Today, standing out amid the innumerable reports of personal
first-of-season migrants, feeder birds, and ebirdish lists of routinely
expected species, was Jim Fry's report of 83 willets at Lake Logan in
Hocking County.
        As far as I know, 83 willets is a state record for Ohio for a single
sighting at any season. It occurred far from the shorebird Meccas of
Ohio (such as they now are), along the shore of an artificial lake in
hilly country. Numbers of migrant willets, especially in spring, have
been increasing in Ohio over the past few years:  a total of 84 were
reported from various locations statewide last spring, and the previous
high count, of 57, came from an inland beach--Caesar Creek Lake--in
2006, and we had several flocks exceeding 30, all inland, in the spring
of 2005. Fall flocks tend to be much smaller.
        Are willet populations skyrocketing? I doubt it. Are we in Ohio
providing more shorebird habitat than previously? No way. Are new
climatic conditions favoring migration routes through Ohio? If so, why
not for any number of other related species? The same response applies
to assertions that we just have more observers in the field than we used
to. It's a puzzle, but in the meantime such large flocks of shorebirds
are a treat, and worth looking for far south of Lake Erie.
Bill Whan
Columbus

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