On Sunday I birded Big Island Wildlife Area and Killdeer Plains Wildlife Area. It was raining most of the day, but it never came down hard. Most songbirds were hunkered down because of the wind.

 
All water at Big Island WA was low.  In the large impoundements directly north of Larue-Prospect Rd there were 45 Wilson's Snipe. There were probably more, as most were hidden in the vegetation. One NORTHERN SHRIKE was actively hunting from the snags and brushpiles in the dry marsh.  The only ducks I could find were 35 Green-winged Teal. I encountered 14 more snipe throughout the wildlife area.

I then proceeded to Killdeer Plains, where water levels were also low.  On Pond 27 there was 1 TUNDRA SWAN, 1 Wood Duck, 2 Gadwall, ~250 Green-winged Teal, 17 Greater Yellowlegs, 28 Dunlin, and 34 Wilson's Snipe, and a flock of 85 Rusty Blackbirds. The marsh by the Sportsmen's Center had a similar cast with 22 snipe feeding in the mud with a flock of 40 Rusty Blackbirds.  There was one Great Horned Owl in the pine stand on CH-71.

On the above ground reservoir were 6 lesser scaup, 36 Ring-necked Ducks, and 14 Red-breasted Mergansers. American Kestrels, Northern Harriers, Red-tailed Hawks, and Bald Eagles were present in strong numbers, but I couldn't find any rough-leggeds.

At the end of the day I stopped at the north end of Delaware Reservoir where 1 Lesser Yellowlegs and 3 Dunlin were feeding amongst a vast number of killdeer.


~Jack Stenger
Ohio Wesleyan University
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