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September 2008

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From:
Bill Whan <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Bill Whan <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Wed, 3 Sep 2008 14:37:19 -0400
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Yes, I share John's misgivings about the staging long-billed dowitchers
at Ottawa. I have expressed myself at length about this before, and will
  say only that after the eradication of their habitat at Metzger, the
flock moved east, resorting to shallow wetlands not far from the Crane
Creek bridge, where I saw over a hundred when I went out with the Ottawa
census crew one September. The census results have reported decent
numbers--never as large as they once were--since that time, but I don't
know about 2008. Bolton & Szanto reported a contingent of ~200 there
last fall, seen on four occasions.
        The census team stopped sending results to the Ohio Cardinal several
years ago, since which time the public has had to resort to reports on
the ONWRA web site  http://www.onwra.com/ , which has erased its
archives; the only census report there now is that for March 2008. I
have belonged to the ONWRA since its inception in 1997, and complained
six months ago about the lack of records, without a reply. As far as I
know, anyone is still welcome to accompany and help the census-takers by
showing up on the first Sunday of any month---check the exact time and
location on the ONWRA site, if you can find the information. ONWR
managers have an enormous task keeping invasive plants in check up
there, but caving in to the duck lobby on Metzger was another thing
entirely.
Bill Whan
Columbus


John Pogacnik wrote:
> I was in the Magee Marsh/ Ottawa NWR this past weekend.  If there is
> any accessible habitat, I was unable to find it.  The estuary of
> Crane Creek was high with no exposed mud.  There were a lot of terns
> flying around.  There was no habitat in any of the accessible
> impoundments at Ottawa and no habitat at Metzger either.  I did see 2
> Baird's sandpipers and a willet on the wildlife beach at Magee Marsh
> on Sunday and a single Baird's on Monday.  There were a handful of
> shorebirds at the extreme north end of the Adam Grimm area off Krause
> Road, but nothing unusual.  I was hoping for long-billed dowitchers
> somewhere up there and saw none.  Thank goodness the warblers and
> insects were good around there.  I had a prairie warbler and northern
> parula on the wildlife beach Sunday.  For those interested in
> insects, there was a striped saddlebags and several hundred black
> saddlebags on the wildlife beach Sunday and several southern dogface
> butterflies along the trail running north to the lake at Ottawa.  The
> striped saddlebags and dogface are both rarities in Ohio.
>
> The thing that saddens me most is remembering the almost annual
> flocks of long-billed dowitchers that used to stage at Metzger.  Now
> I look out and see Phragmites spreading through the marsh.  What
> areas aren't densely vegetated have high water.  Hopefully the
> long-billed dowitchers are staging somewhere in the marshes.
>
> John Pogacnik

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