Magee Marsh Field Report and Photos 2026-04-21

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

Sunny but cold (41°F to start) and very windy (20mph+) - not a great day for birding, not many birds or birders. (Lots of alone time on the boardwalk, though.) I walked the boardwalk and estuary trail, but with the wind whipping the trees around, it was tough to spot birds. I got there at 8AM, and left at about Noon.

A few Yellow-rumped Warblers are starting to show up, and lots of White-throated Sparrows. I got a good shot of a Pine Warbler and an iffy shot of a Red-breasted Nuthatch - but that's a new Ohio bird for me, so I'm saving it. And, as always, our common over-winter birds were out in force.

I also got some pictures of circling White Pelicans, with the strange caruncle they get on the top of their beak during mating season. I'm pretty sure there is a baby eagle in the Bald Eagle next next to the parking lot - I saw both parents in the nest. And, when a juvenile Bald Eagle flew near the next, checking it out, one of the parents came bombing in to scare him away. (She went from casually soaring to a power diving missile when the nest was threatened.) On the way out, there was a Double Crested Cormorant diving right next to the causeway, so I pulled over and took a picture.