After seeing John Pogacnik's post, my wife Denise and I headed for Lake Erie and Conneaut. Upon our arrival at 3:45PM, we followed Jeff Harvey out onto "The Sandspit". The entrance gate was open. There was some snow and ice on "The Sandspit", but we were able to safely drive out. Katie Anderson, who had arrived earlier, greeted us, and already had a Purple Sandpiper staked out. It was foraging on the sandspit with two of it's Dunlin cousins. Purple Sandpiper became species #304 for Denise And I for Ohio in 2013; plus it completed us seeing all of the 36 annually occurring shorebirds, for Ohio, in 2013. Of all our past Purple Sandpiper sightings, Conneaut is the only location that we have ever seen them away from the breakwalls. Some of the other bird species of interest seen during our visit were American Pipit, Common Goldeneye, Great Black-backed Gull, Bonaparte's Gull, Bufflehead, Horned Grebe, and Red-breasted Merganser. With darkness setting in, we departed at 4:45PM.

Bob Lane / Mahoning County                                        
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