• May 7 RIVP
• May 7 Barney Walk
• May 8 Ottawa Park
• Home May 8
• Home May 9
• Home Sun, May 17
• Home May 18

May 2015 birdwatching obs

Mon, May 18, 2015.

I have not recorded bird obs for each day in our neighborhood while exercise walking and walking Barney. I wish that I had.

I don't know if this is a better than average migration through our area. I'll have to check BSBO banding data. But starting around May 2, we've had good migrating bird song in our neighborhood since.

May 7 RIVP

Early on Thu morning, May 7, DD and I birdwatched for 55 minutes at Rossford Island View Park, but I did not record the obs.

We heard a YTVI. We saw four INBU forage near each other on the gravel trail. We obs SCTA, RBGR, and several warbler species.

For under an hour, it wound up being fine birdwatching.

May 7 Barney Walk

Later in the morning on Thu, May 7, I walked Barney around our neighborhood.

~70 and sunny.

Obs

May 8 Ottawa Park

On Fri, May 8, DD and I arrived at Ottawa Park around 7:30 a.m. From my Field Notes notebook:

EAWP
RCKI
BAOR
BGGN
AMRE

(people setting up at shelter house and someone cranked music, blaring way too loud. A Tom Jones song was one of the songs.)

WPWA
NAWA
BLBW
MYWA
REVI
NOPA
TEWA
BTNW
SCTA
WAVI
BHVI
WTSP
BWWA - Blue-winged Warbler along the stream within the woodlot between the parking lot and Douglas Rd. We heard it and watched it.
CMWA (Cape May)
SUTA - I heard the drippy call notes, but I dismissed it. Then a short while later, I spotted a bird way up, and I looked like a Summer Tanager. The skylight was poor, so I rushed around to the other side. The bird foraged slowly, so I was able to find it. It was an adult male SUTA. I watched it for several minutes. This bird was located in the same area as the BWWA.
BBWA
BLPW
RBGR
WOTH signing

The small stream held a fair amount of water, and in one spot, we watched several warblers and other birds bath.

Birds observed bathing: CMWA, 2 NOPA, BLPW, TEWA, MYWA, and REVI. The warblers got into the water and splashed. The REVI bathed by flying at the water and smacking the water and flying back up to a low perch over the stream. The REVI bathed like the WAVI that I watched bath a few years ago at Magee Marsh. The must be the vireo style of bathing.

By the stream area, we saw 4 or 5 Cape May warblers move through the understory.

Multiples of several species including: SCTA, BHVI, REVI, and many warblers. The activity was quite good in the woodlot, which contains a lot of oak trees.

This month, it has been obvious once again that the oak trees were major attractants to warblers and other bird species.

We ended birdwatching at Ottawa Park at 10:10 a.m. Around 2 to 2.5 hours of birdwatching.

On the way home, we stopped at the greenhouse/small grocery store, located at Douglas and Central (or Monroe). Cool little store. My first visit. We bought morel mushrooms that arrived earlier in the morning.

Home May 8

Early in the morning before going to Ottawa Park, I saw two Cape May warblers inches apart from each other up in an oak tree over our backyard. One male and one female.

At 10:40 a.m. over our backyard: 2 CMWA and TEWA.

The TEWA is an amazingly enthusiastic singer. It's strange not to hear a TEWA singing around our home. It's a common song each spring, during the second and third weeks of May.

Home May 9

In the morning ...

LISP - v
CMMA - a
BTNW - a
TEWA - a
WAVI - a
YWAR - a - unusual to hear a Yellow Warbler in our neighborhood
NOPA - a
Male HAWO on the suet - v
Barn Swallows flying around from the bridge area - a and v
MYWA - v
2 BLBW - a
CSWA - a v
WTSP - v

Home Sun, May 17

~1:40 p.m., Partly to mostly cloudy, breezy, warm and humid, low 80s.

REVI - a v
BLPW - a
Barn Swallows flying overhead
CSWA - a v
AMRE - a
BAOR - a
TEWA - a
SWTH - a v - watched multiples forage up in the oaks. they liked to run along the large branches
BBWA - a v
LEFL - a
GCTH - a - only the second time that I've obs a GCTH in or near our yard. The song came from the neighbor's yard, one to two houses to our east. It sounded like the song came from up in a tree but low in the tree. Distinctive song. A SWTH sang over our backyard at the same time for a nice comparison.
MYWA

Home May 18

Mon, May 18 morning obs around our home.

~7:30 a.m.

EAWP - a
REVI - a
SWTH - a
TEWA - a
AMRE - a
BLPW - a

MOWA - Mourning Warbler. Second time that I've obs this bird in our yard. This morning, I stepped out back to move the garbage and recycle bins to the front street, and I heard the MOWA song immediately. I waited to hear it again to be sure. It sang again. I rushed back inside to grab my binocs. I easily found the bird perch lowish in the middle of the small tree that grows along the east side of our garage. I'm unsure of the type of tree. It's leaf growth lags behind other trees. It currently contains thick, fuzzy catkins-like things. I think that it produces berries later. The neighbor has wanted to cut it down for a long time. It's a small trunked tree. The MOWA was 30 to 35 feet high, perched, singing, and preening. I watched it for over five minutes. It never foraged. It preened and sang. It rotated its body once, facing me more, so I had a nice view of its bib and front. This is one of my favorite-looking birds. After it finished preening, it dropped straight down out of sight. It either dropped into our east spirea bushes or somewhere else in B and K's yard. I searched the spirea, but I saw nothing. The spirea bushes are at full bloom and quite dense with its small leaves and twigs.

Other birds around home this morning, May 18:

NOPA - a
BLBW - a
CSWA - a

At 9:00 a.m., two TEWA sang over our backyard.

At 9:30 a.m., the EAWP sang over our backyard.