Hi All:

The Avid Birders group from Columbus visited Killdeer Plains and Big Island
today, and finished with a stop at the Marysville Upground Reservoir. We
had about 75 species of birds, and here are the highlights:

Killdeer Plains:
Northern Saw-whet Owl in the traditional owl grove
Great Horned Owl, Barred Owl, Short-eared Owl, American Woodcock, and Rusty
Blackbirds at the Sportsmen's Center
Northern Shrike along C-71, east of TR-108
Tree Swallows gathering nesting material at Pond 33
NORTHERN ROUGH-WINGED SWALLOWS - four rather early birds at the upground
reservoir
Common loons - 2 at the upground reservoir
Sandhill Cranes- 2 at Pond 27
Pectoral Sandpipers: 12 at the wetlands east of TR-108
Lesser Yellowlegs - 3 at Pond 27
Lapland Longspur: 1 near the north end of Washburn road.
No uncommon or rare geese or ducks were observed. Raptors were not
numerous, and included a handful of Red-tailed Hawks, Bald Eagles,
Rough-legged hawks, and Northern Harriers.

A brief stop at the Upper Sandusky Reservoir revealed an astounding flock
of at around 100 Horned Grebes in various stages of molt-a few were close
to full breeding plumage.

Big Island:
Loads of pintails and other dabblers, but pintails dominated (this was also
the case at Killdeer Plains). We kicked up a snipe and had a brief look at
an American Bittern flying in the distance.

Marysville Upground Reservoir had what I believe was a single White-winged
Scoter. I had a good view of the bird when we first arrived, in amongst a
large flock of around 200 Lesser Scaup, a few ring-necks and redheads, and
some Ruddy Ducks; but the bird dove and we could not relocate it.

A side note: we drove by the new Columbus Upground Reservoir site in
extreme NW Delaware County. The reservoir is still under construction, but
when finished, will be a new, massive body of water, and should turn out to
be a new birding hotspot. To get an idea of the size of the reservoir,
here's a link to a recent aerial photo:
http://www.columbusupgroundreservoirs.com/pdfs/Upground2012.pdf.

Good birding,
Andy Sewell
Columbus, Ohio

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