01.19.25: Cape May Warbler

‍Photographers mark the seasons differently than normal folks. January is snowy landscape season. Late October marks the start of fall color season. And for me, May is warbler season.

‍I get nearly all of my warbler photos during the spring, when the birds are migrating north from their winter homes in Central and South America, and less often in the fall during migration south. The range maps for most warbler species show Central Ohio as part of the summer breeding range, but it's been my experience that few hang around here for the summer. Most head north into Canada.

‍It takes a short road trip each May for my best opportunity to see warblers. I drive north a few hours to the southern bank of Lake Erie — Ohio’s “north coast” — when bird watchers from around the world show up in parks in that area for a week each May to watch the massive number of warblers in the trees and fields. It’s been dubbed the Biggest Week in American Birding. 

‍The prime focus is Magee Marsh Wildlife Area, which is packed every year on Mother’s Day weekend when the spring warbler migration is at its peak. The birds gather in trees and bushes along the edge of Lake Erie to rest and refuel before flying nonstop across the lake to Canada and their summer breeding range.

‍I’m not a bird watcher. I’m a photo hobbyist who happens to enjoy photographing wildlife. And I hate crowds when I’m shooting. I’ll visit Magee Marsh, the host location and hub of bird week activities, where people are jammed together shoulder to shoulder on a narrow boardwalk through the woods and one camera click pulls everyone in to see what the photographer has found. I spend more time at Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge, which is about a mile down the road, much less crowded and still filled with birds.

‍But I did manage to fight the crowd at Magee Marsh to get this photo of a male Cape May Warbler — and, yes, when I clicked the shutter a crowd gathered around me and startled the bird.

‍The Cape May Warbler is one of the warbler species found in much of the United States only during migration. The bird breeds during the summer in Canada — and occasionally in extreme northern areas of the U.S. — and spends winters in the Caribbean.

‍An interesting fact about the bird’s name: The bird was named in the early 1800s by European ornithologist Alexander Wilson after being found in Cape May, N.J. After that sighting and naming, Cape May Warblers were not recorded again in Cape May, N.J., for more than 100 years.

‍I’ve photographed about 25 different types of warblers during visits to the area, but we see more than warblers during our May trips. I’ve photographed nesting Bald Eagles, nesting killdeer, Sandhill Cranes, Trumpeter Swans, Scarlet Tanagers and a number of other species that find the wetlands along Lake Erie to be a suitable summer home. It makes for a fun trip.