OH/MI - Kirtland's Warblers

Kirtland's Warbler - male, Huron NF, Crawford Co., MI. May 20th, 2013.

Every once in a while a bird species captivates my interest more than others. Looking back I can think of the multiple Firecrests that I found in my local woodland in Sheffield when I lived in the UK, beginning with the first way back in 1980. Then Pallid Scops-owl really caught my imagination when I found several individuals wintering in remote Acacia wadis in the southern desert of Israel in the late 90s, subsequently resulting in two successive winter surveys of that species. Those surveys discovered at least 23 individual birds in each season.

My recent experiences with Kirtland's Warbler have had a similar impact on my imagination. Of our recent nine day tour to Ohio/Michigan with Birdfinders, we saw Kirtland's Warblers on four days including two individual migrants on the beaches at Magee Marsh in NW Ohio, and several singing birds on territory in the Huron National Forest to the east of Grayling, Michigan. Handsome, sharp-looking, ultra-rare and with strict habitat preferences, Kirtland's has an extremely charistmatic song which adds even more to the mystique of the species from my perspective.

Here's an image selection from the four days in which Kirtland's Warblers were encountered on our tour;

Kirtland's Warbler - female, East Beach Trail, Magee Marsh, Lucas Co., OH. May 14th, 2013.

Kirtland's Warbler - female, East Beach Trail, Magee Marsh, Lucas Co., OH. May 14th, 2013.



Kirtland's Warbler - migrant, first-summer male, West Beach, Magee Marsh, Lucas Co., OH. May 15th, 2013.

Kirtland's Warbler - migrant, first-summer male, West Beach, Magee Marsh, Lucas Co., OH. May 15th, 2013.

Kirtland's Warbler - migrant, first-summer male, West Beach, Magee Marsh, Lucas Co., OH. May 15th, 2013.

Kirtland's Warbler - male on territory, Huron NF. Crawford Co., MI. May 18th, 2013.

-Kirtland's Warbler - male on territory, Huron NF. Crawford Co., MI. May 20th, 2013.