On the first page of my book on the birds of central Ohio are some dates 
of the first Ohio records of birds in the region (Franklin County and 
the six counties surrounding it). I have been surprised by the number of 
them, and would be interested if folks would contribute even earlier 
dates for any of them in Ohio. Such dates must come from published 
sources or curated specimens you can cite, and I would gladly replace my 
dates with those occurrences predate mine.
        Here are the species and earliest confirmed dates: "Franklin County’s 
bird records rank very high among Ohio counties for the numbers of 
species involved, the quality of their verification, and their 
historical depth.  Fifteen Ohio species were first formally recorded 
there as living birds: king eider (1880), white-winged scoter (1876), 
cattle egret (1958), Mississippi kite (1978), golden eagle 1878), 
prairie falcon (1983), rufous hummingbird (1985), red-cockaded 
woodpecker (1872), Bell’s vireo 1962), black-throated gray warbler 
(1950), green-tailed towhee (1963), Bachman’s sparrow (1890), Harris’s 
sparrow (1889), yellow-headed blackbird (1873), and Bullock’s oriole 
(1874).  Central Ohio observers in neighboring Union, Delaware, Licking, 
Fairfield, Pickaway, and Madison counties have added sixteen additional 
first state records:  Eurasian wigeon (1906), cinnamon teal (1895), 
common eider (1895), black scoter (1876), surf scoter 1917), magnificent 
frigatebird (1980), Harris’s hawk (1917), purple gallinule (1877), 
long-billed curlew (1907), ruff (1872), long-tailed jaeger (1928), 
Sabine’s gull (1926), black-legged kittiwake (1925), Franklin’s gull 
(1906), spotted towhee (1946), and Henslow’s sparrow (1872). 
Annotations for additional species verified in the seven counties are 
included below, yielding a list of the 372 bird species of central Ohio 
thus defined."
        I would be glad to have help from folks who can provide earlier 
confirmed occurrences of the above species. The work of looking into the 
early records of birds in other Ohio counties asks too much of me. I 
would need the Ohio county, year and the published source for any I 
missed. Many thanks for your help with Ohio ornithological history, Bill 
Whan.
p.s.  I would also appreciate hearing from folks who might be able to 
explain why old published reports or specimens of water birds from Ohio 
seem to come from central Ohio--many of them from days before the 
reservoirs!

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