Hi all,

Sherrie Duris, Jeremy Ross and I scouted Ottawa and Cedar Point National Wildlife Refuges today for the Toledo Naturalist Society field trip tomorrow. In all we ended with 20 species of shorebirds! Starting at the Crane Creek Estuary, we had the following 18 species:

Black-bellied Plover - ~5
AMERICAN GOLDEN-PLOVER - 1
Killdeer
Semipalmated Plovers
Greater Yellowlegs
Lesser Yellowlegs
Solitary Sandpipers
Spotted Sandpipers
WHIMBREL - 1 (with injured leg)
Semipalmated Sandpipers
Least Sandpipers
WHITE-RUMPED SANDPIPERS - at least 4
Stilt Sandpipers - 2
Pectoral Sandpipers
BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPERS - 3+
Short-billed Dowitchers
Long-billed Dowitchers
WILSON'S PHALAROPES - 2 adults, 2 juveniles

Certainly there's a Baird's hanging around out there somewhere and hopefully tomorrow's trip will yield one. Shorebirds are best viewable from the north dike of the refuge (private access), but are still be viewable from the Crane Creek Estuary Trail starting at Magee (scope needed).

Following a very successful stop at the estuary, we circled around and checked the southern end of the estuary. Good numbers of terns and shorebirds were present but nothing new. American Avocets were present yesterday at this location.

Continuing on to Cedar Point NWR, we did a quick loop to check out the sand spits out in the lake - once again, good numbers of gulls, terns and shorebirds, though most were quite distant. We did pick up shorebird #19 here - Sanderlings. We may take participants here on TNA's field trip tomorrow as well. The habitat looks great for Piping Plovers.

After leaving Sherrie and Jeremy - I did a quick stop at the Duff-Washa/Lemon Roads mudflats and had two RED-NECKED PHALAROPES to the west of the bridge - the 20th species of the day.

All in all it was a fun and successful day in the NW marshes! For those interested in tomorrow's field trip, we have special access into the refuges which will take us up close to the shorebirds. Here are the trip details from the TNA website:

"Ethan Kistler will start off the day off at 8:00 a.m.by leading a Fall Warblers field trip at Magee Marsh. We will meet at the west end of the parking lot and walk the boardwalk in search of fall migrants, including those confusing fall warblers.

At 10:00 a.m., we will meet Rebecca Hinkle from ONWR in the new visitor's center parking lot for a Shorebird field trip inside the normally closed refuge. There, we will join field trip leaders Gabe Leidy, Ethan Kistler, and Sherrie Duris, who will bus and/or carpool us back to a special location along the north dike of the estuary that will provide us point blank views of shorebirds foraging on the mudflats. This is your chance to view the birds from within the refuge on higher grounds providing a panoramic view of the estuary.

Since we will be visiting closed areas of the refuge with a bus and carpooling during the shorebird field trip at 10:00 a.m, we will need to limit the amount of attendees and we are requesting those interested to sign-up" - please simply reply to this email and let me know if you're interested. For more details visit www.toledonaturalist.org.

Happy shorebirding!

Ethan Kistler
Oak Harbor, Ohio

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