Magee Marsh

On Sunday May 15th, along with Diana Newman and Harold and Teddy Eyster, we had a fantastic day of birding and being together.  It was Diana's belated Mother's Day celebration with her sons, and I had not seen Harold and Teddy for many years.  I was awed, again, by their extraordinary field skills.  In their company, I saw things that I never would have seen on my own.  Of course, the habitat around the boardwalk is much changed due to a devastating storm that occurred last August, and a small part of the boardwalk - where once the Catharus thrushes always seemed to be - is still damaged and the ground is covered by massive tree trunks.  The birds still came.  We missed a couple of birds that we all would have liked to see (Philadelphia vireo and yellow-bellied flycatcher amongst others), but we saw more bay-breasted warblers and prothonotary warblers in one day than I thought possible.  The prothonotary warblers were so confiding!

It was crowded, but not unreasonably so, and everyone seemed to be very happy to be out and seeing so many birds.  It was one of my friendliest and calmest visits ever to Magee Marsh.  It was amazing to watch Harold and Teddy help so many birders (this time of year many are casual birders) - see the birds, hear the songs, notice different things - nonpareil ambassadors of the sport.     

Bay-breasted warbler

Female scarlet tanager

Green heron

Prothonotary Warbler

Magnolia warbler

Another prothonotary warbler 

Nearly all those we saw had an orange smudge on the crown which I don't recall having seen before.  Neither Peterson or Sibley mention this.   A quick web search brought up the dnr.wi.gov website which describes the male bird this way:  "The bright orange-yellow head (italics are mine) and underparts, greenish upperparts, and bluish gray wings and tail help to distinguish Prothonotary Warblers from other similar species.   

And another

Screech owl high up

Male scarlet tanager

Just before we stopped for lunch we saw a crowd of birders gathered at a spot close to the lake all looking high up.  A common nighthawk, in its typical daytime pose, had been found.  The crowd was likely a group from the Greatest Week of Birding annual festival.  We recognized the group leader as Jon Dunn, another long-standing ambassador of birding, and this would be why the nighthawk was found at all. 

From Harold's phone.