For the Birds: A visit to Erie – a birding hotspot

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Photo by Chris Bosak – Baltimore oriole, New England, 2024.

When the peak of your favorite hobby lasts only a few weeks each year, you better make the most of that time.

For birdwatchers, that is spring. Specifically, the last week of April and the first two weeks of May. Of course, the spring migration started many weeks ago and will last into June, but the sweet spot is those few weeks.

As luck would have it this year, my niece planned her wedding for mid-May. The wedding was held in my old hometown of Erie, Pennsylvania. I didn’t know it when I was growing up, but Presque Isle State Park in Erie is one of the top birdwatching destinations in the country. Presque Isle is a peninsula jutting into Lake Erie and, in addition to the many birds that nest there, several others use the land as a stopover before crossing over into Canada.

Instead of going home for a long weekend, I took the week off and made a vacation of it. I visited the park for several hours on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. Each day I saw something a little different. On Monday’s walk, I saw 51 different species. I did not keep track on Tuesday’s walk as I wanted to focus on photographing some of the warblers.

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Green heron on a green pond

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Photo by Chris Bosak – A green heron lurks among an algae-covered pond, May 2024, New England.

Here’s a green heron hunting among the algae.

A few more veery shots

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Photo by Chris Bosak – Veery in New England, May 2024.

Here are a few more shots of the veery I encountered on a recent walk in New England. Here is the original For the Birds post.

Photo by Chris Bosak – Veery in New England, May 2024.
Photo by Chris Bosak – Veery in New England, May 2024.

For the Birds: Thrushes captivate in appearance and song

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Visions of warblers, tanagers, orioles and grosbeaks may dance in the heads of birdwatchers in May, but the woods and fields are filled with a myriad of other types of birds as well.

While birds such as vireos and flycatchers continue to fascinate (and confuse) me, it has been thrushes that have captured a large portion of my attention so far this spring. 

Wood thrushes in particular have been plentiful and conspicuous on my walks. By conspicuous, I mean I hear their flute-like songs several times as I wander through the woods. They can be amazingly difficult to find even as the song makes it seem like the bird is right in front of you. My actual find rate on wood thrushes is embarrassingly low — about on par with my batting average from my high school baseball days.

When I do find the bird, I can’t help but stand there and marvel at it. How can that awesomely musical song come from a relatively nondescript bird about seven inches long? Lang Elliot, who is well-known for his bird recordings, wrote: “The song of the wood thrush is undeniably one of the most beautiful of all forest melodies.”

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Catbirds delight

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Photo by Chris Bosak – Gray catbird, May 2024, New England.

Catbirds always brighten up a spring, summer or fall walk. Here’s a brave one I came across singing his heart out a few weeks ago.


Photo by Chris Bosak – Gray catbird, May 2024, New England.

Incidentals about on bird walks

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Photo by Chris Bosak – A squirrel finds a meal in New England, May 2024.

Birds aren’t the only animals you encounter during walks in the woods in New England. Squirrels, including red and gray, are a common “incidental” sightings.

Photo by Chris Bosak – A squirrel finds a meal in New England, May 2024.

Spring migration magic

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Photo by Chris Bosak – Magnolia warbler, May 2024, New England.

Here’s a magnolia warbler I encountered during a recent gray morning.

More Louisiana waterthrush

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Photo by Chris Bosak – Louisiana waterthrush, May 2024.

Here are a few more shots of the Louisiana waterthrush I saw the other day. Waterthrushes look like thrushes and even have thrush in their name, but they are actually warblers.

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For the Birds: Strong kick off to spring migration

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Photo by Chris Bosak – Field sparrow sings from perch, New England, April 2024.

Note: This article was originally published in early May and the story is based on a walk taken on April 29.

It was one of those “quick walks” that ended up being a three-hour birding journey.

I hit the trail shortly after sunrise and was immediately greeted by the awesome cacophony of bird sounds that can only happen during spring migration. The loud voices of cardinals, robins, and Carolina wrens were the dominant sounds. American crows cawed in the distance and red-winged blackbirds belted out their “conk-a-ree” songs from a nearby field. That was all good stuff, of course, but the real auditory treats came from birds with less conspicuous songs.

The softer calls of field sparrows and savannah sparrows emanated from the field, and a high-pitched, nearly inaudible, song came from the top of a maple tree near the parking lot.

It was a warbler, but which one? Since it was the beginning of spring migration and my warbler song identification skills are rusty, it took me a few seconds to realize it was a prairie warbler singing up there.

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For the Birds: Brown thrasher spices up early spring walk

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Photo by Chris Bosak – A brown thrasher perches in New England, April 2024.

The Merlin app really came through this time.

I have written about the smartphone application that identifies birds by their songs and calls a few times before. I always stress, and I’m sure the app creators would agree, to confirm identifications by sight if you can find the bird.

The other day I was walking at a park, and the app showed that a brown thrasher was singing nearby. The app included a red dot by the species name, signifying that it is a rare bird to be seen where I was walking.

My immediate reaction, as a skeptic, was to not believe the app and assume it was a mockingbird instead. I have seen mockingbirds where I was walking several times. Brown thrashers are mimics like mockingbirds, so the misidentification would be understandable.

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