It was a dark and stormy Friday evening when four Avid Birders met at the Shawnee State Park Marina to begin their search for returning migrants. Four Forster’s terns and a pair of pileated woodpeckers entertained us as we waited for other birdwatchers who never materialized. After seeing what the marina had to offer, we loaded up and left for Adams County to do a few hours of daylight birding before looking for nightjars and owls. The rain was continuing to fall, so we decided that driving the back roads listening for birds was the thing to do. We did manage to find a few birds by doing this, with the highlights being a prairie warbler and field sparrow. At 8:00 pm we met three other Avids and went looking for nocturnal treasures. At the now garbageless dumpsite along Abner Hollow Road a whip-poor-will responded to our tape. We had great looks at the bird as it flew around over our vehicles. We continued on and at the Beasley Fork Bridge we were able to get great looks at a rufous-morph eastern screech-owl. We struck out on barred owl and chuck-will’s-widow (our target bird for the evening). The rain began to fall heavier so we all decided to go back to Portsmouth and get some sleep so we would be ready to bird Shawnee State Forest the next morning.
Saturday morning at 8:00 am the rain was still falling but did not dampen the spirits of the 25 birders from across the state that met at the marina. Everyone was ready for a great day of birding in Shawnee State Forest. The ice storms of the previous February had left the forest in shambles and the group was amazed at the destruction. Many of the forest roads were still closed, so the route taken throughout the day was different than the route that had been used on previous trips to the area. The forest was full of birdsong, but actually seeing these songsters was sometimes difficult. Eventually we were able to get great looks at most of the warblers that nest in the forest. There were very few migrants around with yellow-rumped warblers being the most obvious. One of the highlights of the day was finding a pine warbler nest in, appropriately enough, a pine tree. We were even fortunate enough to see the male feed the female a freshly caught caterpillar.
When the forest birding began to slow down in the afternoon, we decided (to Bill Whan’s delight) to check some shorebird habitat on Moore’s Lane. I doubted that we would find anything at this spot, but I was wrong! The second bird that we identified was a willet! The longer we scoped the field, the more species of shorebird that we found. The diversity that was present in what was essentially a large puddle was amazing.
By the time we were finished shorebirding it was about 5:00 pm, so we all went back to the Marina to separate and head back to Columbus. As we were leaving, an osprey circled overhead, a fitting end to a great trip. All in all we tallied 99 species including 18 warblers and nine shorebirds.
