A hardcore contingent of nine birders convened well before dawn to undertake an expedition looping from Columbus through Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge on the far end. Predicted rain never arrived, and we were able to finish the itinerary and do a bit of improvising as well, resulting in a nice trip list of 83 bird species, offered below.
Springville Marsh State Nature Preserve was reachable by dawn, and we did so, unfortunately a few minutes late for the local woodcock display. We walked the boardwalk through the marsh and woods, watching the diurnal animals wake and go about their business. Darting shadows resolved into identifiable birds, and we found the common creatures of the marsh, laying a firm foundation of seven sparrow species for the day to come.
We spent a couple of hours slowly moseying north along the quietest back roads we could find in Seneca County. We looked for field birds, especially species we might find at sky-ponds, manure spreads, and livestock pens: golden-plovers, pectoral sandpipers, longspurs, blackbirds, etc. Encountering very little traffic, we were able to stop to examine everything we saw in the corner of the eye. Nothing glamorous, but we got good looks at pipits, and enough vesper sparrows to persuade us they may be more widespread than is thought (if inconspicuous), as well as the commoner denizens of this limited habitat. Puddles, manured fields, and livestock were very scarce, and we mostly peered into corn-stubble and emerging winter wheat.
The slough along Benton-Carroll Road near Ottawa provided a bounty of birds; here at last was a big puddle attracting migrant shorebirds, waterfowl, gulls, etc., where despite having no place to park the vehicles we saw our first Bonaparte’s gulls, many diving and dabbling ducks, and 100+ shorebirds in breeding array. It is strange that so many shorebirds, of seven species, could be found here under dangerous circumstances on private property when a three-plus mile walk in Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge just across the road afforded us views of much small numbers of only three species. We saw 35+ snipes along Benton-Carroll and only seven in Ottawa, where we spent eight times as long. Go figger.
Ottawa was breezy, bright, and, except for workers pumping water into two impoundments, pretty quiet. We had a cooperative northern shrike at the first intersection, but two sides of pool 2B were closed by the presence of an eagle nest. We wondered if this was the pair that had been nesting in the very visible nest in the North Woods across the way; this nest was occupied by a defiant great horned owl. The Crane Creek estuary was flooded with water but nearly devoid of water birds, and our walk, while pleasant as always, was seldom interrupted by birds. The most interesting find was a big herring gull robbing eggs from a pair of Canada geese, then dining on them along the dike.
A stop at Metzger Marsh added a few waterfowl species to our list from among its throngs. Here, several rebellious participants disclosed an ungovernable urge to move on to Buck Creek State Park, where a red-necked grebe had been seen, and a red-throated loon might still linger. So one carload went down toward Springfield, and the rest of us headed for Wyandot County.
There, our carloads stopped first at a traditional field off 53 and were treated by flocks of Lapland longspurs, the males in brilliant breeding dress. When viewed from a point perpendicular to the rows of emerging winter wheat, they disappeared upon alighting, but carefully looking from a perspective parallel to the rows made it more difficult for them to hide. Sky-pond habitat was quite scarce here, too. Long longspur inspections shortened our time, so we hurried on to Upper Sandusky Reservoir, where waterfowl were fairly scarce, but included a few new species for the day. A field north of Killdeer Plains afforded a large four-species blackbird flock, one of them including two female Brewer’s blackbirds. Time remaining reduced the rest of our visit there to a search for golden eagles, and we used it all persuading ourselves that three flying candidates were just young bald eagles.
Canada goose
Mute swan
Tundra swan
Wood duck
Gadwall
American wigeon
American black duck
Mallard
Blue-winged teal
Northern shoveler
Northern pintail
Green-winged teal
Canvasback
Redhead
Ring-necked duck
Lesser scaup
Bufflehead
Hooded merganser
Common merganser
Red-breasted merganser
Common loon
Pied-billed grebe
Horned grebe
Double-crested cormorant
Great blue heron
Great egret
Turkey vulture
Bald eagle
Northern harrier
Cooper’s hawk
Red-tailed hawk
American kestrel
American coot
Killdeer
Spotted sandpiper
Greater yellowlegs
Lesser yellowlegs
Least sandpiper
Pectoral sandpiper
Wilson’s snipe
Bonaparte’s gull
Ring-billed gull
Herring gull
Great black-backed gull
Rock pigeon
Mourning dove
Great horned owl
Belted kingfisher
Red-bellied woodpecker
Downy woodpecker
Eastern phoebe
Blue jay
American crow
Horned lark
Tree swallow
Black-capped chickadee
Tufted titmouse
White-breasted nuthatch
Golden-crowned kinglet
Ruby-crowned kinglet
Eastern bluebird
American robin
Northern mockingbird
European starling
American pipit
Eastern towhee
American tree sparrow
Field sparrow
Vesper sparrow
Fox sparrow
Song sparrow
Swamp sparrow
White-throated sparrow
White-crowned sparrow
Dark-eyed junco
Lapland longspur
Northern cardinal
Red-winged blackbird
Eastern meadowlark
Rusty blackbird
Brewer’s blackbird
Common grackle
Brown-headed cowbird
House sparrow