Hello!

This past weekend, I was able to make my first trip to beautiful Shawnee State Park in Scioto and Adams Counties for the annual Ohio Ornithological Society Birds and Butterflies weekend.  Originally, I planned the trip outside of my OOS function, but circumstances developed in which I needed to help lead some field trips, so it was fun to help some folks see birds they had never seen before.

Overall, according to folks who have been there for many years, migration activity was definitely running behind.  Also, based upon what butterflies were flying, they are behind as well.  There was a nice flight of Falcate Orangetips (all male that I saw), which I think is a bit late for these early spring fliers.  Zebra Swallowtails were plentiful on Friday, as well as a species of Duskywing. 

As for the birds, I would have expected to hear a lot more Ovenbirds, Hooded Warblers, and Louisiana Waterthrush considering the habitat.  There were quite a few Yellow-throated Warblers, Northern Parula, and American Redstarts scattered across several areas.  We had a few Cerulean Warblers at key higher elevations.  Worm-eating Warblers were found at various appropriate habitats as well.  Black-throated Green Warblers were scattered, but seemed very low for the date.  We only had 1 Nashville in our group.  Black-and-white Warblers were fairly plentiful and called and sang almost constantly.  I believe that as a group, OOS guides found 22 species of warblers in tough conditions, but I have not heard everyone’s reports yet.  

On Friday night, I scooped up Jacob Roalef and Cole DiFabio to try for Chuck-will’s-widow in Adams County.  We heard at least 3 Chucks along Hamilton Rd, as well as 2 Whip-poor-wills.  We were able to get nice recordings of each for our eBird reports.  The OOS group on Saturday did not hear the Chucks, unfortunately, as the temperatures plummeted on Saturday night.  Mothing was reported to be quite slow on Friday and was cancelled on Saturday due to the cold.  

With the coming forecast of warm temperatures and S-SW winds, I would expect that migration is about to kick in to overdrive, perhaps with good timing for the Biggest Week, as well as those of us who spend a lot of time checking local patches.  The leaf cover is definitely behind, so we may have nice views of the birds we do find.  Let’s hope they don’t fly right past us as that biological imperative drives the push north to nest!

That’s all for now.

Happy birding!

Jon Cefus
Regional Director, East Central Ohio
Ohio Ornithological Society. 
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