Good Day,
Dave Slager and I hit the local patches this morning for some brief birding before I went into work. First around 7:30am we hit the shorebird spot at Pickerington Ponds MP. It was doing ok, a little lower than a few weeks ago:
Semipalm. Sandpiper: 1 juv.
Least Sandpiper: 5 juvs and worn adult
Solitary Sa: 1
Spotted Sa: 3
Lesser Yellowlegs: 4 (1 juv)
Greater Yellowlegs: 1adult
Semipalm Plover: 3
Killdeer: 10
N. Shoveler : 1 basic plum.
BW Teal : 3
????? and the usual assorted cast of Osprey, RTHA, GREG, GRHE, GBHE, WODU, MALL, BAOR, OROR, COYE, NOFL, DOWO, WIFL, HOWR, CEDW, BARS, MODO, GRCA, NOMO, etc. etc.

We hit the Greenlawn ave. areas next with a brief stop at the Whittier Penninsula where we found nothing much but 13 or so Great Egrets. Then on to spook around Greenlawn Cemetery to see if we could find an Olive Sided Flycatcher or some early warblers or something. Didn't see much, but out the the SW part of the cemetery, in its favorite snag sat a MERLIN. Ol' Merl sat and preened while Dave and I used gravestones for binocular rests while we "digi-noc'd" pictures of the mystical merlin. Kinda looked like the same female thats been hanging here in the offseason the past few years. Other birds included a probable migrant Yellow Warbler, Eastern Wood-Pewees and E. Phoebes.
Merlins rule,
?- Ben Warner

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