In August Ohio birders, thirsting for novelty, turn their gaze from the local scene to greet the first southbound migrants, the most prodigious travelers of all—the shorebirds. Because the arctic breeding season is brief, these birds lead the way, often to the other end of the world. Many, mostly adults, had appeared in July, but by mid-August a throng of adults and young birds, in feathers subtle and garish, occupied Ohio mudflats and shallow wetlands seeking fuel for their long journeys to the wintering grounds. Unlike, say, warblers, shorebirds have personalities, such as varied feeding strategies and other behaviors. They sport interesting plumages–fresh juvenal, worn adult, various mid-journey molts, basic–to make studying them especially rewarding and sometimes difficult. They love open sunny places, are not terribly skittish, and can be studied at leisure. And in mid-August, they are in many ways the only game in town.
Thus it was that eleven of us set out in the dark, aimed at Conneaut, Ohio’s northeastern-most town, where an unkempt marsh and sandbar inside a harbor wall has for nearly twenty years attracted more than its share of water-loving birds. It’s a three and a half-hour drive, but the lure was great; in fact, a West Virginia birder joined us, having started his journey at 2 am from that too-well-drained state.
The good citizens of Conneaut appear not to appreciate their harbor and its wildlife, using it to dump old tires, shoot off fireworks, fly model airplanes, do donuts in the sand, train (but not restrain) dogs, etc., etc. Thus, we got there early and stayed only until the motorcycles arrived in numbers. We found several birders who’d been there since dawn, who showed us a white-rumped sandpiper and a red-necked phalarope that remained since then, but we’d missed a golden-plover and a little gull that hadn’t. Birds came and went, sending us from one spot to another. Eventually our numbers grew to about twenty, and we were able to protect a section of beach with a tripod-armed phalanx from the antics of the locals. The birds worried less than we did.
We went next to Mosquito Lake, where encouraging reports had emanated over the previous days. The refuge on this lake’s northern end had devolved to vast mudflats with reduced rainfall, and many shorebirds were present, albeit at a considerable distance, and in light not yet great, with a lot of heat waves. We tried to get closer to the birds while playing by the rules, without a lot of luck, and did as well as we could, finding the three marbled godwits reported, some dowitchers, a knot, etc. The views were barely diagnostic, and required imagination to be aesthetically satisfying. We did meet a lot of birders, including poachers from Pennsylvania just 15 miles east. A trip to the old fish hatchery at Grand River Wildlife Area was unavailing, whereupon a phone call alerted us to more finds at Mosquito, so we returned for a while to scan the flats in slightly better light.
A quick freeway trip back home left us enough time to inspect the mudflats at the upper end of Hoover Reservoir, one of Ohio’s better shorebird spots this fall, and right in our backyard. A stroll with many stops along the boardwalk netted some new sights, and we ended our day with a respectable 83 species, despite never having ventured into a number of productive habitats. Our list follows.
Canada goose
Wood duck
Green-winged teal
American black duck
Mallard
Blue-winged teal
Hooded merganser
Pied-billed grebe
Double-crested cormorant
Great blue heron
Great egret
Little blue heron
Green heron
Turkey vulture
Osprey
Bald eagle
Cooper’s hawk
Red-shouldered hawk
Red-tailed hawk
American kestrel
Peregrine falcon
American coot
Black-bellied plover
Semipalmated plover
Killdeer
Spotted sandpiper
Solitary sandpiper
Greater yellowlegs
Lesser yellowlegs
Marbled godwit (3)
Ruddy turnstone
Red knot
Sanderling
Semipalmated sandpiper
Western sandpiper
Least sandpiper
White-rumped sandpiper
Pectoral sandpiper
Stilt sandpiper
Short-billed dowitcher
Red-necked phalarope
Ring-billed gull
Herring gull
Greater black-backed gull
Caspian tern
Common tern
Forster’s tern
Rock pigeon
Mourning dove
Chimney swift
Ruby-throated hummingbird
Belted kingfisher
Red-bellied woodpecker
Downy woodpecker
Northern flicker
Eastern wood-pewee
Willow flycatcher
Eastern kingbird
Red-eyed vireo
Blue jay
American crown
Purple martin
Tree swallow
Bank swallow
Barn swallow
Black-capped chickadee
Tufted titmouse
White-breasted nuthatch
Marsh wren
Blue-gray gnatcatcher
American robin
Brown thrasher
Cedar waxwing
Common yellowthroat
Song sparrow
Northern cardinal
Rose-breasted grosbeak
Indigo bunting
Red-winged blackbird
Common grackle
Brown-headed cowbird
American goldfinch
House sparrow