250, 251! No, wait a minute. It's 250.

What am I referring to with that title? Well, as I have posted here recently, I was on a quest to hit 250 Ohio species observed this year. Up until Saturday, I was (or thought I was) at 249.

Saturday, I went with my friends Brad, Paul and Jeff up to Oak Openings Metropark near Toledo to see the Pine Grosbeaks that have been hanging out there. Paul and I got good looks, Brad got crappy looks and groused about it all day. But I thought there's bird number 250!

But then as we talked about listing through out the day, I realized that I had been basing my count on my eBird totals, which counted the Trumpeter Swans I've seen this year. Now, in Ohio, Trumpeter Swans are not generally accepted by the records committee, since they are an introduced species (Some say reintroduced, but I gather that there is no good data supporting Ohio as part of their former breeding range, but I digress). So really, when I saw the grosbeak (an Ohio life bird, by the way), it was really only bird 249 for the year. Back to where I started on the day!

But I lucked out and hit 250 anyway at the end of the day, when Brad managed to find the Northern Shrike that he'd seen last week at Maumee Bay State Park.

Unfortunately, I wasn't in a position to get any type of good photo of either bird. I did get a couple good photos of Pine Siskins when we were at Oak Openings, though, so here they are: