Bill Whan's shorebird post of June 10 makes several important points. I would like to add a brief follow up, however, before the shorebird issue once again. and as always. goes to the back burner -- or right off the stove. It's obvious that most state (and federal) agencies manage primarily for boaters, waterfowl for hunters and only very occasionally and accidentally create suitable habitat for migrant shorebirds. This points up the importance the smaller areas that are created or managed by enviro chapters, local parks, farmers and other individuals. Taken together, these small but important stopovers for feeding and resting shorebirds can be significant.One such spot is a low lying quarter-acre area in a cornfield near my home that can host as many species and individuals as I've seen at some NW OH marshes during migration. A step up from the seasonally flooded ag fields is actively managed areas such as the 250-acre Mill Creek Wildlife Sanctuary in Mahoning County which hosts an average of 25 shorebird species per year with total counts sometimes reaching 1000 shorebirds.

To keep this short, and therefore somewhat simplistic, the key to the creation and management of these areas is simulating naturally occurring water level fluctuations. Shorebirds are present in Ohio for nearly eight months of the year and require mud and shallow water in varying levels during these months. The necessary drawdowns can be done with relatively inexpensive stoplog valves such as those sold by Agri Drain. The compounds must be flooded for the remaining months (and the latter half of June and early July if possible) in order to control non native plants (that quickly cover open foraging areas), encourage native wetland plants, and create suitable environment for shorebird prey species. Winter flooding is usually easily accomplished by closing valves during Ohio's heavy precipitation from late November to early April. 

I have to add that creating shorebird habitat does not preclude managing for waterfowl and other species. Many species of ducks and geese, usually in the high hundreds, find refuge at the sanctuary during the winter and spring flooding. And there are grebes, green herons, coots, wood ducks, hooded mergansers, eagles and many others breeding every year due to managing with shorebirds as "umbrella" species.   

Of course none of these "pocket" habitats comes close in size or numbers of species to the areas on the east coast, for example, with their tens of thousands of migrating shorebirds, but together they can have a positive impact on heavily stressed and threatened shorebird populations.  

Bill Jones
Canfield (Youngstown)





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