Biggest Week of American Birding - Day 1 - May 8th - arriving at Magee Marsh, Ohio

From May 8 thru May 12, I was on birding trip to the Biggest week in American Birding (see link below) to the Warbler Capital of the World - Magee Marsh.

biggest week in American birding

 

 Our group of four (15 people total would be attending the trip) left the Lancaster, Pa area around 7am and arrived at our destination around 3:30pm. As we crossed the Ohio state line we began our trip count. As fate would have it, our first species was a Turkey Vulture - flying over the I-80. We had species one and our count had begun...how many we would end up with was anyone's guess. This was the fifth year of the trip and the previous high count was a lofty 152 for the 5 days.

We decided to go the famous boardwalk  before checking into the hotel to see if any warblers where present. The boardwalk was not overly full, which was present surprise and we started our 1 mile walk.

Some of the group on the Magee boardwalk

We heard many warblers (and other species) calling from the parking lot as we entered the park.

We proceeded to the east entrance of the boardwalk and didn't go  go 50 feet until we spotted several bay breasted warblers - a wonderful start. Over the course of the next 3 hours we saw: Cape May, Yellow, Chestnut Sided, Black & White, Magnolia, Common Yellow throat and Black throat ed Green - to name a few...we ended the day with 15 warbler species and 55 overall species for the day. A great start to our trip.

Cape May Warbler

Bay Breasted Warbler

We ended a long day with 15 warbler species and 55 overall species, before having supper and checking into the hotel for a good night's rest. A great start to our trip.

We where all looking forward to Monday morning and getting and early start.