Howdy All,
Again as on Saturday, I got a late start birding and headed to Mosquito
Lake to see what I could find. On the way I found a big traffic jam
caused by construction at the intersection of I-76 and I-80 near
Youngstown that cost me about an hour. I arrived at the northeast
corner of Mosquito Lake Wildlife Area at Hoagland Blackstub Road at the
shorebird location at about 5:30 pm. There were five birders there,
including Ethan Kistler and family. They filled me in on all the
goodies that had been seen. There was good back-lighting but the birds
were mostly very far out. The Whimbrel showed up again after
disappearing earlier and stayed around for the duration of my stay.
This was one of the birds that I hoped to see. Most of the shorebirds
stayed way out and a good scope is a necessity as others have mentioned.
Not too long after I arrived, the other birders left. I stayed until
about 6:50 pm. I did not find anything new that had not already been
reported. After the other birders left, the shorebird flock way out
started flying and swirling around the area, probably due to at least
one Bald Eagle, a young bird that was spooking them. Quite a few peeps
came in closer and stayed for about 10-15 minutes, but continued to fly
around. During that time I was able to find a Western Sandpiper
relatively close in, a juvenile/immature bird. It was close enough that
I could see the red in the scapulars as well as the significantly longer
and down-curved bill and larger size relative to the Semipalmated and
Least Sandpipers. I looked hard for a White-rumped and Baird's
Sandpipers but didn't find either one. However, in the 1.5 hours that I
was present, I saw a good assortment of shorebirds: Semipalmated
Plover, Killdeer, Whimbrel, Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs, Solitary
Sandpiper (came in close with the swirling flock), Semipalmated, Western
and Least Sandpipers, Pectoral Sandpiper, Stilt Sandpiper (at least
three far out with dowitchers and yellowlegs), Short-billed Dowitchers
(close), and a Wilson's Phalarope. Most of the dowitchers were too far
out to ID any Long-billed Dowitchers with any degree of certainty.
After Mosquito Lake, I stopped by Conneaut briefly to try for some
evening birds flying in or flying by.
I arrived at Conneaut at about 7:40 - 7:45 pm. There were 5
Semipalmated Sandpipers that looked like juvenile/immature birds, one
each of a juvenile/immature Short-billed Dowitcher and Stilt Sandpiper
that gave great close looks. Several Sanderling and one Semipalmated
Plover. Just at 8:00 pm, three Red Knots flew in and started feeding.
These also looked like birds of the year. These were probably the same
ones that were present Saturday and Sunday at Conneaut. I left Conneaut
at about 8:15 pm.
In a few hours of birding late in the day on Saturday, August 26 and
Sunday, August 27, I saw some very good birds for Ohio---Little Blue
Heron (Saturday), Whimbrel, Western Sandpiper, and Red Knot (Sunday).
All of these were new birds for the year for Ohio for me. There was
however, a lot of driving involved. However, one cannot get lucky in
seeing the rarer species in Ohio by staying home and sitting on the
couch! :>) :>) :>)
Jay
Jay G. Lehman
Cincinnati, OH
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