Not everyone will realize how unlikely a purple sandpiper in SW Ohio is.
The foursome of juveniles seen in Clermont County recently is unique;
first of all, even though purple sandpipers often associate in groups on
the wintering grounds, Ohio migrants are usually too few to come in
bunches; in an average year only a few are reported in the state.
Especially seldom do they appear inland, and with the exception of one
unverified report from the Cincinnati CBC in 1952, the previous
southernmost record seems to have been at Grand Lake St Marys in 1988.
The date of the Clermont birds is on the edge of early, too.
        Dave Dister wrote an excellent article in the Ohio Cardinal for the
spring issue of '94, with details on a purple sandpiper he found near
Lima and a careful review of previous records. At the time, there had
even been three May occurrences; since then, the brief occurrence of a
breeding-plumaged adult photographed on 5/12/2005 on the Crane Creek SP
beach was big news. Purples often appear in numbers where they are
common; there are few multi-bird sightings in Ohio, all in the cold
months, just because they are always scarce here. Trautman collected
eight over twelve years on S. Bass Island's Starve Island (don't ask
why); he found that the birds were tame, and that if he squirmed toward
them on his belly--like the seals which frequent their breeding
grounds--he could approach within 15 inches. As is almost always the
case, in the Clermont Co record these birds were attracted to wet rocks
on a water margin. Probably these birds are hurrying off to their
Atlantic coast wintering grounds, and our usual trickle of others will
appear along the Erie shore beginning next month. Congrats to the finders!
Bill Whan
Columbus

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