Ransome Williams and I took advantage of this morning's great weather to
look for shorebirds and other visitors at the Hoover Nature Preserve.
Immediately upon arriving at Area M we were greeted by the little blue heron. It  stayed
close to the boardwalk the entire time we were there. The only time it  got
jumpy was when the immature bald eagle buzzed the mudflats sending  everything
scurrying for a short while. Once things settled down the shorebirds  got back
to feeding and we were able to identify 10 species before everything  again
got uneasy. This time we were treated to a fly over by a merlin. The  osprey
sat in the trees through all this without so much as paying attention to  the
ruckus.

The species of interest at the Area M boardwalk included:
Double-crested Cormorant    (20+)
Great Blue  Heron                (27)
Great  Egret                        (1)
Little Blue  Heron                 (1)
Green  Heron                       (4)
Blue-winged  Teal                (4)
Osprey                               (3)
Bald  Eagle                        (1)
Red-tailed  Hawk                (1)
Merlin                                (1)
Semipalmated  Plover        (17)
Killdeer                            (100+)
Greater  Yellowlegs            (6)
Lesser  Yellowlegs            (22)
Solitary  Sandpiper            (1)
Spotted  Sandpiper            (18)
Semipalmated Sandpiper    (50+)
Least  Sandpiper                (100+)
Pectoral  Sandpiper            (15)

Next we checked out the northeast shore mudflats near Pelican Island. There
were multiply immature bald eagles soaring about and while there the merlin
flew  in from the north. The sand spits had about 15 Caspian terns. The mudflats
had  much the same variety of shorebirds. Species at this area  included:
Double-crested  Cormorant        (3)
Great Blue  Heron                     (38)
Green  Heron                            (1)
Osprey                                    (1)
Bald  Eagle                               (2-3)
Merlin                                        (1)
Semipalmated  Plover                (23)
Killdeer                                    (100+)
Greater  Yellowlegs                    (7)
Lesser  Yellowlegs                    (16)
Solitary  Sandpiper                    (2)
Spotted  Sandpiper                    (20)
Semipalmated  Sandpiper            (30+)
Least  Sandpiper                        (20+)
Pectoral  Sandpiper                    (14)
Caspian  Tern                            (15)

Charlie Bombaci
Hoover Nature Preserve
Delorme 58 C (2) & (3)





************************************** Get a sneak peek of the all-new AOL at
http://discover.aol.com/memed/aolcom30tour

______________________________________________________________________

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]