I love bird photography, even if I don't have as much time to do it as I would like. The birds I want pictures of the most are warblers, the colorful little birds that migrate through Ohio on their way to their breeding grounds in Canada. The best place to see warblers in Ohio, and maybe in the United States, is the boardwalk at Magee Marsh during the spring migration.
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Magee Marsh Wildlife Area is part of a series of parks along the shores of Lake Erie, with the last woodland for the warblers to rest and refuel before they take off across the lake. The two weeks around May 1st are a bonanza at Magee, with a wide variety of warblers that stop by.
If you're lucky and conditions are right, you can get a Bird Fallout, with the trees covered with exhausted and hungry warblers. (The right conditions are "bad weather, with a headwind to tire out the warblers," so you must be willing to go out regardless of the weather. Bring your raincoat and a rain hood for your lens.) Also, the trees are just starting to bud in late April, and their leaves haven't really come in yet. Finding the birds in the trees is much easier when they aren't hiding behind all the leaves.
I say "In the US" because Point Pelee, Ontario, is across the lake from Magee Marsh. Point Pelee is a wooded spit of forested land that pokes out into the lake, and birds aim for it when they tire out over Lake Erie. It's another fantastic place for Warbler Fallouts in early May.
Biggest Week in American Birding
The downside to the fantastic warbler show in Magee Marsh is that EVERYONE knows about it. Birders flock to Magee during the last two weeks of April and the first two weeks of May.
It's so famous that there is a birding festival, the Biggest Week in American Birding, hosted in nearby Maumee Bay State Park during the first two weeks of May. BWIAB draws hundreds (thousands?) of birders to the area. It's so crowded that Magee Marsh restricts the use of tripods on the boardwalk from May 1st to 15. You can use your tripod as a monopod, but the boardwalk is very crowded during those two weeks.
Not Just Warblers
Now, Magee Marsh is great for warblers, but it is part of a group of loosely connected parks along the Lake Erie shore, just east of Toledo, that are great for bird photography:
- Magee Marsh Wildlife Area
- Crane Creek State Park
- Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge
- Metzger Marsh Wildlife Area
- Toussaint Creek Wildlife Area
- Howard Marsh Metropark
- Cedar Point National Wildlife Area
- Maumee Bay State Park
Neighboring Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge is my other favorite, with lagoons full of waterfowl and wading birds, bald eagles and sandhill cranes. Ottawa is worth visiting year-round, not just in spring. (My sister-in-law Jackie is an avid bird photographer, and she makes a trip up to Ottawa a couple of times a month to check out the ever-changing birds that visit.)
Resources for Magee Marsh (And Nearby)
There are a bunch of helpful birding groups in the area. Check out:
Gallery of Magee Marsh and nearby parks, Spring 2024
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