Some sightings from the last couple days.......in Mahoning Co.: at Lowellville -- mom and young great horned owls doing well at the nest, 2 golden-crowned kinglets on 4/1; 4 Wilson's snipes in Coitsville Twp. 4/2....in Ashtabula Co. on 4/2, at the Orwell marsh along Rte. 322: turkey vultures, red-tailed hawk, female Am. kestrel, killdeers, 15 greater yellowlegs, 3 lesser yellowlegs, 2 Wilson's snipes, only a couple tree swallows, and e. bluebirds. Very few waterfowl visible from the roadside parking spot, but it was afternoon when I visited. The resident raptors were spooking the shorebirds some, maybe the ducks had already been flushed from the front part of the marsh. I didn't want to cause any further disturbance, so I didn't walk in. This site is a mitigation wetlands and permission is needed to enter, but it's always been OK to park at the tiny roadside gravel spot on the front dike and view from there. This place is the only
reliable early spring stopover site for shorebirds that I know of in Ashtabula Co. It's part of the Grand River watershed, just a little south of there in Trumbull Co. is the Grand River WA which has also been good for shorebirds historically when the habitat is right. Perhaps this area plus Mosquito and Pymatuning areas formed a region where former natural wetlands attracted a decent share of migrant shorebirds in the past (see Bill Whan's many excellent comments on such regions in western Ohio, including the great news from the new Darby Creek wetlands). Now back to sightings -- while in Orwell Twp., I saw several flocks of blackbirds adding up to about 400 red-wings and 50 grackles. Seems a little late to still be seeing such flocks. I also can't help but notice that hundreds of Am. robins have been gathered on lawns and fields all over far NE Ohio the last few days. Seems a little late for that too. I drove towards
Mosquito L. next. In Bloomfield Twp. in Trumbull Co. was another Am. kestrel. At Mosquito Creek Res./WA were: plenty of Canada geese, 25 gadwalls, 36 Am. wigeon, mallards, n. shovelers, 20 green-winged teal, 10 redheads, 300+ ring-necked ducks, 1 greater scaup, lesser scaups, 27 buffleheads, red-breasted mergansers, 35 ruddy ducks, 2 c. loons, pied-billed grebes, horned grebe, 18 turkey vultures (in 2 groups), adult male n. harrier, Am. kestrel, 85 Am. coots, and 25 Bonaparte's gulls. There was a fair amount of boat traffic and shoreline visitors which had probably scattered some of the birds. Be sure to check the WA ponds if you go there. Finally, on the way home yesterday I spotted a bald eagle in Hartford Twp. (Trumbull Co.). Craig Holt, Lowellville
______________________________________________________________________
Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society.
Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list.
Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/.
You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at:
http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS
Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]
|
