Nice weather yesterday and some encouraging reports from friends up
that way persuaded some of us from Columbus to take a day to explore the
shorebird migration in Erie and Sandusky counties. Here are some hints
for others.
        The Huron River flats
http://www.ohiobirds.org/birdingsites/showsite.php?Site_ID=64 ) had
good, albeit distant, habitat. Morning viewing only here! Diversity was
not great, but 75 lesser yellowlegs was nice, and the potential is good.
Hundreds of very active swallow nests on the bridge.
        The Cedar Point chaussee was heavily traveled by amusement park folks,
and the north breezes had the water up; this could be good with decent
south winds, but other than a small larid roost nothing remarkable
yesterday.
        Pipe Creek WA
http://www.ohiobirds.org/birdingsites/showsite.php?Site_ID=104 is
likely, knock on wood, to remain a worthwhile stop for a while. Unit C,
the northeasternmost pie-segment of the marsh, is down far enough to
allow shallows and mudflats, and we had decent numbers of migrant
shorebirds, the best of them a white-rumped sandpiper; there are
dowitchers, peeps, yellowlegs, pectorals, and the potential for many
more. We met a friend who reported a reeve seen there a few days
earlier. Might be best to start walking the perimeter counterclockwise
from the SE corner of Unit C in the morning, or the other way in the
afternoon. Not much visible along the E-W leg, though a bittern's been
around there. We had eight snowy egrets in Unit D. Some cosmetic
improvements to this site make it less of an adventure somehow.
        Medusa Marsh
http://www.ohiobirds.org/birdingsites/showsite.php?Site_ID=17   had
about a hundred egrets with the other regulars. Water was high, with
only a few yellowlegs noted at the margins.
        Pickerel Creek WA
http://www.ohiobirds.org/birdingsites/showsite.php?Site_ID=31  was the
primo spot of the day.  More enlightened management of this area makes
it a necessary stop in the fall shorebird season, especially the
impoundment next to the pumphouse along Rte 6 just east of the viewing
platform. Walk the dike east at least 300 yards to see the birds here;
scopes are necessary. The pump was working, and I hope the area was not
being flooded; time will tell. Not many birds seem to be there when you
first climb the dike, but we found hundreds upon walking and looking
carefully. Here's the list:
        Killdeer:  ~20
        Am avocet: one
        Gtr yellowlegs: ~10
        Lsr yellowlegs: ~60
        Sol sandpiper: one
        Spotted sandpiper: three
        Semipalmated sandpiper: ~100
        Least sandpiper: ~40
        Pectoral sandpiper: ~25
        Stilt sandpiper: ~30
        Short-billed dowitcher: ~150
        plus gulls, several flavors of terns
All birds seemed to be adults in worn breeding plumage. There could have
been odder species like western sandpipers or long-billed dowitchers
mixed in, but the distance and the available time prevented us from
checking them all.
        We blew an extra hour driving over for the Ottawa auto tour, with
negligible results. I wonder if the Refuge ought to consider varying the
tour route to take advantage of differing conditions through the year;
yesterday it might have been better birding if a drawn-down impoundment
and the east end of the Metzger dike had been included, rather than the
same old thing.
Bill Whan
Columbus


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