Greetings---I spent a full day up in Ashtabula Co. yesterday.  While not a Big Day, it was definitely a big day.  I visited Colebrook Twp., Orwell Marsh, Dorset Twp., Denmark Twp., Conneaut (harbor, Malek Park, Conneaut Creek), N. Kingsville, and Ashtabula (Lake Shore Park, lake adjacent to Mall).  Highlights were:  wood duck, gadwall, drake mallard X Am. black duck (paired with hen mallard), n. pintails, blue-winged teal, green-winged teal, lesser scaups, hooded mergansers, red-breasted mergansers, ruddy ducks, c. loons, horned grebe, double-crested cormorants, black-crowned night-herons, n. harrier, red-shouldered hawk, Cooper's hawk, Am. kestrels, Am. coot, greater yellowlegs, lesser yellowlegs, solitary sandpiper, spotted sandpipers, pectoral sandpipers, dunlins, Wilson's snipes, Bonaparte's gulls, great black-backed gulls, Caspian terns, Forster's terns, belted kingfisher, chimney swift, red-headed woodpecker, e. phoebes, tree swallows, n. rough-winged swallows, barn
 swallows, house wrens, Carolina wren, ruby-crowned kinglet, e. bluebirds, brown thrasher, yellow warbler, pine warblers, field sparrows, savannah sparrows, e. meadowlarks, and rusty blackbirds.  Orwell Marsh is good for shorebirds now, there should be rails, etc. there also but I didn't hear any.  A few shorbirds were at Conneaut too, but as usual it offers little feeding habitat until mid-May.  Terns are common there now.  2 Pine warblers were a good find at the park beside the harbor.  Migrating blue jays were evident in the morning, but the wind shift to NW after early rains thwarted any real hawk migration.  I searched many, many acres of suitable habitat throughout the county for upland sandpipers with absolutely no luck.  Mark Vass did find some nearby in Pennsylvania at Pymatuning WMA yesterday.  They should be back at traditional nesting areas by now.  On the way back home, I stopped by Mosquito WA and added bald eagles (nesting), ospreys (nesting), ring-necked
 ducks, and a displaying Wilson's snipe.  A sharp-shinned hawk and a rose-breasted grosbeak (at feeder) in the Lowellville area (Mahoning Co.) topped off the day.  I talked to several hunters, walkers, and fisherpeople during the day....spreading the word on the joys of birding/nature observation.  Very uplifting!!  Later, Craig

---------------------------------
Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile.  Try it now.

______________________________________________________________________

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]