In Ohio, late July birding trips can be tricky to lead. The resident breeding birds have stopped singing, the first southbound shorebirds are just starting to show up, and the weather is usually hot. So, most years we head to the marshes along the NW shores of Lake Erie to scrutinize whatever shorebird habitat is available in hopes of finding some rarities. This year, with no good habitat developing along the lake, we decided to check out some spots Rick Counts had reported in Hardin and Wyandot counties.
Five of us started by cruising through Killdeer Plains in the fog, where the highlight was a sedge wren perched up and singing in the open. This gave many of us the best views we’d ever had of this notoriously hard to see bird. We also found several vesper sparrows that had molted their white outer tail feathers, which perplexed us all for a few moments. Our next stop was at the Hardin County (Longbrake) wetlands, with lots of water and a few shorebirds. The highlight was a Wilson’s phalarope, certainly one of the pair that had bred at this location. In this area there were also many dickcissels and a few Henslow’s sparrows. After this we checked out an area along Wyandot County Rd. 29 where the Sandusky River had flooded its banks and left some nice mudflats. We had a decent variety of shorebirds and a flyover bald eagle. By this time the sun was getting high in the sky and the temperature was climbing into the 90s, so we decided to make it an un-Avid short day and started back to Columbus at about noon. All in all it was a decent day. I think Joe Meara summed it up nicely when he said that we “maximized our list with the opportunities that were available.”
Canada goose
Wood duck
Mallard
Pied-billed grebe
Great blue heron
Green heron
Turkey vulture
Bald eagle
Cooper’s hawk
Red-tailed hawk
Sora
Semipalmated plover
Killdeer
Greater yellowlegs
Lesser yellowlegs
Spotted sandpiper
Semipalmated sandpiper
Least sandpiper
Pectoral sandpiper
Short-billed dowitcher
Wilson’s phalarope
Rock pigeon
Mourning dove
Belted kingfisher
Red-headed woodpecker
Red-bellied woodpecker
Northern flicker
Eastern wood-pewee
Willow flycatcher
Eastern phoebe
Eastern kingbird
Blue jay
American crow
Purple martin
Tree swallow
Barn swallow
Tufted titmouse
Carolina wren
House wren
Sedge wren
American robin
Gray catbird
European starling
Cedar waxwing
Common yellowthroat
Field sparrow
Vesper sparrow
Savannah sparrow
Grasshopper sparrow
Henslow’s sparrow
Song sparrow
Northern cardinal
Indigo bunting
Dickcissel
Red-winged blackbird
Eastern meadowlark
American goldfinch
House sparrow