The Magee Marsh Birdathon

The Central Ohio Chapter of the Young Birders Club (OYBC) had a goal: 100 or more species in the space of 24 hours. It was May 14, the height of spring migration. There was only one spot in Ohio where our goal would be possible: Magee Marsh!

Holding a banded birdThe day started out at 9:00 a.m., when the COYBC met up with John Sawvel (OYBC Membership Coordinator) at the bird-banding pavilion. After we knew who all was there, we got to help Ken Keffer (the Education Director at Black Swamp Bird Observatory) band various species of birds. This didn’t help our count terribly much since we were only able to count birds like the Gray-Cheeked Thrush, when we let it go, and then it immediately flew to a nearby branch and perched there. In any case, it was still cool to be able to actually hold and examine the various birds from mere inches away. All of us got to hold and talk about at least one species of bird. One of the highlights, though, was when a very angry Cardinal decided that she had had enough of Ken and proceeded to continuously bite his finger and squawk. Ken swiftly handed the bird to Sam Browning (one of us), and Sam also got bit. We weren’t too sad to let the Cardinal go and move onto something tamer, like thrushes. Ken had a Gray-Cheeked Thrush, a Swainson’s Thrush, and a Veery. The Swainson’s flew away very fast, but we were still able to get a side-by-side comparison of the Gray-Cheeked Thrush and Veery, which was pretty cool.

After banding a few more birds, we all headed for the famous Magee Marsh Boardwalk. The Boardwalk is awesome. Take your local nature preserve or park. Dip it into a vat of very, very bright paint. Sprinkle in hundreds of birders. You now have an idea of what the Boardwalk looks like on a good day in the middle of spring migration. Everywhere we turned there were more warblers. Just in the first 5 minutes on the boardwalk we got Yellow, Black-Throated Blue, Magnolia, Blackburnian, Prothonotary, Chestnut-Sided, and Cape-May Warblers, plus a Red-Eyed Vireo and assorted other birds like Red-Winged Blackbirds and Common Grackles.

A Baltimore Oriole, one of the birds seen at the boardwalk.The group separated a bit as we worked our way down the boardwalk, but all of us got interesting birds. Some highlights included Green Heron, Scarlet Tanager, Eastern Screech-Owl, Philadelphia Vireo, a House Wren that was about 2 inches from our faces (no joke, the reason we lost sight of it was that it hopped UNDER the boardwalk), and of course, warblers.

A Ruddy Duck -- and yes, it's alive!By this time we were all hungry and we ate lunch. Some of the group went down to the beach to eat, where there were many stinky, rotting fish corpses to poke with sticks! There was also a young Ruddy Duck, but it was alive.

After that, we went to the Sportsmen Center to see Purple Martins and Barn Swallows, but while we were there, a raptor rehabilitation exhibit was set up where they had various owls, hawks, and falcons. Dang it! We couldn’t count them either since they weren’t in the wild. They also looked pretty cool though.. After we were done with the Sportsmen Center, the whole group headed to the woodlot behind the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge building. This was a good place to see backyard birds like Blue Jays, Titmice, Chickadees…You get the idea. However, it did have a few less common birds that were easy to see there, like Great-Crested Flycatcher and Wood Thrush, both of which we saw fairly easily. The best thing about the woodlot though, was that there was a very large, very convenient, very climb-able vine right off the path. Hehehe.

Once we were done at Ottawa, we decided to cruise some roads that ran along flooded fields to look for shorebirds. We were well rewarded when we got a few Killdeer, a big flock of Dunlin, and a Trumpeter Swan. Another one of the birders there was kind enough to let us use his scope to get a good view of the Dunlin in full spring plumage, black belly and all.

Celebrating "102"By this time we were getting very close to our goal, and when we visited Metzger Marsh saw a few new birds like American Coot — basically birds you would find in a marsh. Then we hit species #100, a Common Moorhen!! It was a great bird for #100, but it was quickly overshadowed by bird #101, when 2 Sandhill Cranes flew over!! After that we decided that we had to take a picture for 101 species. (The picture was like O-H-I-O, but with us forming 1-0-1 instead) But then, just as we took the picture and started to yell 101, something strange happened. Darlene Sillick, one of the OYBC Advisors, began to jump up and down and start yelling. None of us had any idea what was going on until Darlene finally managed to form the words: “YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRD!!!” That got our attention, and sure enough, a male was flying over our heads. That brought our count to 102. A picture with us forming 101 was easy. 102? Not so easy. We managed, though barely (2 is a hard number to form with your body), but by this time, many of us had to be heading home.

We all split up, but were happy that we had not only accomplished our goal, but had gone 2 birds over. And the last 2 birds weren’t any commoners or dull birds either. They were Sandhill Cranes, the only species of crane in Ohio, and one of only 2 species in America. The other was a Yellow-Headed Blackbird. Yellow-Headed Blackbirds are only found in that one, small area of Ohio, and we had found one.

Now we have an even bigger goal to beat for next year!

You can view a slideshow or see the photo gallery for the trip.

 

 

The following list of species seen for the day was compiled by Aaron Tayal, Central Ohio OYBC member:

Pied Billed Grebe
Double Crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Green Heron
Turkey Vulture
Trumpeter Swan
Mute Swan
Canada Goose
Wood Duck
Mallard
Ruddy Duck
Bald Eagle
Red Tailed Hawk
American Kestrel
Common Moorhen
American Coot
Sandhill Crane
Killdeer
Least Sandpiper
Dunlin
American Woodcock
Ring Billed Gull
Herring Gull
Common Tern
Rock Dove
Mourning Dove
Black-billed Cuckoo
Eastern Screech-Owl
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Eastern Wood-Pewee
Willow Flycatcher
Least Flycatcher
Great Crested Flycatcher
Eastern Kingbird
Warbling Vireo
Philadelphia Vireo
Red-eyed Vireo
Blue Jay
American Crow
Horned Lark
Purple Martin
Tree Swallow
Barn Swallow
Black-capped Chickadee
Carolina Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
White-Breasted Nuthatch
House Wren
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Veery
Grey-cheeked Thrush
Swainson’s Thrush
Wood Thrush
American Robin
Gray Catbird
European Starling
Cedar Waxwing
Now for the warblers…
Tennessee Warbler
Nashville Warbler
Northern Parula
Yellow Warbler
Chestnut-sided Warbler
Magnolia Warbler
Cape May Warbler
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Blackburnian Warbler
Pine Warbler
Palm Warbler
Bay-breasted Warbler
Blackpoll Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
American Redstart
Prothonotary Warbler
Ovenbird
Mourning Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Hooded Warbler
Wilson’s Warbler
Canada Warbler
Scarlet Tanager
Northern Cardinal
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Indigo Bunting
Eastern Towhee
Song Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
Red-winged Blackbird
Yellow-headed Blackbird
Common Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
Baltimore Oriole
Purple Finch
House Finch
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow

Doug Whitman is a Youth Advisory Board member for the Central Ohio Young Birders Club