Magee Marsh Boardwalk 5/11--Common Nighthawk, Eastern-Wood Pewee, Yellow-throated Vireo, Bay-breasted Warbler, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Lincoln's Sparrow

And finally, we made it to the Boardwalk. And it was cold--low 40's and it with the wind off the lake it felt like winter. Never have I shivered like that in May. And it was crowded. At Magee Marsh, birding is a contact sport.

Shari (magenta visor) in bird jam

The great advantage to the boardwalk is that you can get very close to the warblers, which seem to hang from the trees next to and over the walkway. The great disadvantage is that so can everyone else. Birding the boardwalk at Magee on the penultimate day of the Biggest Week is very much like trying to see (or even worse, hear) birds while standing on the 42nd St Shuttle subway platform at rush hour.  70,000 birders came to the festival and it seemed like they were all on the boardwalk at once.

Rant over--for the moment. Before we even got on to the boardwalk we added another FOY in the parking lot. A Common Nighthawk was taking its diurnal siesta on a branch above the Black Swamp Bird Observatory tent and they had conveniently place a scope on it. It was undisturbed by all the commotion below and stayed on its branch the entire time we were there, waiting for dusk when it would take to the skies to hawk bugs mid-air.

Shari added a life bird on the boardwalk, one of the few I had on my list that she didn't--Yellow-throated Vireo, not a common vireo but not rare either. Her lead in our non-contest lengthens. We added two warblers--Bay-breasted and Chestnut-Sided--and one sparrow--Lincoln's--to the year list.
A couple of Shari's pictures of warblers:

Bay-breasted Warbler

Blackburnian Warbler

Boardwalk list:
41 species
Mourning Dove  1    Heard
Northern Flicker  2    Heard
Eastern Wood-Pewee  1
Least Flycatcher  1
Great Crested Flycatcher  1
Yellow-throated Vireo  1
Warbling Vireo  1
Tree Swallow  75
Black-capped Chickadee  1    Heard
House Wren  1
Carolina Wren  2
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  1
Veery  1
Wood Thrush  1    Heard
American Robin  1
Gray Catbird  5
Ovenbird  1    Heard
Northern Waterthrush  1
Black-and-white Warbler  3
Nashville Warbler  1
Common Yellowthroat  3
American Redstart  2
Northern Parula  1
Magnolia Warbler  3
Bay-breasted Warbler  1
Blackburnian Warbler  2
Yellow Warbler  10
Chestnut-sided Warbler  1
Black-throated Blue Warbler  3
Palm Warbler  2
Yellow-rumped Warbler  20
Black-throated Green Warbler  2
Lincoln's Sparrow  1
White-throated Sparrow  10
Scarlet Tanager  1
Northern Cardinal  3
Rose-breasted Grosbeak  1
Red-winged Blackbird  100
Common Grackle  2
Orchard Oriole  1
Baltimore Oriole  1