Month: May 2023

This adorable Yellow-rumped Warbler was the first warbler I saw on our visit to Magee Marsh on Lake Erie in Ohio a couple of weeks ago. It seems to be posing for me.

A Ruby-crowned Kinglet, the most ubiquitous bird that I photographed last week at Magee Marsh, blends right into this blue and yellow world. A blooming Swamp Willow (as identified by the PictureThis app) fills the area surrounding the bird and with the blue sky, creates a two-toned backdrop.

We saw the three Red Fox pups for a couple of hours one afternoon on the edge of the parking lot at Magee Marsh. We think their parents left them there temporarily in a well camouflaged, safe spot (a huge rotting tree trunk covered in vines) while they were off hunting. Of course being pups, they did not stay inside the safe spot. They ventured out but stayed close to the log. They appeared to be somewhat wary of the gaggle of photographers that had gathered at the edge of the parking lot, but that did not deter them from exploring. Their antics were adorable. Two of them seemed more adventurous than the third, who usually disappeared inside the safe spot. They would climb the logs surrounding the area and look around or flop down in the sunshine. They would grab a piece of wood chewing on it and flipping it around. In this shot, one of the pups seems to have lookout duties as its sibling roots around in search of something to chew on.

The first bird we encountered on our third day at Magee Marsh on Lake Erie was a Black-capped Chickadee. It was my only encounter with that bird during the four days there. And it was a brief one at that. I couldn’t get a good clear shot at it because of the surrounding trees but I was glad to capture this cutie peeking out at me.

It seemed as if Magee Marsh became greener by the hour. When we visited a part of the boardwalk we’d visited earlier that day, we were convinced it was greener and that more leaves had emerged. The rains and overcast skies contributed to that feeling as the saturated light intensified the green. This Yellow-rumped Warbler peeked out from behind a leaf and emerging leaflets surrounded it.

I’m not sure why a fungus needs camouflage but this one certainly doesn’t immediately appear to be a fungus. As I walked the boardwalk at Magee Marsh keeping my eyes peeled for birds in the surrounding trees or on the ground, this caught my eye as it appears to be the back of a bird hunkered on the ground. When it didn’t move and as I looked more closely, I realized it was a large mushroom of some sort, not a bird at all. A fungus among us, for sure.

When the sun is low early in the morning in spring at Magee Marsh near Lake Erie in Ohio, the emerging leaves are backlit and they look gorgeous. While watching for birds at eye level, I was often distracted by this sight during the first hour or so after we arrived at the boardwalk. I finally stopped to take a few shots because this particular branch with its reddish leaves and cluster stems plucked clean really caught my attention. After I got home, I identified the plant as poison ivy! Oh my! “Poison Ivy: You can look but you better not touch!” Words to live by from the Coasters. As a west coast native, I am itchily familiar with its relative, Poison Oak, but I do not recognize Poison Ivy on sight despite the “leaves of three, let it be” mantra. According to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, poison ivy fruit is a wintertime staple for birds and other animals and Yellow-rumped warblers depend on the berries to ride out the winter. They seemed to have picked this cluster clean.

For me, capturing a definitive characteristic of a bird with my camera is very satisfying. The Brown Creeper is described by Sibley Birds as “always seen clinging tightly to bark of large trees, braced with tail.” Soon after we crossed under the “Welcome to Magee Marsh” sign on our first morning there, Moose gestured for me to follow him. We walked further down the boardwalk and there was a Brown Creeper, clinging to the bark of a tree, and creeping up the trunk. It fit the Sibley Birds description perfectly.