Bruce M. Bowman
June 1, 2009
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From 1995 to 2009 I made 123 spring migration birding trips to
Magee Marsh Wildlife Area ("Crane Creek State Park") near Toledo.
Ninety-six were in May; 27 were in April. My listing program
reports first and last dates that each species was seen in
migration; I have tabulated first/last data for warblers. The
first two tables below show earliest arrival and latest departure
dates for the 36 species of warblers I have found at Magee Marsh
and nearby Metzger Marsh Wildlife Area.
My latest spring trip to Magee and Metzger in any year was May 31, 2006; only three warblers were found on that trip. However, 18 migrant warblers were found on May 28, 2003, so it is clear that data in early June would extend my latest departure dates for a number of species. (A May 31, 1998, trip to Oak Openings Metropark, west of Toledo, supplements the 123 Magee Marsh trips and contributes four latest date birds, all nesters in the Toledo area.) My three earliest trips were April 15, 16, and 17. I found few warblers on those dates; even so, additional data for dates earlier than April 15 would surely extend my earliest arrival data for the three April 15 species (Table 1) or more. Several of the most uncommon species were seen seldom enough that the first/last dates are less meaningful than for the more common species. These, with number of days they were found in parentheses, are: Yellow-throated Warbler (1), Yellow-breasted Chat (3), Prairie Warbler (3), Connecticut Warbler (5), Kentucky Warbler (6), Worm-eating Warbler (6), Cerulean Warbler (7), Golden-winged Warbler (7), and Louisiana Waterthrush (8). The data can probably be adjusted to obtain reasonable estimates for southeast Michigan and southern Ontario by adding a day or so for earliest arrival and latest departure. E.g., an earliest arrival date of April 24 at Magee Marsh might correspond to an arrival date of April 25 in southeast Michigan. Magee Marsh is on the southern shore of Lake Erie and only a few miles south in latitude of the Ohio/Michigan state line. It is a 30-40 mile flight across Lake Erie to southern Ontario. Two books on birds of southeast Michigan give spring (and fall) dates for warblers as well as other birds. These are The Birds of Washtenaw County, Michigan (Ann Arbor / Kielb, Swales, Wolinski; 1992) and Birds of Southeast Michigan: Dearborn, Wayne County (1,2) (J. Craves; 1996). (The date data in Kielb, et al., are from birding in the field. The date data in Craves are largely from bird banding.) The ABA Birdfinding Guide, A Birder's Guide to Michigan (Chartier and Ziarno; 2005), has bar graphs that show date ranges as well as seasonal abundance (graphs compiled and edited by Chartier, Byrne, and Wuepper). The Washtenaw County book includes similar seasonal abundance graphs for spring migration warblers at Nichols Arboretum in Ann Arbor. With permission from the authors I have used data from the books for Washtenaw County and Dearborn, Wayne County, to supplement my own for earliest arrival and latest departure dates in Tables 1 and 2. This makes the tables more robust, and since Ann Arbor and Dearborn are both only 40 miles north from Magee Marsh Wildlife Area (and a few miles west), all of the data should be meaningful for both southeast Michigan and northwest Ohio. Warbler dates in the two southeast Michigan books are from 1977-1991 and 1973-1996, respectively. The authors now have newer data that would extend the dates in Tables 1 and 2. [Julie Craves has updated and added to her 1996 book (1,2) in the April 2007 book, The Birds of Dearborn, An Annotated Checklist (1,2), but Tables 1 and 2 below do not include new extreme dates from that book.] The third table below shows the dates of my 123 trips (1995-2009). Additional analyses of my data for Magee Marsh Wildlife Area are described at the end of this document.
Table 1. EARLIEST ARRIVAL DATES # = Dearborn, @ = Washtenaw, % = NW Ohio,
(mm dd yy) = NW Ohio
Yellow-rumped Warbler # Mar 17 (04 15 06) Magee Marsh W'life Area
Black-and-white Warbler # Apr 03 (04 19 08) Magee Marsh W'life Area
Nashville Warbler @ Apr 06 (04 22 05) Magee Marsh W'life Area
Louisiana Waterthrush # Apr 08 (04 15 06) Magee Marsh W'life Area
Pine Warbler @ Apr 10 (04 17 04) Magee Marsh W'life Area
Black-throated Green Warbler # Apr 14 (04 17 04) Magee Marsh W'life Area
Northern Parula % Apr 15 (04 15 06) Magee Marsh W'life Area
Prothonotary Warbler # Apr 16 (04 27 05) Metzger Marsh W'life Area
Northern Waterthrush # Apr 16 (04 19 08) Magee Marsh W'life Area
Ovenbird % Apr 17 (04 17 04) Magee Marsh W'life Area
Hooded Warbler # Apr 17 (04 25 09) Magee Marsh W'life Area
Palm Warbler % Apr 19 (04 19 08) Magee Marsh W'life Area
Yellow Warbler % Apr 19 (04 19 08) Magee Marsh W'life Area
Orange-crowned Warbler # Apr 20 (04 25 09) Magee Marsh W'life Area
Cape May Warbler @ Apr 21 (04 25 09) Magee Marsh W'life Area
Blackburnian Warbler % Apr 22 (04 22 04) Magee Marsh W'life Area
Blue-winged Warbler # Apr 23 (04 25 09) Metzger Marsh W'life Area
Worm-eating Warbler @ Apr 23 (04 25 09) Magee Marsh W'life Area
American Redstart % Apr 25 (04 25 09) Magee Marsh W'life Area
Golden-winged Warbler % Apr 25 (04 25 09) Metzger Marsh W'life Area
Common Yellowthroat # Apr 25 (04 27 05) Magee Marsh W'life Area
Chestnut-sided Warbler # Apr 26 (04 27 08) Magee Marsh W'life Area
Magnolia Warbler # Apr 26 (04 29 09) Magee Marsh W'life Area
Prairie Warbler # Apr 26 (05 02 01) Magee Marsh W'life Area
Kentucky Warbler # Apr 28 (04 30 04) Magee Marsh W'life Area
Tennessee Warbler # Apr 29 (04 30 04) Magee Marsh W'life Area
Cerulean Warbler @ Apr 29 (05 03 08) Magee Marsh W'life Area
Black-throated Blue Warbler #@% Apr 30 (04 30 04) Magee Marsh W'life Area
Wilson's Warbler % Apr 27 (04 27 08) Magee Marsh W'life Area
Bay-breasted Warbler @% May 01 (05 01 04) Magee Marsh W'life Area
Blackpoll Warbler % May 01 (05 01 08) Magee Marsh W'life Area
Canada Warbler @ May 02 (05 08 02) Magee Marsh W'life Area
Yellow-breasted Chat % May 05 (05 05 04) Magee Marsh W'life Area
Connecticut Warbler @ May 05 (05 16 99) Magee Marsh W'life Area
Mourning Warbler @ May 07 (05 08 09) Magee Marsh W'life Area
Yellow-throated Warbler # May 10 (05 11 03) Magee Marsh W'life Area
Table 2. LATEST DATE FOUND (* = breeds in Toledo area; Peterson, 2002)
# = Dearborn, @ = Washtenaw, % = NW Ohio, (mm dd yy) = NW Ohio
* Common Yellowthroat ------ (05 31 98) Oak Openings Metropark
* Yellow Warbler ------ (05 31 98) Oak Openings Metropark
* Pine Warbler ------ (05 31 98) Oak Openings Metropark
* Hooded Warbler ------ (05 31 98) Oak Openings Metropark
* American Redstart ------ (05 31 06) Magee Marsh W'life Area
* Chestnut-sided Warbler ------ (05 30 09) Magee Marsh W'life Area
* Prothonotary Warbler ------ (05 30 09) Magee Marsh W'life Area
* Ovenbird ------ (05 29 02) Magee Marsh W'life Area
* Black-and-white Warbler ------ (05 29 06) Magee Marsh W'life Area
* Blue-winged Warbler ------ (05 25 02) Metzger Marsh W'life Area
* Cerulean Warbler ------ (05 15 03) Magee Marsh W'life Area
* Yellow-breasted Chat ------ (05 14 04) Magee Marsh W'life Area
Mourning Warbler # Jun 23 (05 30 09) Magee Marsh W'life Area
Prairie Warbler @ Jun 11 (05 15 02) Metzger Marsh W'life Area
Wilson's Warbler # Jun 04 (05 30 09) Magee Marsh W'life Area
Magnolia Warbler # Jun 01 (05 29 06) Magee Marsh W'life Area
Tennessee Warbler #@ Jun 01 (05 28 03) Magee Marsh W'life Area
Blackpoll Warbler # Jun 01 (05 28 03) Magee Marsh W'life Area
Canada Warbler # Jun 01 (05 28 03) Magee Marsh W'life Area
Bay-breasted Warbler @ Jun 01 (05 28 06) Magee Marsh W'life Area
Blackburnian Warbler @ Jun 01 (05 27 06) Magee Marsh W'life Area
Connecticut Warbler # May 31 (05 28 03) Magee Marsh W'life Area
Black-throated Green Warbler # May 31 (05 28 03) Magee Marsh W'life Area
Northern Waterthrush % May 28 (05 28 03) Magee Marsh W'life Area
Cape May Warbler % May 28 (05 28 03) Magee Marsh W'life Area
Black-throated Blue Warbler % May 28 (05 28 03) Magee Marsh W'life Area
Worm-eating Warbler % May 28 (05 28 03) Magee Marsh W'life Area
Yellow-rumped Warbler #% May 28 (05 28 03) Magee Marsh W'life Area
Nashville Warbler # May 28 (05 25 02) Magee Marsh W'life Area
Palm Warbler # May 28 (05 25 02) Magee Marsh W'life Area
Kentucky Warbler @ May 27 (05 16 99) Magee Marsh W'life Area
Northern Parula @ May 26 (05 25 02) Magee Marsh W'life Area
Orange-crowned Warbler # May 25 (05 18 00) Magee Marsh W'life Area
Yellow-throated Warbler @ May 22 (05 11 03) Magee Marsh W'life Area
Golden-winged Warbler % May 21 (05 21 04) Magee Marsh W'life Area
Louisiana Waterthrush # May 19 (05 10 98) Magee Marsh W'life Area
Table 3. DATES OF MAGEE MARSH BIRDING TRIPS, 1995-2007
April 1-14 (none)
April 15 (2)
April 16 (1)
April 17 (2)
April 18 (1)
April 19 (3)
April 20 (1)
April 22 (3)
April 23 (1)
April 24 (1)
April 25 (2)
April 26 (3)
April 27 (2)
April 28 (2)
April 29 (1)
April 30 (2)
May 1 (3)
May 2 (6)
May 3 (2)
May 4 (5)
May 5 (2)
May 6 (3)
May 7 (2)
May 8 (6)
May 9 (3)
May 10 (6)
May 11 (4)
May 12 (3)
May 13 (4)
May 14 (4)
May 15 (5)
May 16 (6)
May 17 (5)
May 18 (1)
May 19 (1)
May 20 (3)
May 21 (2)
May 22 (4)
May 23 (4)
May 24 (1)
May 25 (2)
May 26 (none)
May 27 (3)
May 28 (2)
May 29 (2)
May 30 (1)
May 31 (1, plus 1 to Oak Openings Metropark)
June 1-June 30 (none)
An accompanying analysis describes the waveform in warblers count data from mid April through the end of May. There it is found that average peak warbler species numbers hold steady at about 19 from May 10 to May 17. A similar analysis shows the waveform in count data for all species. There the peak is more definite, i.e., not a plateau--67 species for May 9 and 10. To maximize both warbler count and total species count, the optimal time to bird in northwest Ohio (Magee Marsh Wildlife Area) is May 9-11. Bruce M. Bowman Ann Arbor, Michigan bbowman99@comcast.net http://www.umich.edu/~bbowman/birds/ |
comments to: Bruce M. Bowman bbowman99@comcast.net
last modified: July 12, 2009
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URL: http://www.umich.edu/~bbowman/birds/se_mich/warbdate.html
