Magee Marsh Field Report and Photos 2026-04-14

My goal this year is to get up to Magee Marsh once a week for the entire spring migration. Here are my notes from this visit.

Field Notes

My first visit to Magee Marsh this year was Tuesday, April 14th, 2026. I walked along the parking lot edge, then down the boardwalk starting at the west end, and finally down the ~~estuary trail~~ Goose Havens trail, from 8AM to about Noon. Weather was sunny and warm - is spring finally here?

In summary: It's too early. Almost everything I saw was our local winter birds. (Red-winged blackbirds, starlings, grackles, blue jays, cardinals, woodpeckers, flickers, etc.) The only warbler was a lone yellow-rumped warbler, and I didn't get a good shot of it before it disappeared into the bushes.

I did get a good shot of a hermit thrush, and a decent shot of a ruby-crowned kinglet.

American Kestrel, Magee Marsh Ohio — American Kestrel

(Update: I found out I've been walking the Goose Havens trail all these years, and calling it the Estuary trail. That's the trail directly to the west. Whoops.)

My favorite shot of the day, though, is my first ever shot of an American Kestrel as I walked along the ~~estuary~~ Goose Havens trail. Unfortunately it was very skittish, and I couldn't get close enough to get a great shot - every time I tried to move a few steps closer, it would fly to a perch further away.

There was a snapping turtle without that problem on the ~~estuary~~ Goose Havens trail - we could see each other from far away, and it just did not care, it kept walking S-L-O-W-L-Y across the trail. I waited until it finished crossing before I continued, and it sat there as I walked by, posing in the grassy berm next to the path.

Cool Birding reference: Check out the Bird Migration Waves infographic from the Black Swamp Bird Observatory. It's a great visualization of when birds migrate through the Magee Marsh area. (And a great visual of why I'm too early.)

Great Blue Heron Animated GIF

As I was leaving, a Great Blue Heron was stalking along the side of the road. I pulled over, turned my hazards on, and started shooting. I saw it had something in its sights, so I just held the shutter button down on my Sony A1 ii - and its 30 frames per second gave me video-quality photos of it grabbing lunch:

Pictures Gallery

Gear

I was asked in an email, so, here's my gear list:

Sony A1 ii with battery grip
Sony 400-800mm f/6.8-8 G lens (almost always at 800mm)
Blackrapid Sport X strap
Shimoda Explore v2 35L with Large DSLR Core Unit v3 (one of the few core units that will fit the 400-800)
I have the A1 ii set for 1/2000 shutter, f/8, Auto-ISO, with a tracking expanded spot and bird subject detection. Pre-capture is set for 0.5 seconds when I half-press the shutter, and shooting is electronic shutter set to 30fps. The 400-800 is always at 800 (unless a bird gets so close that I can't focus on it at 800).