My Yard ~ A Great day

 7/15 was a great day in the yard. New yard bird #56 Yellow Warbler. FOY Spicebush #22 butterfly species for 2024, plus several Monarchs here.

Spicebush

Yellow Warbler

Monarch 

Beth's Patch ~ Bird Visitors

Brown Creeper

Swamp Sparrow

Male Cardinal

Carolina Wren

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Pine Siskins

Yellow Warbler with a mid morning snack

Cooper's Hawk looking for an early morning snack

 

Oh, What a day!

 This morning started with birds flying out of the sky into our backyard with 5 species of warblers and many other birds before even leaving for CM Point. After birding in Cape May Point, I came home to more bird species here this afternoon and evening. To top it off, in addition, to our Ruby-throated hummingbirds still hanging around, we had 2 Long-tailed Skippers found by Dave and Pat mid-afternoon.

Red-eyed Vireo in yard

Yellow Warbler in yard

Yellow Warbler in yard

White-throated Sparrow in yard

Song Sparrow in yard

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House Wren

Common Yellowthroat in the yard

Black-throated Green

Black-throated Green

Ohio Birding ~ Magee Marsh Boardwalk

Yellow Warbler on nest

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 

Olive-sided Flycatcher ~ Life Bird #435

Bald Eagle by nest.  Nests can weigh up to one ton.

Bald Eagle

Ohio Birding ~ Magee Marsh Boardwalk

Black-throated Blue Warbler

Since I became a birder, I have heard birding spring migration in Ohio is an experience not to be missed.  I retired in 2017 so this year was my first chance to go.  My first impressions were not as good as I would have liked.  It is very crowded with other birders on the boardwalk so if "closed in spaces" are an issue there are better places nearby to see the warblers.  Also I had been told that seeing the birds was easy because the leaves aren't out yet which this year is not the case as the leaves are almost fully out making it much harder to see the birds. I was told that the birds are low down but this year most very up pretty high.  Of course the birds flit around anyway so that increases the difficulty in seeing them.  Everyone on the boardwalk is very friendly and shares their knowledge with other birders less experienced.

Solitary Sandpiper

Yellow Warbler

Warbling Vireo

Fall migration...

Here's a young Yellow Warbler taking a bath in the waterfall in my backyard.

My Yard ~ Early Morning visitors

Pammie watching through the screen

Red Admiral on fruit

Common Buckeye

Yellow Warbler ..and Fall Migration begins

Ruby-throated Hummingbird

Blue Dasher Dragonfly

Halloween Pennant

Great Morning birding

This morning I was up early to spend the day birding. I started my day at Higbee Beach going up onto the dike. It's quite a climb but once up at the top the view is great and you are up in the trees with the birds. This was my first time up on the dike. There were lots of species of birds flying past us. For me most of the time I couldn't ID the birds before they flew away so I found being up there disappointing. I did have one of the birds fly into a tree nearby and give me good looks. It was a new lifer for me - a Red-eyed Vireo(left). Then I went walked one of the fields where I had glimpses of the Connecticut Warbler but not much else.

Next it was over CMP State Park. I went up onto the Hawk Watch Platform for a while but it was pretty dead so I decided to walk the trails. In front of the Hawkwatch in the bushes I had another lifer - a Yellow Warbler. (left)

On the trails I saw a good number of American Redstarts, darting back and forth, some Black-and-white Warblers, a Northern Parula (left), and lots of varities of butterflies and dragonflies. It was a fun time.