Our last paid birding tour is taking us to two locations east of Port Clinton and it has a slightly different structure than the previous ones. This is via festival van and luckily the van can pick us in Port Clinton instead of us going to Maumee Bay. And the pick up time is 6:30AM instead of 6AM not a huge improvements but we take what we can get. The meeting point is the parking lot of the city hall where we leave our car and wait for the buses to arrive. There are two buses but luckily all goes well and soon we are on our way to Pipe Creek Wildlife Area with a stop at a McDonalds on the way for breakfast and restroom break.
Pipe Creek Wildlife Area is, as we will learn, split in two different ecosystem. First there is a patch of forest with lots of warblers and other migrants and then there is a marshland section with waterbirds and shorebirds. We start in the forest section but have access directly to the lake via a boat dock to look for any ducks and gulls.
While there are some nice views from the dock we see only a few cormorants and a gull that is trying hard to kill a dead fish. Not sure if the gull killed it or not but it is quite a large fish so we are quite respectful to the gull until we can get off the narrow dock.
Birdwise while we like the guides it is quite quiet in this section of the forest. The top bird we see is a Cedar Waxwing that we heard called multiple times till today but this is the first time we actually see it. Otherwise there are a lots of tree swallows finally nesting in trees as the name implies.
We continue on with a flicker here a common warbler there but there is nothing that exciting in this part after the many warblers we saw the previous day.
And then we get the excitement, a Black-billed Cuckoo is called by another guided tour. We decide to search for it and after lots of looking and checking we finally find it out in the open, success!
Next follows a yellow warbler, common enough but this one sits on a nest which is much more exciting to see. And lots of cardinals that we always like.
Another group then points out that they found a Hooded Warbler in a spot and soon we also have it in our sights. It is happily quite a tame one and comes often in view because it can easily disappear in the undergrowth as we will soon learn. And then we also find a Red-eyed Vireo and so the list of interesting birds is slowly increasing even after three days of birdwatching in the area.
The trail is quite nice and we enjoy the shaded parts as it is quite hot outside today, there is a heat wave hitting Ohio right now unfortunately.
Above us we see a Sharp-shinned Hawk soaring while on the ground we see lots of Common Grackles, they are really common here as the name implies.
Soon we reach the marshland area continuing on the levee. Here we find Pied Grebes nesting and we witness a battle between Trumpeter Swans and Canada Geese for no good reason except that the swan didn’t like the encroachment.
A Hooded Merganser family is another highlight as we continue now through open grasslands and get cooked by the sun even though it is still early in the day.
Almost from everywhere on this trail you can see the Cedar Points Amusement Park in the distance, a major attraction in the area. And it is quite used as we see many people loop through the rides, scary.
For us the scary part is when we notice how good the snakes are at swimming. We assume that is why they are watersnakes and we encounter them both on land and in the water on this stretch.
And then our loop is finished and we reenter the patch of forest and with no additional sighting we move on to the parking.
Here it is time for lunch. For the first time ever in a day tour the festival does not provide the food, luckily we have emergency provisions but this is quite a letdown really.
And then just as we want to leave a birdwatcher comes to us and lures us with the promise of a vireo nest. Only part of the group descends from the van to look at the nest but it is a cute one even though only the back side is visible from below. And then it is time to move to the last stop of the day Sheldon Marsh.
