When does a hobby become an obsession? Is there anything in between, something that sounds more balanced? Probably so. If you're getting a bit worried and starting to wonder, one sign that one is more than a mere inheritor, hobbyist, or enthusiast would be if one finds oneself embarking on a pilgrimage.
For baseball fans it's Cooperstown. For Catholics it is maybe the Camino di Santiago. For Floridians it is Gatorland. For birders, it is Magee Marsh. This lengthy but unassuming boardwalk is world-renowned as the site of the Biggest Week in American Birding and a veritable Mecca for both birds and birders come mid-May.
In early April, I found myself eyeing a weekend getaway with Butler's Bird Sr., a birding spectacular of feathered frivolities where the only limits would be the daylight and our knee cartilage. Of course, seasoned birders and people who didn't grow up in the dessert alike will be quick to note there's another factor here, one insufficiently included in the planning. We were looking at the first weekend of May, the very beginning of the month, as it turned out.
But which way to go, North or South? Swallows or Flickers? Either one sounds like a hot date.
Choices: We could head to South Texas and try to catch the passerine emigrants as they on-shored from their Caribbean commute, or head north to the south shores of Lake Erie and look for those trailblazers preparing to cross into the great boreal beyond. I know what you're thinking...beginning of May? That's early dude. Make like a duck and head south. And that is totally what we should have done.
But I don't know...the Hajj called. I wanted it to be Magee. I had never been. I had been to South TX (in July...). And Magee was meh : /
It was with fair consternation that I watched the migration and weather reports preceding our trip. A week prior, a number of potential Lifers were reported in the area, but as the days drew nearer, the forecast looked bleak. This is not to say the birding was poor overall, but relative to opportunity costs and potential, rushing it did not pan out.
Any day with sentry Wood Ducks is a good day. But if you go to Magee Marsh and the best bird of your weekend there is a Northern Waterthrush - not just yours, but the best bird reported for the weekend on the community boards - then you know something was off.
Inclement weather throughout the Midwest in the preceding week basically grounded all northerly migration to our area. The Saturday we hit the ground say clouds, wind, and scattered showers with high temperatures in the 40s. There would be very few new arrivals, and what migrants or residents had already arrived would be hunkered down, Catbird style.
It made for some nice sunset angles at least. Almost as Glorious and the Golden-winged Warblers and Blue-winged Warblers that could hAvE YoU Know WhAt NeVeRmInD...
We patrolled that famous boardwalks like sentries on inspection, but failed to turn up much of note. Cruelly, the best bird of Saturday was a Prothonotary Warbler, which breed in the swamps around home. We did out best to help other folks get on what scattered and retiring birds we could, but by midday still had not seen anything that wasn't available down the road at home.
One of the many, many cool things about this area is how many preserves and parks are adjacent on the south shore. Just down the road from Magee Marsh in Ottawa NWR, which also boasts wonderful community spaces and accessibility - seriously inspiring stuff and beautiful grounds, all for $0 admission. They even had complimentary facemelt cream at the visitor center, an amenity provided, no doubt, after feedback from patrons about the abiding Tree Swallows.
As a quick sidenote, I just want to say that this is not a good picture of an American Goldfinch, but American Goldfinches are a special kind of yellow all the same. Kudos to Iowa for recognizing the game, and making them the state bird. Carry on, Goldfinch. Carry on, Iowa.
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| Drab Gray Catbird for Comparison I guess... |
While the overall scene at Ottawa was encouraging from a sort of "future of birding, good of the community" perspective, the species array itself was no improvement on Magee. It was time to chop things up a bit, time to hit the "metzgerei" (butchershop, in German, if college class served me well).
Metzger Marsh was the best of the three sites for May 2nd, delivering a couple of new passerines for the trip (Black-throated Green Warbler, Nashville Warbler) and the chance to break wind without having to worry who's behind you on the boardwalk.
The migrant trap portion of Metzger Marsh is tiny, a small hovel of trees south of the dam where someone from the Black Swamp Observatory resolutely counts the migrants every a.m. But the small space amounts to high concentrations of birds in a small area (that is also fairly human-lite). Warbling Vireos were the most vocal presence here but it was certainly the most active area we hit, and the lack of shoulder-bumping was a definite plus.
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| If you made a pile of all North America's Red-bellied Woodpeckers next to all the Downy Woodpeckers, which pile would be bigger? |
The real gem of Metzger Marsh is the wetland drive preceding the dike. If Trumpeter Swans are a junk bird, you are in a good spot. One could pick nits about their unbecoming brown, but why would one want to do that? Then one would just have a bunch of nits in one's hands, and what good would come of that? Best to leave those nits alone and enjoy North America's heaviest flying bird and largest waterfowl as they are.
Also there were some Sandhills Cranes with a colt nearby. That's fine too. Once you've seen 20,000 at the Whitewater Draw in Az, you've seen them all.
Given the limited access at Metzger, once one has scope main spots there's really not much else. We tried another off-strip area (Touissant NWR) without mush to speak of other than some dead geese floating in the retention ponds. We resupplied and planned a resurgent Sunday while enjoying cocktails and tacos. The Kentucky Derby was also running, a fun and frantic 2 minutes that makes one nostalgic for home...
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