Avid Birders Trip Reports

It was June, so naturally the Avids went looking for for grassland birds. Crown City Wildlife Area near the Ohio River is one of the best spots in Ohio for them. A couple firsts for an Avids trip: We had a Northern Cardinal strike our windshield on the freeway; and a non- birder accompanying her son

On April 25, 2026, the Avids set out bright and early on their traditional trip to Shawnee State Forest, seeking a variety of nesting woodland birds, with an emphasis on warblers. We started our journey on Shawnee Trail, where a pair of rare Swainson’s Warblers have returned for a third year. For over three hours,

It was a chilly 33 degrees at 6 am when we left Columbus headed for Millersburg to look for the first Sage Thrasher ever seen in Ohio. Other birders were already gathering when we arrived. After a short wait, the thrasher popped up about 30 yards away. The Sage Thrasher is the smallest thrasher with

Eleven people showed up at 6:00 am despite a fresh coating of snow and temperatures in the mid 20s. After all, it’s January and Avids tradition has us heading to the lake Erie shore in Cleveland for ducks and gulls. We arrived at the Cleveland Lakefront Nature Preserve (CNLP) where four additional people were already

Some days you get the bird, and some days the bird…. OK, that’s not exactly how the saying goes, but it sort of describes the Avids October trip. The day started well, as our first bird was a Killdeer calling from the parking lot at Cabela’s! Google Maps took us on a very circuitous route

Six intrepid birders decided to forgo watching the OSU-Texas football game in order to join the August Avids trip. It’s not that we aren’t loyal Buckeye fans (well, some of us anyway), but August in Ohio is shorebird season. Birders gotta do what birders gotta do, so off we headed to Northwest Ohio. Back in