Our September outing is usually a satisfying one, with the overlap of the regular migrations of shorebirds and passerines, arrivals of the first migrant gulls and terns and jaegers, movements of swifts and nighthawks, and the post-breeding incursions of southern waders. A higher-than-normal number of vagrant records is an extra inducement, as inexperienced juveniles tend to wander out of range. Summer heat and humidity have abated somewhat, and appreciable flocks of birds may be seen on the move all day long, and heard passing over by night. It is hurricane season, too, when occasionally a waif comes our way from the ocean.
Thus as always it was with high expectations that nine of us gathered to follow a time-tested itinerary, our first stop for a slow walk along the eastern edge of the woods at Sheldon Marsh SNP, when the first sunlight stirs insects in the leaves, and hundreds of warblers, vireos, flycatchers, etc. may be seen, then later birds in the marsh, on the beach, and in the lakeside willows. Steady rain diluted the sunlight however, drowned out the chips of the birds, and promised to fog our lenses, so we postponed this activity till the weather improved, limited ourselves to cruising the Cedar Pt Chaussee, where peering through the rain-fogged car windows rewarded us with many gulls, terns, herons and egrets, and a few shorebirds.
Figuring we might as well undertake the longest jump of the day while the sun wasn’t shining, we set out for Lorain, with a stop at Huron Harbor for the first test of our rain gear. At Lorain, we split into two groups linked by radio, one checking out the open harbor (hundreds of terns, unaccompanied by jaegers), and the impoundment (perhaps a dozen common shorebirds in a sea of slippery mud), during a brief respite in the rain. We all marveled at how the winter annoyance of binocular lenses that fog up on returning to a warm vehicle was reversed; they fogged over when we emerged into the warm waterlogged air of the outside. The resumption of the downpour persuaded us to head back west to sample the pothole ponds of Sandusky County, a 40-minute drive best undertaken during what proved to be the heaviest downpours of the day.
The bands of rain had proven heaviest along the lake shore, and we found that being only 20 miles inland helped. When we reached the Riddle Road ponds the rain abated, even stopped for a while, and we were able to enjoy our first decent birding of the day, with the best of the migrants, thirteen species of shorebirds, accommodating us by feeding out in the open. Flocks of larks and ducks and swallows swept over, and nearly all the birds found were shared by nearly everyone. Our customary good spirits quickly returned, along with the wisdom to realize that better birding lay to the south, and by consensus we decided to explore the upper end of the Delaware Reservoir on the way back. This area proved birdy, with hundreds of shorebirds, including a couple new species for the day, periodically disturbed by a marauding merlin.
We closed out the day by splitting into two groups once again, exploring the upper end of Hoover Reservoir. Here, the rain had obliterated some shorebird habitat, but we picked up some warblers, as well as four pelicans. Oddly enough, after hours spent in Sandusky County, we found our first eagles here. At length, we said goodbye via cell phones and called it a day, a day wherein improvisation served us when bad weather might otherwise have reigned. Our day list of 72 species is fairly puny for September, but might be the best any birders got in Ohio that drenchy day.
Canada goose
Mute swan
Wood duck
Mallard
Ruddy duck
Pied-billed grebe
American white pelican
Double-crested cormorant
Great blue heron
Great egret
Turkey vulture
Bald eagle
Red-tailed hawk
American kestrel
Merlin
Peregrine falcon
American coot
Black-bellied plover
Semipalmated plover
Killdeer
Greater yellowlegs
Lesser yellowlegs
Semipalmated sandpiper
Western sandpiper
Least sandpiper
White-rumped sandpiper
Baird’s sandpiper
Pectoral sandpiper
Stilt sandpiper
Buff-breasted sandpiper
Short-billed dowitcher
Bonaparte’s gull
Ring-billed gull
Herring gull
Great black-backed gull
Common tern
Forster’s tern
Rock pigeon
Mourning dove
Chimney swift
Belted kingfisher
Red-bellied woodpecker
Downy woodpecker
Pileated woodpecker
Eastern wood-pewee
Eastern kingbird
Blue jay
American crow
Horned lark
Purple martin
Tree swallow
Northern rough-winged swallow
Bank swallow
Cliff swallow
Barn swallow
Carolina chickadee
White-breasted nuthatch
Carolina wren
American robin
European starling
Magnolia warbler
Cape may warbler
Yellow-rumped warbler
American redstart
Common yellowthroat
Canada warbler
Eastern towhee
Savannah sparrow
Song sparrow
Northern cardinal
Red-winged blackbird
American goldfinch
House sparrow