Avids trip, Sept 8 2007 - Godwits and more

I spent all day Saturday with the folks in my birding group, the Columbus Audubon Avid Birders. We birded most of the day up in the Sandusky region, concentrating on Sheldon Marsh for the confusing fall warblers (which I did find confusing, due mainly to the poor light and/or the inferiority of my binoculars to deal with poor lighting). I did get some good shots of the common Ohio herons there, as you can see below.

Juvenile Great Blue Heron

Green Heron

Great Egret

Next stop was the causeway to Cedar Point, or "Chausee" as it is known among birders (I think that's French for "causeway"). Here we had great luck with shorebirds, finding a group of 8 Hudsonian Godwits, a Red Knot, several Short-billed Dowitchers, Stilt Sandpipers, an amazing 25 Western Sandpipers, a Baird's Sandpiper, both yellowlegs, Least Sandpiper, and Pectoral Sandpiper. We also had an Eared Grebe, which was very early, but perhaps part of a grebe movement, as four Eared Grebes were found at Buck Creek State Park near Springfield that day as well. I also finally got Bank Swallow for my year list, which is now at 249 for the year, 239 for Ohio.

Hudsonian Godwits

Short-billed Dowitchers and Stilt Sandpipers

Finally, we ended the day at Hoover Reservoir, where we failed to relocate the Red Phalarope but did see a flock of 9 Buff-Breasted Sandpipers. We ended the day with 97 species.

Awesome birding day on Saturday, 4/28/07

I went down to southern Ohio with my birding group, the Avid Birders, on Saturday. We left Columbus at 5:30am and started birding at the marina/golf course just outside Shawnee State Forest in Scioto County. This was my first birding trip to this location, which is a forested set of Appalachian foothill-type ridges.

I picked up a life bird on this trip, Yellow-Throated Vireo (#346), which isn't actually all that rare but is one of those birds that just eludes you for a while. I'm sure now that I've seen one, I will now see them everywhere, like I did with Blue-Headed Vireo last year. I also picked up a state bird, American Bittern, at a little wetland northwest of the Pickaway County Airport on the way back.

I had 18 species of warbler, pretty good list. I only heard Black-throated Greens, Ovenbirds, and Northern Parulas. In addition, I missed a couple warblers that others saw: Golden-winged Warbler (@#$%%@#!!!) and Yellow-breasted Chat.

Besides the birds, we had a good day for wildflowers and reptiles, too. After the main group split up, 7 of us went over to a nature preserve in Adams county which features lots of rare plants, like Indian paintbrush and Pink Lady's Slipper orchids, and I saw a fence lizard and the snake guy in the group found us a couple of Black King Snakes, which were pretty friendly. I took a couple pictures on my camera phone.

Pink Lady's Slipper

Black King Snake

In all, I had 71 species and birded for about 12 hours (including drive time). I added 31 species to my year list and 34 to my state year list, for totals of 165 for the year and 160 for Ohio.

Here's my list for the day (year birds in bold, Ohio year birds in italics):

Wood Duck	2
Blue-winged Teal	2
Ring-necked Pheasant	1
American Bittern	1
Great Blue Heron	1
Turkey Vulture	12
Broad-winged Hawk	2
Red-tailed Hawk	1
Killdeer	1
Greater Yellowlegs	2
Lesser Yellowlegs	5
Solitary Sandpiper	1
Wilson's Snipe	5
Chimney Swift	2
Ruby-throated Hummingbird	1
Red-bellied Woodpecker	1
Downy Woodpecker	1
Northern Flicker	1
Pileated Woodpecker	1
Eastern Phoebe	2
White-eyed Vireo	2
Yellow-throated Vireo	1
Red-eyed Vireo	10
Blue Jay	2
American Crow	1
Horned Lark	10
Purple Martin	10
Tree Swallow	3
Northern Rough-winged Swallow	1
Barn Swallow	6
Carolina Chickadee	2
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher	3
Wood Thrush	3
American Robin	10
Gray Catbird	1
Brown Thrasher	1
European Starling	X
Blue-winged Warbler	11
Northern Parula	2
Yellow Warbler	2
Chestnut-sided Warbler	3
Yellow-rumped Warbler	1
Black-throated Green Warbler	6
Blackburnian Warbler	1
Yellow-throated Warbler	2
Pine Warbler	3
Prairie Warbler	6
Cerulean Warbler	1
Black-and-white Warbler	1
American Redstart	15
Worm-eating Warbler	1
Ovenbird	12
Louisiana Waterthrush	1
Kentucky Warbler	1
Hooded Warbler	2
Scarlet Tanager	5
Eastern Towhee	15
Chipping Sparrow	1
Song Sparrow	2
White-throated Sparrow	1
White-crowned Sparrow	1
Rose-breasted Grosbeak	1
Blue Grosbeak	1
Indigo Bunting	1
Red-winged Blackbird	X
Eastern Meadowlark	1
Common Grackle	X
Brown-headed Cowbird	2
Orchard Oriole	2
Baltimore Oriole	1
American Goldfinch	2