Water birds of the Biggest Week

Last time I talked about all the warblers we saw at The Biggest Week in American Birding (BWIAB) festival They truly are the highlights but there are many more birds migrating through the area during the festival. Today I’ll focus on the birds closely associated with water. Almost all of the festival locations are on or near the water. The festival headquarters is at Maumee Bay and the biggest draw is at Magee Marsh.

Shorebirds mainly nest in the Arctic tundra of Canada and Alaska so still have a long way to go after their stop in Ohio. They are in pursuit of the open habitat and lots and lots of insects the far north offers.

Black-necked stilt

One of the most striking shorebirds in the US is the black-necked stilt. Stilts take the shorebird characteristic of long legs to an extreme balancing a small body atop theirs giving the impression they might tip over at any time. Stilts also stand out for their coloration. Most of our shorebirds have a combination of sandy and rusty colored backs. The black-necked stilt has a striking black and white pattern. At one of the marshes we visited, there were a handful of stilts, each probing away in the mud and sand. They seem to have a knack for always being at the far side of any body of water. Luckily for me, this one moved in close to allow for some nice photographs. It was probably moving to the “far side” from a different group of birders.

At the same marsh, there was a lesser yellowlegs walking alongside a dike. By just standing still and letting the bird come towards us, we got up-close views of this one feeding. It likely knew we were there but we weren’t threatening nor competing for arthropods so it just didn’t care.

Lesser yellowlegs looking for food

One of the most frequently seen shorebirds for us at the festival was the killdeer. If you have seen just one shorebird, this is likely the one. They spend a lot of time on mowed fields and gravel driveways and nest much further south, through much of the US, than most shorebirds. They also have a loud “kill-deer” call they use all the time. So even if you don’t see one, you will likely hear one that is nearby.

Early in my birding life, while in New Hampshire for a conference, I came across my first killdeer nest. Up until then I still had the vision that birds mainly nest in twiggy nests in trees so I was unprepared for the encounter. A group of us went to a restaurant in an old farmhouse and right as we turned off the road onto the long gravel driveway there were a few traffic cones set out to protect a killdeer’s nest. The nest was just a few eggs snug against small rocks so they don’t roll away. Easy to stumble into or drive over. The incognito nest makes it hard for predators to find. Killdeer also have an interesting distraction display. When sensing a threat near their nest, they start a plaintive call and drag a wing like it is broken. This draws attention of any predator away as it looks like easy prey to capture. But as soon as the predator’s attention and movement is away from the nest, the killdeer just ups and flies away. Babies now saved.

These killdeer were still migrating so there were no distraction displays or nests. But we did get to see some mating behavior with a male courting the female. Hopefully that led to some more baby killdeer later in the summer.

Killdeer in its preferred short grass

Pair of killdeer

Trumpeter swan 1A2

I mentioned in the first blog on the festival that I saw four bird species lifers. There was one lifer that my wife saw that wasn’t completely new for me but I had only seen once before. And then we saw them all over the place during the festival. It is the trumpeter swan. These are a western and mid-western bird that nest far north and very seldom get to the east coast near us. Our first festival sighting was the day we arrived. They were far across the water so even with binoculars, they were small specks on the horizon. We saw several more swans during the guided walk to Sheldon Marsh I talked about in the guided tours post. The afternoon before going to Sheldon Marsh, we drove around Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge pass several managed ponds. There we saw this swan sitting on a dike, potentially on a nest. What drew our attention was that it had a banding collar. Scientist use these collars to help track individuals to better understand their movements, migration, and even deaths. By piecing together several photographs we were able to find the code and submit it providing evidence it was doing well.

After reporting a band, the researchers who put the band on will respond with some information about the banded bird and the project. Back in early May I photographed a black skimmer that had a leg band. I learned it had been banded as a chick in 2022 at a colony just a couple of miles from home (and near where I photographed the bird). In the winter of 2022/2023 it was seen in Jacksonville, FL and then 2 weeks later it was seen 100 miles away in Ponce Inlet, FL. In the fall of 2023, it was seen again in South Carolina, presumably on its fall migration south. Two years ago it was again seen in Hampton Roads during the May. The the piece I added to it’s journey. I’m hoping to hear more about the swan’s life and journey. If I do, I’ll post a quick update.

Banded black skimmer