The Land by the Lake

One of the (many) great things about Magee Marsh and the western shores of Lake Erie is the diversity of the habitats. First and foremost, you have the marsh, of course, with its many herons, egrets and waterfowl. There are also lots and lots of muskrats and their cabins scattered throughout the marsh. Apparently, beavers have lodges; muskrats, being less worldly, have cabins.

Can you spot the muskrat cabin?

There is also scrub habitat, like this birding trail behind the Black Swamp Bird Observatory, just inside the entrance to Magee Marsh.


Here, I found plenty of Yellow Warblers, and their nests,


tree swallows, including a couple who kept dive bombing me,


and this bunny, who mildly disapproved of being photographed.


Of course, there is the lake, with gulls, terns, shorebirds and other unidentifiable avian species. Here, Susan scans for yet another dead animal to be photographed with.


And, you have the wooded boardwalk, with a vast number of neotropical migrants recharging their batteries for the rest of their long migration.


This was the boardwalk on Friday morning. On Saturday, it was so jammed packed with people, and especially people with GIGANTIC, ENORMOUS camera lenses and spotting scopes, you could barely turn around. Why do you need scopes when the birds are sitting right over your head?

Of course, because I don't own a GIGANTIC, ENORMOUS camera lens, or even a nice, decent camera like Susan's, my bird photos will be limited. Still, I did catch a couple of things to share with you, like the greatest success story of Magee Marsh. Years ago, they decided to put out nesting platforms to help an endangered waterfowl species reproduce. Here is the result:

Thanks for the Canada Goose population explosion!