Magee Marsh Field Report and Photos 2026-05-13 (BWIAB Day 3)

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Number 18 on the boardwalk
Unnamed Trail North of Goose Haven Trail Entrance
Green Heron Mating Dance
Nemesis Bird - Wilson's Warbler
Visiting the Optics Tent - New Camera Alert
My BWIAB is over
Warblers
Photo Gallery
Magee Marsh Field Reports for 2026

Today is my last day "official" day at the Biggest Week in American Birding (BWIAB). (I rented a hotel room for a couple of nights so I wouldn't have to make the 4 hour round trip to Akron every day on the days I had a session at BWIAB.)

What a finish - this was a great day. All the birds bottled up by the weather showed up. It isn't a true fallout, but it is the most birds I've ever seen at Magee Marsh, and by far the most warblers in total. The Bay-Breasted Warbler went from "Life Bird!" on the east end of the boardwalk to "oh, another Bay" by the west exit.

Number 18 on the boardwalk

Chestnut-Sided Warbler, Magee Marsh, Ohio

The best spot was spot #18 on the boardwalk (map of boardwalk here). It was amazing - I saw 8 different warbler species without moving from my spot along the rail. A crowd formed around me, all of us calling out birds as we saw them.

The eight:

American Redstart
Bay-Breasted
Black-Throated Green
Blackburnian
Chestnut-Sided (which got so close I couldn't even focus on it)
Northern Parula
Palm
Yellow-Rumped

Unnamed Trail North of Goose Haven Trail Entrance

One of my new favorite spots, the trail between the East parking lot and the Overflow lot was almost as busy. I got a bunch more Warbler photos there, including a (rare) Blue-Winged Warbler. (And there were so many Northern Parulas...)

Green Heron Mating Dance

In spite of all the warblers, the high point of the day was the nesting pair of Green Herons. They did a swaying dance together, beaks pointed straight into the air.

Nemesis Bird - Wilson's Warbler

My nemesis was the Wilson's Warbler. There were a couple along the boardwalk, staying low in the brush, and I got a snapshot of one that I can just barely tell from a yellow warbler. Wilson's has a distinctive black cap, almost like a beret - but I have to know it's there to see it on the one picture I have. I can't call it even a reference photo, it's so uncertain. So, the Wilson's remains on my "still need a picture" list.

Visiting the Optics Tent - New Camera Alert

I finally found a parking spot at the BWIAB Optics Tent (next to the Magee Marsh Visitor Center), and went in to visit my friends at Sony (the biggest sponsor of the event, loaning out cameras and lenses) and Pixel Connection (the camera equipment vendor for the event.)

I caught up with Bear, my local Sony rep, and met Michael, my new local Sony rep (who lives in Cleveland - I'll be seeing a lot of him.) I peppered them with questions about the new Sony A7R vi, which was announced this morning. (Michael was on the Sony Zoom meeting about the new camera's features while we were talking.) I love my Sony A1 ii, but the A7R6 has all the features I need - fast stacked sensor, pre-capture, 30fps shooting - but with a much larger 67MP sensor. (Those extra pixels sure would come in handy when cropping in on tiny warblers.) I have the A7R6 on order, and if it's as good as it sounds, it may be replacing my A1 ii for bird photography.

(Also, I think I'm getting the Sony 100-400/4.5 that was announced to replace my Sony 300/2.8. I always use the 300 with the 1.4x TC, making it a 400/4 - and the versatility of the zoom makes up for the extra ⅓ stop of light loss that a 4.5 gives me.)

I chatted with Sarah and Michelle from Pixel for a while, and then it was time to go.

My BWIAB is over

This was my last day at the Biggest Week In American Birding festival - I checked out of my hotel, and headed on home. (The festival will go on without me until Sunday.)

But my spring migration is definitely not over! My sister-in-law Jackie, who is also my and partner-in-crime for bird photography, wants to go out on Friday and Saturday. (She had to work this week (boo) but took Friday off (yay!) to see the birds.) Saturday's birdcast forecast says it will be the busiest migration day of the year, so I'm excited to see what's coming this weekend.