Just to re-iterate Bill's assessment.

Bill Whan <[log in to unmask]> wrote:    Asked about this topic, I thumbed through the records available to me.
They confirm that Peterjohn (2001) is on the money when he says
Forster's terns "have returned by 25-26 March, and frequently appear
during the first week of April."

  So much so, I had not made a point of mentioning two over the
  Sandusky Bay Bridge on the 1st of April.

  A quick look back, I see I have a 6 April 2001 record for Huron.
  That same day Doug & MIcki Dunakin had a bird in Paulding.
  I likely do not have an earlier record personally.

Over the past decade, for example, there are a dozen published records
in the Ohio Cardinal on or before 12 April for the state (plus quite a
few others in the background, since generally only the first spring
record is published). There are two records for 25 March, in Muskingum
(1999) and Allen (2002) counties. There are Lake Erie records before 10
April from Erie, Cuyahoga, Lorain, Lake, and Lucas counties. Greg Links
reported one in Lucas County on 7 April 2001; on that same day,
Forster's were also seen in Lake (J. Pogacnik), Wayne (S. Snyder), and
Paulding (M&D Dunakin) counties.

  As mentioned above, I have the Paulding bird as recorded the 6th.

  published here http://aves.net/birdnews/pastspring01.htm
  at the time of observation.

  The year before, Jay Lehman and Hank Armstrong had 2 at Huron
  26 March, while 2 birds were on a borrow pit in Hocking County
  two days earlier as seen by Bill Perrine, former ornithology instructor at
  Hocking College.

  cheers

  Vic Fazio
  Shaker Heights, OH

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