Fellow Birders,
        With all the thorough bird reports from Magee boardwalk and
surrounding areas, I thought I would concentrate on the PEOPLE SITINGS
from the Migratory Bird Day.  While the birds were leaving on Friday
and Saturday, the people were arriving, no doubt breaking records at
every site.  With thousands on the boardwalk, total gridlock was
achieved several times at several places.  Amidst the hoards of
birders, there were some good sightings.  At one point I found myself
standing between Dan Sanders and Greg Miller, and felt the pressure to
try for 700 birds this year. Jim McCormac was also sited.  Tom Bartlett
was perched in a new location for his Big Sit, having been asked (or
told) by ODNR to move away from the entrance because he was creating a
bottleneck.   If you were there, you know that the entire bottle was
clogged, not just the neck.  Also talked to Columbus Avid Birder
Doreene  Linzell  and frequent poster Ben Warner.  Later saw Paul
Gardner who kindly posts the rare bird reports  to the list.  Then
spotted Jen Brumfield, but I'm sure I missed a lot of the northern
species of birders, since I'm a southern ohio boy, myself.   Missed
Kenn Kaufman, but know he was around somewhere, and missed Bill Wahn,
but I heard he was seen at Metzger Marsh hiding in the Phragmites
counting birders who visited Metzger.
        Generally, about one in ten of the birders were Amish, some from
Indiana, and this year the number of African American birders was up
about four times over past years, which means there were about eight.
It would be nice to see this number go up even more.
        The best license plate was Wyoming, and I personally talked to birders
from TWO FOREIGN COUNTRIES, Costa Rica and New Jersey.  The
Costa Rica birder said he was glad to be able to see all the birds in
their colorful breeding plumage.  The New Jersey birder noted that you
could see all the same birds in New Jersey, but not in the same spot.
        Traffic on the auto tour was bumper to bumper, and we suggested that
next year they do three days.  Perhaps Friday could be limited to those
with some reference to birding in their Vanity plates.  That would
still be quite a lot.
        Anyway, despite the crowds, got 120 birds, including 22 warblers, most
of them on Thursday.

Joe in the woods
Perry County

______________________________________________________________________

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]