Once again, our September trip was designed to take advantage of passerine and shorebird migrations, with stops at woodlands and edges and wetlands. Two carloads of us set out on a chilly morning for a gorgeous day in central Ohio spots, with travel time reduced in favor of visits to a lot of hopefully productive habitats. Reports from neighboring states of jaegers and scarce gulls and terns suggested we visit some reservoirs, so we started at Indian Lake SP. Lots of swallows and gulls coursed over the water, but nothing remarkable; our stop at the beach began with—and pretty much ended with–a sanderling chasing killdeers in the parking lot, but little else of great interest.
Lawrence Woods was lovely and serene, so serene that walks through the prairie and the woods were largely devoid of animal life. Anyone who knows this spot will be shocked to hear that 45 minutes spent there produced no sparrows—not even a song sparrow—no warblers, one woodpecker, no nuthatches, no hawks, not even a cruising vulture. We hit the road, with our next stop the Killdeer WA upground reservoir, which was unruffled as a farm pond and absolutely devoid of any waterbird whatsoever, a first for many of us. Usually you can find a Canada goose, anyway. The shallow impoundments along C71 kept us around for an hour, though, producing eleven shorebird species, plus some marsh birds like coots, gallinules, soras, etc. The views were excellent, and we had the place to ourselves. We saw so few other travelers along our route that we began inventing outlandish explanations—that all the local farmers had gone to the big birding conference along Lake Erie, or that some disaster had occurred. The empty roads and the lack of birders (we saw only one) produced an eerie feeling.
Further explorations at Killdeer were unavailing. The big ponds along T68 had only a few Canada geese, a family of trumpeter swans, and a lone eagle. The fields seemed empty. Three quarters of an hour near Pond 30 produced a half dozen new species, including our first cardinal, first song sparrow, and some jays. This spot had been excellent for warblers only the day before. We drove down to Big Island WA. There was no shorebird habitat, and the deeper water produced only the usual rallids, and a handful of the expected waterfowl.
Wary of still more disappointment, we abandoned a chance to see if Hoover Reservoir had produced some mudflats in favor of the new wetlands at Darby Creek MP.
These had been excellent all year for shorebirds, and only one of us had been out there. We first verified that the blue grosbeak family had moved on, and that the afternoon light was very wrong for looking for golden and buff-breasted sandpipers on the lawns. The mudflats were in a pond well out in the newly replanted prairie, but we found a narrow path had been cut into the vegetation that greatly increased access while saving wear and tear on the plant life. Beautiful light and a hundred and fifty or so shorebirds rewarded us with an hour’s study of the wetland, and we added at least four species of them to our list. Weary but unbowed, we called a stop to our journey in late afternoon. It is not unusual for us to tally a hundred species on a September trip, but circumstances held us to one warbler species, one sparrow, two woodpeckers, and one flycatcher, so this trip may have established a bottom level for future expectations, one hopes, with a paltry 68 species. The shorebirds at least were a treat, and otherwise it was a splendid day spent afield.
Canada goose
Wood duck
American black duck
Mallard
Blue-winged teal
Northern shoveler
Green-winged teal
Ring-necked pheasant
Pied-billed grebe
Double-crested cormorant
Great blue heron
Great egret
Turkey vulture
Osprey
Bald eagle
Northern harrier
Sharp-shinned hawk
Red-tailed hawk
American kestrel
Sora
Common gallinule
American coot
American golden-plover
Semipalmated plover
Killdeer
Greater yellowlegs
Lesser yellowlegs
Sanderling
Semipalmated sandpiper
Western sandpiper
Least sandpiper
White-rumped sandpiper
Baird’s sandpiper
Pectoral sandiper
Stilt sandpiper
Long-billed dowitcher
Wilson’s snipe
Wilson’s phalarope
Red-necked phalarope
Bonaparte’s gull
Ring-billed gull
Herring gull
Rock pigeon
Mourning dove
Chimney swift
Ruby-throated hummingbird
Belted kingfisher
Red-bellied woodpecker
Pileated woodpecker
Eastern wood-pewee
Blue jay
American crow
Tree swallow
Northern rough-winged swallow
Barn swallow
Carolina chickadee
American robin
Gray catbird
European starling
Black-and white warbler
Song sparrow
Northern cardinal
Red-winged blackbird
Eastern meadowlark
Common grackle
Brown-headed cowbird
American goldfinch
House sparrow