With close to 70 people packed six deep on the boardwalk, peering closely into the woods about 20 feet in front of them, you’d wonder what could hold the attention of so many people.
Especially when you discover everyone has braved 10-20 mile per hour cold winds out of the north and west off Lake Erie, along with snow showers in mid-May, to view a brightly-colored tiny animal that could easily fit into the palm of your hand.
The Biggest Week in American Birding
Today marked the last day of The Biggest Week in American Birding, a ten-day festival held along the southern shores of Lake Erie in northwest Ohio.
The festival in early May brings thousands of people to celebrate, take workshops, and catch the spring migration of all kinds of birds— warblers, shorebirds, and waterbirds—who stop in the marshes in northwest Ohio to refuel before they cross the lake.
And what was that bird those 70 people were viewing?
The Hooded Warbler, one of the rarer warblers to view on the Magee Marsh Boardwalk, caught the attention of one birder. Who shared it with the five of us nearby.
Word spread like wildfire along the Magee Marsh boardwalk that a Hooded Warbler had been seen.
Birders quickly started to fill the space on the boardwalk to catch a view and shoot a photo of the elusive bird as it hopped from branch to branch in the dense thicket on the ground.
I’ve been visiting Magee Marsh for years, and managed to be in the front row looking at the Hooded Warbler. It was a beautiful sight to see!
I wasn’t able to capture a shot of the Hooded Warbler, but here’s a few of the other warblers, shorebirds, and thrushes I saw this weekend.
