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August 2011

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From:
Kenn Kaufman <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Kenn Kaufman <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Tue, 9 Aug 2011 05:43:42 +0000
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Hello Birders,

Thanks to information from the Cullens posted on RareBird, I made a brief visit to the shorebird habitat in flooded fields between Clyde and Bellevue, n.w. Ohio, on the evening of Monday, August 8. As Becky Cullen had noted the day before, the best habitat was on Riddle Road (CR 292) just north of the Seneca / Sandusky county line, and both north and south of the railroad crossing. The water south of the tracks and west of the road appears to be drying up very rapidly, but this is where I saw the majority of the shorebirds. There is deeper water north of the tracks on the west side, and this is where I saw dowitchers and Stilt Sandpiper. South of the tracks and about 100 yards east of the road, there's another area of rapidly disappearing water, also packed with shorebirds.

I had a dozen shorebird species at this overall site today, as follows:
Semipalmated Plover 2
Killdeer 320 (conservative count. If yours are missing, they could be here)
Spotted Sandpiper 8
Solitary Sandpiper 10
Greater Yellowlegs 18
Lesser Yellowlegs 220 (another notable concentration)
Semipalmated Sandpiper 30
Least Sandpiper 50
Pectoral Sandpiper 60
Stilt Sandpiper 1
Short-billed Dowitcher 4
Wilson's Phalarope 1

The pond on the east side of Roy Myers Road / TR 80, half a mile south of the Sandusky / Seneca County line, had moderate numbers of Pectorals, Lesser Yellowlegs, Killdeer, and others, but most notable was the presence of about 40 Wood Ducks, all in various stages of "eclipse" plumage. And on Seneca County road 34, west of TR 80, the shallow pond on the north side held many Pectorals, yellowlegs, Killdeer, etc., but a major problem here is figuring out where to park; I gave this spot only a limited scan, and there easily could be other things present.

Unless we have more major rains soon, these sites may dry up before too long. But for the moment, the Riddle Road site in particular offers good comparisons of adult and juvenile plumages of yellowlegs, Least and Semipalmated sandpipers, and others. And the recently-dried-up flats nearby look good for Buff-breasted Sandpiper, which should be showing up in the next week or two.

Kenn Kaufman
Oak Harbor, OH

Editor, Kaufman Field Guides series
http://www.kaufmanfieldguides.com/
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