Well, shorebird migration seems a little puny in Ohio this season so
far, but rest assured it's happening. It'll be even harder to witness
next month when the duck season opens. I like scooting over to Bombay
Hook in Delaware to get a better sense of the migration. It's a drive of
eight hours, but well worth it; if you leave at midnight you can bird
this and other nearby spots and be back in time to get some sleep. We've
been oohing over the odd single avocet here, but here's a report of two
hours--nice, but not extraordinary, spent by a Delaware observer at the
Hook yesterday:
                *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *
                29 species of ~9,485 individuals.
Canada Goose - 64
Mallard - 5
Double-crested Cormorant - 1
Great Blue Heron - 15
Great Egret - 420
Snowy Egret - 300
Little Blue Heron - 6
Tricolored Heron - 3
Cattle Egret - 1
Green Heron - 1
White Ibis - 8
Glossy Ibis - 320
Black-necked Stilt - 30
American Avocet - 413
Semipalmated Plover - 14
Greater Yellowlegs - 150
Willet - 1
Lesser Yellowlegs - 65
Stilt Sandpiper - 12
Least Sandpiper - 6
Semipalmated Sandpiper - 2480
Western Sandpiper - 60
Short-billed Dowitcher - 4890
Long-billed Dowitcher - 4
Laughing Gull - 194
Ring-billed Gull - 2
Herring Gull - 1
Caspian Tern - 2
Forster's Tern - 17
- See more at:
http://birding.aba.org/message.php?mesid=963168&MLID=DE&MLNM=Delaware#sthash.lNMCNz7c.dpuf
                *   *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

There are plenty of rails here, and salt-water sparrows and so on, and
I've had a curlew sandpiper on a couple of occasions in fall.  If you
go, morning light is by far best, and high tide tends to concentrate the
flocks. There are other spots with different species nearby on the
eastern shore, all worth a visit if you have time; directions on the
internet. Other spots are better in the afternoon, and have rails and
other marsh birds seldom seen in Ohio, plus some saltwater shorebirds
less often seen at the Hook, such as knots and turnstones, sanderlings,
oystercatchers, etc, plus tern species we seldom or never see in Ohio.
Close by, on one unforgettable day in 1993 I saw the following terns in
late July: sandwich, royal, Caspian, Forster's, common, least, black,
white-winged, and whiskered (only US record).
Bill Whan
Columbus

______________________________________________________________________

Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society.
Please consider joining our Society, at www.ohiobirds.org/site/membership.php.
Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list.


You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at:
listserv.miamioh.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS
Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]