Pic of the Day

    Cape May Warbler -- Magee Marsh, Ohio:  As winter waxes and the days grow colder here in north Alabama, I look forward to spring.  It is this time of year that I start dreaming of neo-tropical migrants and start planning trips to photograph them.  I have posted a number of images taken at Point Pelee National Park, Canada,  a well-known location to see and photograph spring migrants.  I have also mentioned in a previous post how the Pelee peninsula acts as a migrant magnet for those exhausted birds that have been pushed north by weather fronts.  The migrants seem to fall out of the sky when they see Point Pelee.

     Perhaps a lesser known migrant trap is Magee Marsh in Ohio.  Magee Marsh is on the south side of Lake Erie directly south of Point Pelee.  Magee is a location that many migrants stop and refuel before heading across the lake.  Like Pelee, Magee Marsh is a wonderful place to see and photograph north bound migrants.

     This Cape May Warbler was photographed in mid May as a wave of mixed warblers passed through Magee Marsh.  The morning I photographed this bird I also photographed a dozen other warbler species.  Warbler fall-outs are an amazing event to encounter as warblers and other migrants seem to be everywhere.   I have often seen trees and bushes with a half dozen different species of warblers at one time.  

     If you have not experienced such an event, you can.  Plan a bird watching, or better yet, a bird photography trip to Magee Marsh or Point Pelee.  Plan on a week or ten day trip between the second and fourth week of May.   You might get lucky and find yourself in the midst of a Warbler fallout.

Nikon D200, Nikkor 500mm f4, Digital Capture ISO 200