Larry Gara has already reported our good fortune this morning.  Here are
the details.

This morning nine students and instructors from the Wilmington Institute of
Lifelong Learning Birdwatching 101 course visited Fallsville Wildlife Area
just south of New Vienna and a few miles into Highland county.  We looked
for migrants in the area of the falls with only modest success.  With our
time running out, we decided to try a couple of good spots along Powell Rd
on the way back to Wilmington.
We stopped at the small lake at the east end of Powell road (map link
provided below).  Somebody spotted three Black-crowned Night Herons perched
in some bushes overhanging the water.  Eventually we teased seven out of
this lot.  Good looks through scope were obtained by all members of the
party at comparatively short range in excellent light.

Black-crowned Night Heron is an uncommon bird in this neck of the woods.
eBird discloses 3 records for Highland County, all from Rocky Fork with the
most recent from 2006.  There is one record for Clinton County at nearby
Cowan Lake.  In the 13 counties of southwestern Ohio, there is eBird data
to show a small summering population, mostly in the Cincinnati area.  One
was seen at Gilmore Ponds as recently as 4 Apr.

We decided to make one more stop at another little lake near the west end
of Powell Rd.  There wasn't much there and we were getting ready to leave
when two birds dropped in from nowhere.  They were clearlly Black-necked
Stilts.   Three of the party were very familiar with the species from time
spent out West.  They circled for a couple of minutes trying find a
suitable spot but the water was too deep from all the recent rain. The
birds departed, but not before putting on a good show for us.

All members of the party were able to observe the piebald black and white
pattern, the long spindly pink legs and the thin upcurved bill. eBird gives
no records for Highland or Clinton counties. Of the 13 counties of
southwest Ohio, there are a handful of records from the Cincinnati area
(Ellis Lakes wetland, Fernald Nature Preserve, and Hueston Woods State
Park).

It was a splendid end to a beautiful day in the field.

Here is the link to an annotated, scalable, interactive map of the area.
 It comes up in the satellite view, but you can switch it to roadmap view
if you want to.

https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?mid=z7ZzJzfzPjR4.kZxnBPeJl6nQ

--
Robert D Powell
Congress Farm Research Institute
Wilmington, OH, USA
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Nulla dies sine aves

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