” On The Road”

I’ve spent the last day and a half birding up along Lake Erie for the first time in 2 years. If you remember last year I camped in Daniel Boone national Forest at Red River Gorge checking out some of the breeding warblers in the area. Well this year I returned to Lake Erie, but for only a very short time. All told I probably spent a total of 14 hours birding. But in those 14 hours I either heard or saw a total of 85 birds with 24 of those being warblers, which I think is pretty respectable for the time allotted.

1. Wilson’s warbler
2. Yellow warbler
3. Yellow-rumped warbler
4. Blue-winged Warbler
5. Common Yellowthroat
6. Black-throated Green Warbler
7. Black-throated Blue Warbler
8. Blackburnian Warbler
9. Bay-breasted Warbler
10. Ovenbird
11. Canada Warbler
12. American Redstart
13.  Mourning Warbler
14. Cape May Warbler
15. Nashville Warbler
16. Tennessee Warbler
17. Northern Parula
18. Louisiana Waterthrush
19. Prothonotary Warbler
20. Magnolia Warbler
21. Chestnut-sided Warbler
22. Palm Warbler
23. Black & White warbler
24. Blackpoll Warbler

This trip I did come across a few surprise birds. At a new Toledo Metropark called Howard Marsh, for the second year in a row 2 Black-necked Stilts have taken up residence.

And at the same park I counted 3 Yellow-headed Blackbirds.

Granted these are a couple of great birds for this part of the country. And as much as i enjoyed watching them, the real surprise came the morning i was leaving to go home. I stopped one more time at Howard Marsh to see if the Black-necked Stilts were any closer for some better pictures, which they weren’t, so I drove off and decided at the last minute to check out Metzger Marsh, which is right next door.

I was pulling out my camera to take a shot of a Common Gallinule when I noticed a small bird in the tall grass right next to the road. A Least Bittern. In the past I’ve only had fleeting glimpses of these reclusive birds, however this time was different.

“On The Road”

For several months now my wife and I have been planning our trip to Boston to visit our oldest son. All the details had to be covered, from airfare, to the Airbnb we we’re going to stay in, to side trips.

So one of our side trips was a 2 hour drive to Portland Maine to do your typical sightseeing. However one thing came under my radar about 2 weeks prior to our departure. It seems a Little Egret was sighted at Gilsland Farm Audubon Center just 5 minutes from downtown Portland. This is an exciting bird, and one I was hoping to seeing. So I started to watch the internet to make sure the bird was still being seen. And it was.

And even the day we were driving to Portland I called the gift shop to ask if the bird we there, and he told me as far as he knew it was even though no one confirmed it.

Gilsland Farm isn’t a huge place so checking out the area along the river wasn’t too much of an effort, however as much as I looked in all the spots where the bird was sighted on previous days, there was no bird now. This was disappointing.

Since we wanted to visit other places we had to leave without picking up this life bird. So we drove back into the city and parked the car, and started out. We were walking along Commercial Street looking at all the shops and restaurants, I couldn’t help but notice birds swimming between some of the wharfs. I hurried down and much to my surprise there were some Common Eiders. A new life bird! I didn’t bring my camera this trip so there are no pictures, so you’ll have to take my word for it.

So I may have dipped on the Little Egret, but not the Common Eider, so it wasn’t a total bust.