The Columbus Audubon field trip to Hoover this morning found vast expanses of mudflats and grassflats, much of which effectively 'swallowed up' the shorebirds present.  We birded the Galena boardwalk and the Eastside mudflats for nearly 4 hours, and I made brief stops at Wiese Rd and Sunbury causeway afterwards.  We could not relocate the Buff-breasted & Baird's Sandpipers, or Turnstone seen earlier in the morning, but did find the usual cast of shorebirds & herons, including

Great Blue Herons - around 40 scattered over all of the mudflats
Great Egrets - a flock of about 8 that kept vacillating between the boardwalk and eastside mudflats
Little Blue Herons - one was moving between the boardwalk and Wiese rd flats, while another persisted north of the Sunbury causeway
Green Herons - 2 were busy fishing in the boardwalk channel
Kildeer - 200+ scattered between all sites
Semipalmated Plover - 10 around the boardwalk flats
Spotted Sandpipers - 10 scattered over all sites
Solitary Sandpipers - 8 equally divided between the boardwalk and eastside mudflats
Yellowlegs - 1 Greater, 12 Lesser, mostly at the Boardwalk & Eastside mudflats
Pectoral Sandpipers - 100+, mostly around the boardwalk & eastside mudflats
Least Sandpipers - 6+ scattered between the boardwalk & Wiese Rd mudflats
Semipalmated Sandpipers - 20+, mostly around the boardwalk mudflats
Caspian Terns - only about 15 around the entire north flats area
Herring Gulls - 2 adults and 1 juvenile hanging around the gravel bars off the eastside flats.
Bald Eagle - 1 adult near the boardwalk
Osprey - a family foursome still around the boardwalk flats, while singles were at Wiese, Eastside, & Sunbury
Swifts - starting to move, with a flock of 50+ near the dam and small #s elsewhere
Red-headed Woodpeckers - adult & juvenile at both the boardwalk area and the eastside shoreline
Purple Martins - still a roost of 20-25 birds hanging around the Galena bridge area
Brown Thrashers - 2 were still haunting the Wiese rd acess along the bikepath.

Other birds were notable by their near absence: no kingbirds, fewer swallows, and only 1 Yellow Warbler (a flyby at Wiese).  The shore and grassflats also produced a nice variety of butterflies, including Fiery & Zabulon skippers , Common Sootywing, Cabbage Whites, Orange, Dainty, & Cloudless Sulphurs, Eastern Tailed Blue, Pearl Crescents, Buckeye, American Painted Ladies, Red-spotted Purples, Viceroys, Monarch, and Hackberry Emperors.

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