Crown Jewels

Magnolia Warbler
Blackburnian Warbler

Golden-winged Warbler

Cape May Warbler

Black-and-white Warbler

Black-throated Green Warbler

Northern Parula

Bay-breasted Warbler

Nashville Warbler

Chestnut-sided Warbler

Black-throated Blue Warbler

Warblers are the crown jewels of the avian world. They are some of the most exquisitely colored of all the birds. We were lucky to see so many (over 24 species of warblers) on our recent trip to Magee Marsh Wildlife Area/Crane Creek State Park and Ottawa NWR . Here are some of Lillian's photos. Since it was cold, rainy and windy, many of the warblers were down low in the trees which made for great photo ops. Not so good for the warblers, who were searching for insects, made inactive by the weather.

The challenge of the photography was the low light conditions. I used my Canon 1D Mark II camera set on higher ISO's, up to 800 ISO sometimes. I had a Canon 300 mm IS (image stabilized) lens and used fill flash set on -2/3. Photos were cropped in Photoshop CS.
What I like is the intimate quality of images, showing real birds, not in "field guide" portrait poses, as they went about their serious business of foraging for food, the fuel to take them to their breeding grounds. Hope they arrive in good condition.

All warbler photos © Lillian Stokes, 2006