This is the largest concentration of what I call the winter "barren ground" birds that we have found in the six blocks we covered for Winter Bird Atlasing.
The water has receded greatly from the ditches as of today.  All roads are passable but many fields are still partially flooded and holding scattered flocks of SNBUs too far out for  reasonable counting.  200+ were observed at 9 am and  up to 200  at 3:30 pm along Cloverdale road today. There was a flock of about 50 Lapland Longspurs above the road at 3:30 pm.   There are many Horned Larks in the area as well. 38 Tundra Swans were also observed in a flooded field and later in the air at 3:30 pm.
For those of you who are interested and may not know the area it is located in Block 36B4 of the De Lorme atlas along a 2 mile stretch of Cloverdale Road between Portage Road and Mermill Road.  If we get the snow and cold temperatures that are being forecast I believe based on past experience that we can expect to see huge flocks along the roads  for the next few days.
Good Birding
Bill and Roxanne Rinehart
Bloomdale, OH
Southern Wood Co
De Lorme 36C4

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