Sunday, May 4, 2008

Practicing for the big weekend

Next weekend is the biggest birding weekend of the year for me. It is International Migratory Bird Day (Weekend) and any birder who's anybody is in Ohio for birding at Magee Marsh and the surrounding area of north-west Ohio, along the Lake Erie shore.

Today, I celebrated the beginning of IMBD (week) by attending an early morning bird walk at East Fork Lake State Park. The trip was led by ranger/naturalist Linda, and the 8am walk was only attended by 4 early birds - Linda, myself, and a husband/wife couple. We got some terrific birds and never left sight of the visitor center.

My Trip List for the 90 minute walk:

Double-crested Cormorant (2 fly-over)
Turkey Vulture
Mourning Dove
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
Eastern Kingbird
Tree Swallow (tons!)
Blue Jay
American Crow
Carolina Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse (HO = Heard Only)
American Robin
Northern Mockingbird
Brown Thrasher (HO)
Cedar Waxwing (1; very odd not to see a flock)
European Starling
Red-eyed Vireo (HO)
Northern Parula (HO)
Yellow Warbler (HO)
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Pine Warbler
Northern Cardinal
Eastern Towhee (HO)
Chipping Sparrow
Song Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow (HO)
Common Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
Orchard Oriole
Baltimore Oriole (2 building nests)
House Finch (HO)
American Goldfinch

32 total species

I also had a nice chat with Linda and was able to share some trivia and birding tips with the other couple. It was fun being the acknowledged "expert" of the walk, although I was quick to point out that, while I think I have finally broken into the Intermediate level of birding, I don't consider myself an expert by any means.

2 comments:

entoto said...

Nice way to start your week and your day. I am just bleery eyed, trying to find the coffee. And it is odd that you only saw one Cedar Waxwing.

Susan Gets Native said...

I think you're an expert. You're WAY better at bird-listening than I am.