Eight birds away

In my last blog post, I mentioned that I was only eight bird species away from hitting 250 Ohio species for the year.

I thought I might expand on that and list some of the birds that I still need for my year list AND still have a halfway decent chance of adding, ahead of my Columbus Avids trip this Saturday.

The list includes, in no particular order:

Purple Finch
Pine Siskin
Greater White-fronted Goose
Cackling Goose
Northern Shrike
Black Scoter
Merlin
Iceland Gull
Short-eared Owl
Snow Bunting
Lapland Longspur
Snowy Owl

Of the above, Pine Siskin would be an addition to my Ohio life list.

There are also some less likely birds I could get, which include:
Brant
Harlequin Duck
Northern Saw-whet Owl
Red Crossbill
Common Redpoll
Little Gull
Pomarine Jaegar
Parasitic Jaegar
Golden Eagle
Black-legged Kittiwake
Purple Sandpiper
Sanderling (maybe some late birds???)

Of these birds, Harlequin Duck, Little Gull, Pomarine Jaegar and Black-legged Kittiwake would be life birds, and Red Crossbill, Common Redpoll and Golden Eagle would be Ohio lifers.

Of the above lists, the species I think I have the best chances of adding are:

Short-eared Owl
Purple Finch
Snow Bunting
Northern Shrike
Pine Siskin
Greater White-Fronted Goose
Black Scoter

That's seven. So basically, I need to get LUCKY!