In August, Columbus seemed like Paris. Not to stretch the comparison too far, but at least it seemed everyone was on vacation, many to gaudier birding destinations. As a routine matter, August finds us scanning the few evanescent Ohio spots that host shorebirds, enjoying as well the other species found in marshes, mudflats, and lakefronts. August’s trip is generally a day spent horsing heavy spotting scopes around under an open sky, wiping sweat from our eyes, insect pests from exposed parts, and wishing we could sweep away as well the heat waves obscuring the faint markings that so often separate one species from another. And, this time, only five of us to do the job.
The weather was sunny, dry, and not too hot. We drove through back country of Seneca Co, in case a flock of long-billed curlews might have dropped down, then did a fairly thorough sweep through the Bellevue area, where the overflow of artesian springs in May had scattered new potholes of water among the fields of corn, inviting waterfowl and shorebirds ever since. By now, roads once flooded were crossable without swimming, and the food source may have changed, because now we saw fewer birds than in previous trips there, even though there’d been lots of turnover, with many juvenal birds arrived. Six potholes later we had seen a fair number of birds, but only seven shorebird species – unexpectedly fewer than our waterfowl total.
We ran into other frustrated seekers, including a friend from Cleveland who showed us the aluminum horned toad hood ornament on his truck, and told us he’d found both long-winged peeps at Willow Point WA. We hadn’t planned on visiting this out-of-the-way spot, but in doing so we found some pretty good habitat and quite a few birds, nearly doubling our species total. Lent the strength to continue by Mary Heck’s fresh ginger-raisin cookies, we pressed on to another counterintuitive (this year, they’re all counterintuitive) shorebird spot, Findlay Reservoir #1, where I was incautious enough to predict (twice) we would find buff-breasted sandpipers. We did not, but observers were surprised to see any shorebirds at all in this seemingly sterile spot, but decided that to birds making their first trip south it must resemble their tundra home. We added some species, a flock of Bonies and a couple of loons, plus some shorebirds, in time to head home for dinner. A pleasant trip overall, and a decent list considering the limited number of habitats visited (not a woodpecker!). The list of 67 species follows.
Canada goose
Wood duck
Mallard
Blue-winged teal
Northern shoveler
Green-winged teal
Hooded merganser
Ruddy duck
Common loon (2)
Pied-billed grebe
Double-crested cormorant
Great blue heron
Great egret
Turkey vulture
Osprey
Bald eagle
Cooper’s hawk
Red-tailed hawk
American kestrel
American coot
Semipalmated plover
Killdeer
Spotted sandpiper
Solitary sandpiper
Greater yellowlegs
Lesser yellowlegs
Semipalmated sandpiper
Least sandpiper
White-rumped sandpiper
Pectoral sandpiper
Stilt sandpiper
Short-billed dowitcher
Bonaparte’s gull
Ring-billed gull
Herring gull
Caspian tern
Rock pigeon
Mourning dove
Chimney swift
Belted kingfisher
Eastern kingbird
Blue jay
American crow
Horned lark
Purple martin
Tree swallow
Bank swallow
Barn swallow
Marsh wren
Eastern bluebird
American robin
European starling
Cedar waxwing
Chipping sparrow
Vesper sparrow
Savannah sparrow
Song sparrow
Northern cardinal
Indigo bunting
Red-winged blackbird
Eastern meadowlark
Common grackle
House finch
American goldfinch
House sparrow