Photo Gallery
Photographs by David Fisher and Jon Dunn
The tour starts in Cincinnati, where we’ll look for the scarce and very local Henslow’s Sparrow.
On our first full day we will visit the lovely Shawnee Forest in southern Ohio. Here in this Carolinian forest we hope to find a number of southern warblers that we are not likley to encounter later in the trip.
The Magee Marsh birdwalk is becoming internationally famous, not only for the variety of neotropical migrants, but how well they can be seen…
..and even though there are usually lots of other birders around, viewing is excellent.
Here we may see in excess of 20 species of warbler perhaps including Black-throated Blue…
…Cerulean (this is a female)…
…Canada…
…and Chestnut-sided.
We typically encounter an American Woodcock or two sauntering and bobbing through the wet leaf litter.
The nearby marshes have a variety of waterbirds and sometimes include scarce species, like this adult Little Blue Heron.
To the west of Toledo lies the Oak Openings Region, a mixed region of oak woodland and small fields. Here the redbuds and daffodils are in full bloom.
We’ll then spend three days in Canada visiting famous Point Pelee, among the best-known locations to witness spring migration.
Here we’ll see more migrant warblers perhaps including Black-throated Green…
…Blackburnian…
…Magnolia…
…and Ovenbird.
Rarities occur each spring and we never know what we might see. In 2007 they included a Chuck-will’s-widow…
…and a female Kirtland’s Warbler.
Most days birds can be seen almost anywhere in the park and we are quite likely to share our picnic lunch with Gray Catbirds and White-crowned Sparrows…
…while Baltimore Orioles look on.
The sandy point at Pt. Pelee, the southernmost spot in Canada, varies in size and shape from year to year dependent on winter storms. In some years many gulls and terns and sometimes shorebirds rest on the Point…
…here a group of adult Common Terns.
Next we’ll return to the US and visit Tawas Point, one of Michigan’s best migration spots that has harbored an astonishing variety of birds. During our 2007 visit the major rarity was Barn Owl well north of its normal range…
…but other species ranged from Cedar Waxwing…
…to the common but stunning Rose-breasted Grosbeak.
We’ll visit nearby Tuttle Marsh where in recent years one or two pairs of elegant Upland Sandpipers have been resident.
The Lighthouse at Tawas Point is a prominent landmark and be seen from across the Bay at Tawas City.
On our final day we’ll spend the morning searching for the endangered Kirtland’s Warbler. We usually can study one or more males perched in the open singing…
…and in the afternoon on the drive back to Detroit we’ll visit a lovely woodland to look for any late migrants that we might still be missing such as Acadian Flycatcher.