present as of about 9 a.m. on Wednesday, November 24. Thanks to Erik Bruder for getting the word out quickly. The wind and the cold front that came through yesterday don't seem to have pushed the bird out, but this is a species that nests in the high Arctic, after all.

Sabine's Gull at Metzger Marsh

A juvenile Sabine's Gull turned up at Metzger Marsh Wildlife Area on the afternoon of Sunday, November 21. Sabine's Gull is a very rare migrant in Ohio; records are now almost annual along the Lake Erie shoreline in the eastern half of the state, but there are very few records for the region between Toledo and Sandusky. Sabine's Gulls found in fall are often seen for only very brief periods, but this individual actually has stayed for more than a day, and it is still present on Tuesday morning, November 23.

See our map of Metzger Marsh (under "birding hotspots: directions and maps" on the BSBO birding pages) if you're not familiar with the area. The road in to the wildlife area ends at a parking lot on the edge of Lake Erie, with a concrete fishing pier extending out into the lake. The Sabine's Gull has been spending time in the area just east of this pier. Part of the time it rests on the water out on the lake, often with Bonaparte's Gulls, at which time the Sabine's can be picked out by its much darker upperparts. Occasionally it gets up and flies around, showing its spectacular wing pattern.

When I first found the bird I was afraid that it would not even stay long enough for anyone else to see it. Now that it has stayed for more than 24 hours, there is a chance that it will stick around for a few more days. I'll try to post updates here as they become available.

East Harbor State Park 4/20

This is a belated post, but on Tuesday April 20 I took a brief look at East Harbor State Park. This park just east of Port Clinton is a gem, sometimes overlooked by birders but with a lot to offer. On Tuesday, songbird migrants were in low numbers (as they have been at other points along the lake this week), but trails near the Lockwood Picnic Shelter on the west side of the park produced Hermit Thrush, Palm Warbler, Winter Wren, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, and good numbers of White-throated Sparrows, as well as Brown Thrasher and Field Sparrow that have arrived for the summer. I didn't have time to check the woodland trails south of the east beach, but that's another good area for migrant songbirds at times.

East Harbor is excellent for waterbirds as well as land bird migrants. On the large lagoons in the center of the park, and off the beach on the east side of the park, there were hundreds of Ruddy Ducks, scores of Lesser Scaup, and a little group of four Greater Scaup. The north part of the east beach is often a good area for gulls, even early and late in the season when the mid-winter concentrations are not around; on 4/20 there was a single Lesser Black-backed Gull there along with good numbers of Bonaparte's, Ring-billed, and Herring gulls.

Terns and gulls at East Harbor SP and Port Clinton

In past years, a good place to see terns and gulls in mid to late fall has been the north end of the beach area at East Harbor State Park (Ottawa Co., a short distance east of Port Clinton). I checked this area on Thursday, Oct. 8, and found a good selection of birds there, on the beach and on the small rocky islands just offshore. Among the birds present were at least 19 Caspian Terns, more than 40 Forster's Terns, good numbers of Bonaparte's, Ring-billed, and Herring Gulls, and my first local Great Black-backed Gull of the fall. In mid-September, there were two Lesser Black-backed Gulls at this spot. This is always a good place to check if you're in the area; I never go into the park without making a point of checking the north end of the beach.

Another good area is the immediate beach front in Port Clinton itself. A good vantage point for scanning the area is the base of the municipal pier (reached from the east edge of the "downtown" area). From there you get a good view of the boat channel, the lake, and east along the beach. Hundreds of birds were visible from that point on Thursday, and although they didn't include anything unusual, this is another place where I've seen Lesser Black-backed and Glaucous Gulls in the past.

Incidentally, the photo above shows an adult Caspian Tern in winter (basic) plumage in October. Note the blackish tip on its bill. When the Midwest Birding Symposium was in town last month, some birders questioned the MBS logo because it showed a Caspian Tern with a black bill tip ... and that detail didn't show up in their field guides. But it's common to see this mark on adult Caspians in fall.