Greetings all - 
The Midwest/East is undergoing a light rarity invasion overall. While birds are simply just on the move because of migration/season, the rough to severe weather that has been (and is) hitting the southern states is no doubt pushing "good" birds north into the Great Lakes region. Joe's Athens County Swallow-tailed Kite is a great example, as is Minnesota's Painted Redstart, and Illinois's Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks, and a Point Pelee Canada Neotropic Cormorant. Great-tailed Grackles are making a slight push from the south-west and into the upper midwest. These are a mere sampling of what's being seen overall. While enjoying the masses of our brilliant regulars, keep watch for accidentals among the masses. Rare western warblers will join flocks of our common warbler/vireo feeding flocks, and rare waterbirds (herons, terns, etc.) will do likewise. 
It's always exciting to wait for what will show next. 
A few rare birds to be on the lookout for this time of the year (these are species that tend to stray in April/May) : Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, Western Kingbird, Least Tern, Curlew Sandpiper (with Dunlin), Glossy and White-faced Ibis, Black-throated Gray Warbler, Townsend's Warbler, Swainson's Warbler (shot in the dark that they MAY nest in Ohio...hint to extreme southern OH birders), Western Tanager, Great-tailed Grackle, and Fish Crow (listen for those calls; Fish Crows are now being seen regularly in several western NY and western PA locations, and even in southwest Michigan; it's only a matter of time). 
best of birding!jen
Jen Brumfield 
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Cleveland, Ohio
330-701-6452



                                          
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