Hi all,
 
I'm forwarding the following on behalf of Greg Links...
 
Jim McCormac
 
Ohio birders,

Yesterday (December 17) was the Toledo CBC.  Perhaps compiler Matt
Anderson will post some of the overall results in the next day or two,
but I thought I would relay some of my group's more interesting finds.

At 3:30am, Brian Zwiebel, Laura Stiefel, Sherrie Duris, Becky Cullen and
myself found ourselves at Maumee Bay State Park for some owling.  Brian
and I had convinced ourselves we could get Saw-whet there, so we decided
we would concentrate almost solely on that species.  After 20 minutes of
taping, a Saw-whet responded nicely to our "tape".  Later, we
experienced what was surely the single luckiest moment I have ever had
while birding.  Standing at the edge of a woods, I randomly aimed my
mega-light at the treeline to scan for life.  I pointed it, turned it
on, and there in the spotlight was a Northern Saw-whet Owl!!!!   It was
actively hunting the edge, and soon disappeared.  Just before leaving
for breakfast, a 3rd Saw-whet responded to our tape, this one in a
completely different area.  Not too shabby.  

Our group received permission to visit the impoundments at Bayshore
Power Plant near the mouth of the Maumee river.  Old timers will know
Bayshore as a place where access was more freely given (prior to 9/11),
and in the old days, it was a great shorebirding spot among other
things.  Today, we only get out there once a year, but I would guess it
still is one of the top 3 places in Ohio for Snowy Owls.  Too bad no one
can ever see them!  We dipped on Snowy Owl while there, but the sparrows
were wonderful.  One of the impoundments there had GOBS of sparrows, and
among the hundreds of American Tree, Song and Swamp Sparrows, we found 3
Savannah Sparrows and a Vesper Sparrow.  Also at Bayshore was a Marsh
Wren.

Things at Maumee Bay State Park were (typically) pretty quiet during the
day.  No Short-eared Owls (there is virtually no habitat here for them
anymore), no Long-eared Owls, and no real surprises were found.  Winter
Wrens seemed a hair "up" (not a surprise considering the weather pattern
here), and one in full song on the boardwalk was a nice treat for balmy
December day along the lake.  

Finally, my stakeout Brown Thrasher that I foolishly thought was "nailed
to the branch" failed us miserably and that bird was summarily
downgraded to "Count Week" status.  

Greg Links
Somewhere near Toledo
 

______________________________________________________________________

Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society.
Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list.

You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at:
http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS
Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]