Nothing special to report ... just some notes
  from the afternoon spent looking about for
  shorebird habitat.

  a brief survey of Metzger from the causeway
  only under wind conditions precluding the use of
  a scope, I had ...

  Mute Swan - 4
  Trumpeter Swan - 18
  Mallard - 150+
  Gadwall - 850+
  Northern Pintail - 25
  Northern Shoveler - 75
  Green-winged Teal - 180+
  Horned Grebe - 9
  Pied-billed Grebe - 3
  American Coot - 1850+
  Great Egret - 2
  Tree Swallow - 120

  Ottawa and adjacent Lucas County fields
  are mostly dry.

  Park Colony Rd (just west of Reno on the Beach)
  may be remembered by some for the good spring
  shorebirding there in the 90's. Tiling in 2002
  reduced flooding of the fields substantially. There
  was enough standing water yesterday to attract ...

  Wood Duck - 12
  Gadwall - 9
  Mallard - 90
  American Black - 12
  Blue-wiged Teal - 2
  American Wigeon - 135
  Northern Pintail - 4
  Bonaparte's Gull - 4
  Ring-billed Gull - 150
  Killdeer - 4

  perhaps worth a look over the next
  week or two.

  Benton-Carroll (just off Rt. 2) is not nearly
  as waterlogged as has been the case the past
  10 years. And the vegetation is as thick as
  I have seen this early in the season. There were
  only 8 Greater and 1 Lesser Yellowlegs present
  yesterday.

  When passing Turtle Creek (from the east)
  or approaching (from the west) on Rt. 2, it may be
  worth a moment of your time to turn off on Bodi
  ... the moist exposed soil there may attract some
  plovers in the near future.

  Otherwise, I have nothing else to recommend in the
  immediate vicinity of the Ottawa/Magee complex.
  This suggests, barred new flooding, that the planned
  draw-down of a unit at Ottawa NWR and the executed
  draw-down at Magee  will be crucial for both shorebird
  and birder alike this spring.

  cheers

  Vic Fazio
  Shaker Heights, OH
  PS> Lake Erie water levels in the Western Basin
  are as high as I have seen since 1995-96.


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