Big Day Bus 5/10--Common Gallinule, Chimney Swift, Bobolink

After Pearson, our next stop was Metzger Marsh on the south shore of Lake Erie. We picked up American Pipit (always a hard one) in a plowed field and Common Gallinule along a causeway that runs through the wetlands. In the woodlot at the end of the road there is a very small, cramped path which is excellent for warblers--if you're alone. 15 people + other birders, makes it almost impossible to do any satisfactory birding and while the group picked up some birds, I walked away in frustration. Lesson: big groups need big areas.

Metzger Marsh Wildlife Area, 
28 species
Canada Goose  X
Mute Swan  8
Mallard  2
Pied-billed Grebe  1
Double-crested Cormorant  X
Great Blue Heron  8
Great Egret  5
Bald Eagle  2
Common Gallinule  1
American Coot  4
Sandhill Crane  3
Spotted Sandpiper  1
Ring-billed Gull  4
Common Tern  2
Downy Woodpecker  1
Eastern Kingbird  1
Warbling Vireo  1
Blue Jay  25  Migrating
Northern Rough-winged Swallow  4
Tree Swallow  5
Barn Swallow  5
Gray Catbird  1
American Pipit  1
Prothonotary Warbler  1 Heard in woodlot
Common Yellowthroat  1
Yellow-rumped Warbler  3
Northern Cardinal  1
Red-winged Blackbird  25
From there we went to the Boss Unit of Ottawa NWR which is a wet field that the Boss family donated. A surprising number of shorebirds were in the grasses, along with a couple of Blue-winged Teal, but nothing new for the year. The next stop also was a donation from a local family, the Harder Grasslands, a former farm that apparently wasn't worth the effort, so the family has let it go back to grasslands, while at the same time not allowing the successional plants to take hold that would eventually turn the field into woods. 

Grasshopper and Henslow Sparrows are in this field. I would have loved to have seen one. I would even have loved to have heard one, as a few did the Grasshopper Sparrow, but I was out of luck on that account. I didn't hear the pheasant that Shari heard. None of this really bothered me because I did see, wonderfully, a number of Bobolinks flying through the grasslands and perching on some stunted trees. What beautiful birds, black on the bottom, white on top. Peterson describes them as a formal suit worn backwards. This is one place I would have like to revisited. Unfortunately, it is private and not an eBird hot spot, so I couldn't find it on the map.
Harder grasslands
16 species
Turkey Vulture  7
Bald Eagle  1
Red-tailed Hawk  1
Purple Martin  10
Tree Swallow  2
Barn Swallow  2
Common Yellowthroat  2
Field Sparrow  2
Savannah Sparrow  1
Song Sparrow  2
Bobolink  7
Red-winged Blackbird  15
Eastern Meadowlark  1
Common Grackle  1
Brown-headed Cowbird  2
Orchard Oriole  1

Bobolink, Harder Grasslands
Photo: Shari Zirlin

The list was getting pretty long when we passed through the town of Oak Harbor. There, on an old bank building were the pigeons we needed to build up the list as well as our first Chimney Swifts of the year, flying over the Portage River. Everyone was getting a little giddy by now and we hadn't even gotten to Magee Marsh yet.