Day 1 of The Biggest Week

I really want to tell you about Day 1 of The Biggest Week in American Birding here in western Ohio along Lake Eric, but the grape jelly on my  keyboard is making this a bit of a slog…but I’ll carry on.

Day 1 (that’s day 1 for me, the event kicked off yesterday) was a fantastic day of birding! And an even better day of rubbing shoulders (literally) with birders and old friends on the busy but productive boardwalk.

Warbling Vireo, warbling

The day started with a Warbling Vireo and ended on a Yellow-billed Cuckoo, two species I never take for granted. Here’s what I saw in between (and this is a partial list as the birds were so numerous and I was so busy gabbing I couldn’t keep up).

Great Egret

Great Blue Heron

Common Grackle

American Robin

Veery

Gray-cheeked Thrush

Mourning Dove

Gray Catbird

Rose-breasted Grosbeak

Baltimore Oriole

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Possible Red-headed Woodpecker (unconfirmed sighting)

Red-eyed Vireo

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

Tree Swallows

Cape May Warbler

Pine Warbler

Blackburnian Warbler

Northern Parula

Northern Waterthrush

Black-and-White Warbler

American Redstart

Black-throated Blues and Greens (2)

Nashville Warbler

female Bay-breasted Warbler

Common Yellowthroat

Yellow-rumped Warbler

White-throated Sparrow

Yellow-billed Cuckoo

Black-billed Cuckoo was spotted by others that day, but I missed it.

Today I am up early and not sure what the day holds…but hopefully it involves lots of birds.