A month ago, I went to The Biggest Week in American Birding with three of my friends. We arrived in the mid-afternoon and headed right to Magee Marsh. Unfortunately, storms were rolling in and we got in only a little bit of birding before it started to rain. That did not dampen our spirits at all – we ended up finding a good bird to chase just as the rain broke. A Henslow’s Sparrow was down the road. This was a life bird for one of my friends (the rest of us saw one last year at Magee). This time, the bird was in the perfect setting and we watched it sing.
Henslow’s Sparrow near Ottawa NWR
More rain was coming, so we decided to check into our hotel, finalize registration for the event and hang out at the evening social. We heard about one of the Maumee Bay Eastern Screech-Owls hanging out in the open, so we went out to the boardwalk to check it out before dinner.
Red-phased Eastern Screech-Owl
For the next couple of days, we birded the Magee Marsh boardwalk, Metzger Marsh, Oak Openings, Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge and other hotspots along the way. We ran into some bird and human friends alike. This year, photography was a bit slow, but we did see tons of birds! Sometimes, I decide to just enjoy them rather than photograph them. Here are some of the songbirds that I did lift my camera for.
Chestnut-sided Warbler down low
Singing Bay-breasted Warbler
Blackburnian Warbler
Scarlet Tanager
Northern Parula
Cape May Warbler
The difficult-to-photograph Mourning Warbler
Yellow Warbler on the reeds
Oh yeah… and don’t forget that we saw a Kirtland’s Warbler!!
We also saw a few more birds that you don’t normally get to admire out in the open.
Gray-phased Eastern Screech-Owl (#2)
Gray-phased Screech-Owl (#3 – yes, I photographed 3 different Screech-Owls!)
Common Nighthawk right on the trail
Yeah – that’s “slow” for the Biggest Week – as you can see, we did see tons of birds. We also reconnected with old friends and made plenty of new ones. The evening socials were hopping with great vendors and, as always, Optics Alley was a great place to hang out.
One of the many awesome vendors at the evening socials – the birder chicks (here with my friend Renee) were one of our favorites!
Personally, my friends and I purchased some awesome stuff from Birder Chicks (photographed above), PRBY Apparel, Imagine Metal Arts and Hunts Photo and Video. We would have bought more if we had room in the car!
Playing Tetris with our bags and new purchases
Every year, we bring a new friend with us to Ohio – who will we get hooked onto it next year?? I think we may need a bigger car!