Friday, I went to Resthaven hoping to see the Osprey on its nest but  instead
found that the snag it had been using for the last few years is  gone.  Has
anyone found a new Osprey nest in the area?  Since these  Ospreys have proven
it is good habitat for them, perhaps ODNR could construct a  nesting platform
to entice them to nest there again.

This morning, I checked out the Great Egret rookery on Turning Point Island
on the west side of downtown Sandusky.
(see info at the bottom of Medusa Marsh description at
_http://www.ohiobirds.org/birdingsites/showsite.php?Site_ID=17_
(http://www.ohiobirds.org/birdingsites/showsite.php?Site_ID=17)
This once magnificent rookery has been taken over by Double  Crested
Cormorants but some egrets have continued to nest there, relegated to  inferior sites
low in the trees (and probably showered by cormorant  feces).  It was
difficult to determine if I was counting actual nests or if  some of the birds may
have just been roosting in the trees but I counted forty  six possible Great
Egret nests.  There was also a Great Blue Heron on a  nest and a Black-crowned
Night-Heron that appeared to be on a nest.  I  wish I had kept a record of the
decline of this rookery.  In 2000 it was an  amazing sight with the trees full
of egret nests.  Now the cormorant guano  is killing the vegetation and
displacing the egrets.  Without some type of  wildlife management, I fear for the
future of waders in our area.

Most of the waterfowl seems to have moved on but proceeding west along
Sandusky Bay to Lions Park in the distance I could see one Canvasback, a few  small
rafts of Ruddy Ducks and scaup, and a few Common and Red-breasted
Mergansers.

As I was approaching Medusa Marsh about noon, two Trumpeter Swans flew in
from the lake, calling as they flew as if to confirm my ID.  I drove past  two
resident Mute Swans in the vegetated wetlands before spotting the Trumpeter
Swans swimming in the main impoundment.  They had joined a third Trumpeter,  and
that bird had the definitive Ohio field mark - a green collar.   When I drove
past again, ten minutes later, only one Trumpeter was  present.  Also seen
were four Horned Grebes. The flooded corn field to the  west of the main
impoundment held a few Ring-necked Ducks, a Blue-winged Teal,  some American Coots
and a Northern Shoveler.

Sheryl Young
Sandusky



************************************** See what's free at http://www.aol.com.

______________________________________________________________________

Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society.
Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list.
Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/.

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]