I shared this post on Facebook but I know a number oflistserv folks that can’t see it there want to read about it so I’ll share ithere as well.  I’ve been doing a May bigday with friends the last couple years and we took our third stab at it on5/14/18 and I’d like to share the tale with you. I’m sure I’ll get long-windedas I always do when I’ve a good story to tell so if it’s too long for you skipit or pick out the parts you’re interested in: the birds, the birders, or thestrategy and elements that make up a good Big Day. I hope you enjoy the reading1% as much as I’ll enjoy the writing.I joined fellow Bobolinkers Tim Hochstetler, James E Yoder,& Aaron Miller 3 years ago after their maiden Big Day attempt netted astrong 170 species. With a refined schedule, more scouting, and a hopefullyhelpful new teammate, we had big hopes for May 12, 2016. Strong SW winds had usexpecting big things but the day crashed with heavy thunderstorms washing outour crucial morning time at Magee and we scraped the whole thing entirely to gochase down a Curlew Sandpiper near Oak Openings. Still, I came away feelingthat this team’s aggressive, well thought-out plan, extensive scouting, &high skill level especially in picking out all manner of distant bird soundsopened the possibilities of a huge Big Day number. I told a few friends thatshould the stars all align for a given year, this team could even realize themagical, mythical number of 200 species of birds in a single day.Then on May 17, 2017 we tried again. That day started withnumerous marsh bird misses but ended with a big shorebird rush late in the dayat Funk and a total of 180 species. Much went right that day and we had somegreat bonus birds like Loggerhead Shrike and I became much more skeptical aboutever hitting 200 as finding 20 species more than that day with 19 species ofshorebirds felt pretty insurmountable. So along came 2018 and a chance meeting with James E at theHolmes County Black-throated Gray Warbler began discussions about another BigDay. We all have enough work flexibility to try to pick the best day lastminute based on weather and stage of migration. Basically you want to pick atime somewhere in the middle of migration where there are still lingering ducksand early migrants like kinglets, Winter Wren, Yellow-rumped & PalmWarblers, but late enough that shorebirds are in full swing and later migrantslike Olive-sided & Yellow-bellied Flycatchers, Philly Vireo & MourningWarbler have begun to arrive.The plus side to my Amish teammates is that flexibility inschedule, super talented ears & eyes, and deep grasp of Ohio’s birdsincluding great intel about the latest in the bird-rich Bobolink Area. The downside is limited communication (basically I can’t contact them and can only waitfor them to call me about plans) & the fact that I’m the only one that candrive which becomes a pretty grueling 30 hours of driving all told. As the middle of May arrived I started getting phone callsasking about which day was looking most ideal and the future forecast pointedto Saturday, May 12 looking like the perfect day. However, an unusual weatherpattern settled in with a stationary front hanging over Lake Erie making theweather wildly unpredictable and by the time Friday rolled around Saturday’sforecast had changed to disastrously cold, 100% chance of rain, with bitter NWwinds. The guys had already travelled to Magee to scout and prepare to spendthe night in Toledo for our traditional start at Oak Openings by the time Idiscovered the weather change Friday morning and with no phone numbers to callI called friends I knew at Magee to get word to the team to see if we couldswitch to a later day which we were able to do. After more phone calls and forecast watching, we rescheduledfor Monday, May 14 even though the stationary front made the rain forecast alittle higher than we like. The winds were kind of forecast various directionsbut more importantly for us, expected to be very light at less than 5 mph whichallows us to hear many more birds, especially in the dark, and also tends tokeep all of the ducks and other stakeout birds from heading north overnight. However, planning a Monday event meant a huge change inplans for our route. In the past we always start in Oak Openings at midnight,then do the NW marshes, then Mohican, then Funk & Killbuck/Bobolink areas.But with Sunday being the day before our Big Day, our team didn’t want totravel on a Sunday so we decided to completely reverse our route. This wassomething we had wondered in the past if it might be an improvement but withthis last minute change, we headed into Monday with no detailed plan about whenwe needed to leave each area to allow enough time to get to all ourdestinations. That’s usually a recipe for Big Day disaster. The change in date brought another huge change for our team.Once we cancelled our Saturday plans, Aaron Miller committed to helping with adifferent Big Day on Saturday, all within the Bobolink Area. His team netted anamazing 176 species all within the 12 landlocked Bobolink counties. Several ofthose birds became major targets of our Big Day two days later. But it alsomeant that Aaron had slept only five hours in the 62 hours leading up to ourBig Day and with great regret, Aaron bowed out of our Big Day when he learnedone of his Bobolink Big Day teammates was willing to step in for him. So EliMiller, narrator of the Bobolink Rare Bird Hotline, jumped in as our new 4thmember.So Sunday afternoon I left the Mother’s Day gathering at mymother-in-law’s home and headed to my mother’s house in Kidron.  In a classic “kill two birds with one stone”move, I was able to spend a few hours honoring my awesome mom before climbinginto my old bed at my parent’s house and sleeping from 8 until 10PM when I gotup to head south to pick up Tim, Eli, & then James.It was weird talking on the way to our first stop about whatour plan was: did anyone know what times we should leave certain areas, didanyone have an order of how we would pursue the targets in the Bobolink area?Technically no one did exactly but James & Eli had a gazetteer map in theback and very quickly had a great plan bouncing around their heads. The infofrom the Big Day 2 days ago would bear much fruit for our statewide Big Day. The counting began at 12:00.Our first stop was for a Prairie Warbler Eli had onSaturday, albeit during daylight in Coshocton County. As we all piled out, #1was a Chat, whose goofy vocalizations sound even more wild under the cloak ofdarkness. Unfortunately the Prairie was not as inclined to sing at night andwould become a bird we would miss all together for the day.12:10: Stop number 2 at the traditional Whip-poor-will spotnear Tiverton. The calm winds started paying dividends as Swainson’s &Gray-cheeked Thrush & Indigo Bunting were heard migrating overhead &both cuckoos sounded off in distant woodlots. Henslow’s Sparrows “tse-licked”in the fields and several Whip-poor-wills sang endlessly in the distance.12:50: Our first stakeout from the Bobolink Big Day was aSedge Wren in a field behind a home. A very speedy walk covered well over a quartermile through a woods. Such pitch black walks in the middle of the night are arefreshing twist to the normal routine of life and make you feel very alive ata very odd time of day. Soon the woods opened up into a classic field of verytall grass and 50 yards into our march through the field James ordered us to“Stop!” His brilliant ears had picked up the wren in full song far ahead of uswhile we were all still crunching through the field. Ch-ching. A SolitarySandpiper called while passing overhead. The older woods around us made methink of screech-owl. “Do we have a spot for screech-owl planned?” I asked.“Yes but you could try here I guess” responds Eli. One quick call and in a fewseconds Eastern Screech-Owl whinnies in the distance.1:55: Not long ago Force Rd West was packed with birdersoooing and ahhhing over a stunning Cinnamon Teal. Now in the dead of night it’sjust us and the marsh birds—unnoticeable during the day but raucous andwonderful under the cloak of darkness. Immediately we hear numerous CommonGallinules making every manner of weird sounds. Virginia Rails are “kiddicking”in every direction. Swamp Sparrows are numerous & yet another Chat soundsoff.  After a surprising wait, Sorasstart firing off. Last year we had ended our Big Day right here vainly tryingfor Barred Owl which we couldn’t believe never sounded off.  This morning there are Barred Owlscaterwauling in every direction. Listening to marsh birds at nighttime is oneof my favorite birding sensations and on most occasions I could happily standthere for hours soaking in the experience. But on a Big Day time is of the essence and we are running out of timewith our two primary targets still silent: Least Bittern & King Rail. Finally,something triggers the big boys and a King Rail bursts out its resonant callright beside us with a close second bird following just a couple notes behindit. Surprisingly a third of these large, rare-in-Ohio rails calls just as theother two ended about 50 yards NE of the first pair. We move on without a LeastBittern.2:40: Still in Killbuck, a short distance away on ValleyRoad, we try unsuccessfully again for Least Bittern. A consolation AlderFlycatcher “free-beer-os” away as do many Marsh Wrens, more rails, and moreBarred Owls.3:10: Our last stop in Killbuck Marsh nets us ANOTHER Chat,and our target American Woodcock “peenting” away. Their mating call iswidespread in this marsh in March but we are happy to hear one still struttinghis stuff now in mid-May.3:55: Our Bobolink Area connections at work again as we stopat an acquaintance’s farm to peek up his silo. It’s always a coin flip at nightwhether our special friend will be in the silo at night or out hunting. Thistime we’re fortunate as a gorgeous Barn Owl peers down at us wondering whystrange people are looking up at him at 4:00AM.4:40: Our last enveloped in darkness stop is at Leighly Hillin Tuscarawas County. Long the most reliable spot in the Bobolink Area for LarkSparrow & Blue Grosbeak, Lark Sparrows have been steadily declining hereand Saturday’s Big Day search found no Lark Sparrows leading us to believe theymay be gone from the area for good. The pre-dawn chorus gradually kicked in asthe first hint of light slowly approached as we waited: Wild Turkey,Grasshopper Sparrow, Horned Lark, Orchard Oriole and many more. Wait! Did youhear that? We all looked at each other. Now it sings again, this time veryclose and unmistakable. Lark Sparrow! An unexpected, delightful bonus as thebird landed not 10’ in front of us belting out its beautiful, diverse songthough it was still too dark to make out its fancy facial gear and white tailfeathers. A few minutes later Blue Grosbeak sang its way onto our list and wewere off to the next place where we could begin to actually see birds.5:55: A quick stop at Dundee fields included our secondunsuccessful try for Prairie Warbler. One nested here last year but seems tonot be present this year. We did add Bobolink & Savannah Sparrow & aLincoln’s Sparrow oddly perched on the roadside barbwire fence became our firstbird identified by sight.6:20: With a bit of drive time to our next stop at TheWilderness Center we had time for a little visiting amongst ourselves as Idon’t get to see these guys much throughout the year. It has been an excitingyear! Tim had just returned from a visit to Bolivia, the country where myadopted son was born and a beautiful country I have visited 5 times. Tim hadasked me before he traveled about where to bird while there and was able tovisit one of my favorite spots on the planet, “El Refugio Los Volcanes”. “Guesswhat we saw as we were driving in?” he grinned. I only needed one guess—HarpyEagle. I’ve seen over 500 species of birds in Bolivia but I’d trade most ofthem for a chance to see that mystical beast. Both of my other teammates areentering married life in 2018. James had just tied the knot in late April;Eli’s turn is coming later this summer. We had a chance throughout the day totalk about learning to balance priorities and how to healthily and with honorlive with a love of both family and birding. The Wilderness Center was churningwith a nice migrant flock at the entrance but we didn’t dig too deeply into it, trusting in our later stop at MageeMarsh. We were here to pick up Kentucky Warbler which was missing from Mohicanon Saturday. We got it and another helpful Wilderness Center specialty, bothCarolina & Black-capped Chickadee. We actually had 54 species here in ahalf hour.7:10: We planned to stop back in at my parent’s house inKidron where I had been sleeping 9 hours ago. Eurasian Collared-Doves nestnearby and last year we arrived 15 minutes after they went to roost for thenight. We didn’t even need to pull into their driveway. One collared-dove wasperched upon its favored TV antennae just south of my parent’s house. Timesaved. Pedal down.7:15 Vesper Sparrow has been a Big Day nemesis. Every yearwe have one staked out. Every year we seem to miss it anyways. This year wewere back at last year’s spot that got ruined by plowing the day we arrived.This year the field was already plowed again and I quickly got that “Here we goagain” feeling. No beautiful Vesper song greeted our ears so we all began todoggedly scan the furrows of the field. “I got it” calls out James. The resteagerly ask where, as picking out a distant sparrow in a plowed field can betough. Suddenly a brilliant Red-headed Woodpecker plopped down in the field.“The sparrow is 12 inches to the left of the woodpecker” says James. Thank youwoodpecker! A Bobwhite called beyond the sparrow. Fun to hear but we won’tcount it because there is not a known population in the area so we chalk it upas a likely released bird. Just up the road we try for a Clay-colored Sparrowseen the night before. It’s one of our few stakeout misses but instead we findthe day’s only Mockingbird, Pipits, and a flyover Dickcissel saving a stop atanother stakeout. 8:15 Back in Killbuck Valley this time in daylight, we stopat Messner Rd in search of Brown Creeper. The bird seen Saturday is stubborntoday. As we wait, we add Prothonotary Warbler, Hooded Merganser, our onlyKingfisher of the day (one of those common birds easy to miss on a Big Day),Canada & Wilson’s Warblers. Just as we decide to get back in the car andmove on, the Creeper appears out of thin air spiraling up a tree right besidethe road. Ch-ching.9:05 Wilderness Road has a make or break feel to it as weapproach. Last year late in the day this new drive just west of the peat pitslit a fire to our day as we hit jackpot with Red-necked Phalaropes,Black-bellied & Golden Plovers, Ruddy Turnstone, Stilt Sandpiper,  White-rumped Sandpiper, Short-billedDowitcher, & Green-winged Teal. As we pulled in the lane we were excited tosee even more extensive habitat here than last year. But alas, numbers anddiversity were barely a shadow of the previous year. A handful of Black-belliedPlover and one Semipalmated Sandpiper were the only birds that stood a chanceof helping our day. A shadow was cast over our hopes but we crossed our fingersthat the new Howard Marsh along Lake Erie would make up for the disappointingshowing at Wilderness Rd.10:30 Mohican is an ace in the hole that allows Big dayfolks to stay further north that what’s typically required to find some southernnesters and also allows you to see some northern nesters that are difficult tofind migrants elsewhere. As we pulled into our first stop by the shrine, thewinds kicked up, the sky darkened, the temps dropped, and rain looked imminent.Not a good thing when we needed to hear so many birds we could get nowhereelse. We dipped on Summer Tanager but found Purple Finch, LouisiannaWaterthrush, Pine Warbler, the Kentucky Warbler that didn’t cooperate Saturday,and 2 bonus Pine Siskins. We decided to head to the Gorge Overlook and comeback to try again for the Summer Tanager. We met a bit of a disaster. A roadpaving crew was at work and told us it was impossible to get to the Gorge Overlooktoday. This was our only known spot for Hermit Thrush & Blue-headed Vireo.Bummed, we headed down to the covered bridge. Worm-eating Warbler, CanadaWarbler, Winter Wren, Black-and-white Warbler, Yellow-throated Warbler, Veery,Ovenbird, Hooded Warbler, Cerulean Warbler, & Northern Parula all sang onterritory. We headed back up out of the river bottom on Road 58 and lucked into an alternate site Blue-headed Vireo and an even bigger bonus singingGolden-crowned Kinglet. We booked it back up to the shrine and with the windscalmed down and the rain having skirted past us, a pair of Summer Tanagers werequickly cooperative this time. Onward with Hermit Thrush the only casualty ofthe closed road.12:05PM: Mohler Wildlife Area is a poorly marked remote areaoutside Mohican. Last year we got our first Chat there and this year we weretrying for Blue-winged Warbler. It didn’t take 2 minutes to find one. Our onlyRed-shouldered Hawks of the day were a bonus here.12:30PM: Our only real rain of the day was falling inbuckets as we made our first of two stops for deep water divers. The onlypayoff for scoping in the downpour was a handful of lingering Red-breastedMergansers. We pointed straight north for the Lake Erie Marshes exiting theBobolink Area with 158 species. If we could have chosen the best time in ourday for rain this was it and it was pouring.1:45PM: Deep water spot #2, Willard Reservoir is an upgroundreservoir off the beaten path. As we crested the uphill driveway to the boatramp we could see the lake was covered with swallows. Our first Bank Swallowswere calling and Tim quickly called out, “Black Tern!” Ducks were present inthe distance and we soon picked out Ruddy Ducks, more Red-breasted Mergansers,a Lesser Scaup, & 2 Common Loons. 3:25PM: The afternoon drowsies started kicking in for myteammates and the grind of being the only driver set in as we chugged towardsLake Erie. Our first gas stop of the day provided a stretch, some fresh air,and some energy drinks for my sleepy teammates before we continued north. Ourfirst stop along the Lake was the Boss Unit where we had staked out both teal,pintail, & Gadwall a couple days prior. Heavy rains had muddied and raisedthe water and only Blue-winged Teal remained. We did however see distantshorebirds to the east along Darsch Rd. A quick jump over to Darsch landedmultiple gulls, terns, and shorebirds including 2 American Golden-Plovers. Wedidn’t think much of them as there had been over a thousand Golden-Plovers atHoward Marsh just 2 days before. But they turned out to be our only Golden-Ploversof the day. 3:45PM: An internet search of when the Ottawa Auto Tour closedsaid 4:00PM so we hustled over to get on the Tour just under the wire. TheBlack-necked Stilts and Snowy Egrets remained at their favored spots by post #3but all the other shorebirds that had been there were gone. The deeper poolinto the Lucas County portion produced American Wigeon, Gadwall, NorthernShoveler, and a late Horned Grebe. We had been noticing Broad-winged Hawk kettlesand were keeping an eye to the sky to pick up new hawks. Cooper’s , Harrier,and a very late Rough-legged Hawk passed over but we would miss Sharp-shinnedHawk for the day. Fortunately the drive was not crowded and we made it throughthe Tour in record time.4:40PM: In previous years doing this route in reverse, wealways hit the famous Magee Boardwalk right at first light, quickly passingthrough the boardwalk before it got crowded and before we got grabbed intoconversations we didn’t have time for or were tempted to illegally seekinformation about birds from others. This afternoon the bird trail was stillquite packed along the west entrance and we soon heard whispers why.Yesterday’s Black-throated Gray Warbler was apparently still around and masseswere trying to relocate her. Staying out of the largest mass and looking from adifferent angle, Tim almost immediately found this stray from the western U.S.adding a mega bonus bird for our day. We only had a few missing migrants andthey appeared quickly: Bay-breasted, Cape May, Black-throated Blue, &Mourning Warbler, Philadelphia Vireo, & Northern Waterthrush. A lateRuby-crowned Kinglet was a bonus as was a teed up Olive-sided Flycatcher; notjust a great addition to our day but a state bird nemesis for Eli. Big grinswere shared! Not our first of the day but likely the most unusual sight on theBoardwalk was a Sedge Wren crawling under logs and vegetation not a foot fromthe boardwalk. Why it flew over all that habitat in the marsh to land in themiddle of that woodlot will remain a mystery. We broke our old record of 180appropriately with the Olive-sided Flycatcher and left the Boardwalk in the mid180s with several good stops left. Things were getting very interesting!Drowsiness was LONG gone!6:05PM: Knowing of the Great Horned Owl nest along theEstuary Trail freed us from trying for this owl earlier in the day. The easilyviewed nestling was right where it should be and we began to pish for our stillmissing White-throated Sparrow we thought we could dig up along this trail.James whistled a great impersonation of their minor key song while the rest ofus pished and chipped and sure enough a White-throated Sparrow quicklyresponded! On to Metzger!6:15PM: We busted straight to the dike beyond Metzger’s woodlotwhere my teammates had scoped a Yellow-headed Blackbird on Friday. On our wayout we peered down on the tiny beach where they’d had Ruddy Turnstone &Sanderling on Friday. A shorebird got us excited!---only to turn into a SpottedSandpiper. Some Bobolink Area friends were scoping the blackbird area when wearrived and we quickly had a teed up male Yellow-headed Blackbird in view! Backwe went to the furthest south pull-off to scan the muskrat mounds to see ifyesterday’s Neotropic  Cormorant mightstill be around. A backlit cormorant across the canal over in Howard Marsh gaveus pause but turned out to be a Double-crested. However, as we continued toscan a soft, guttural 3 note call hit my ear. “Least Bittern!!” I screamed.Fortunately my yell didn’t bother the bird and it went on to become very vocalfor us. Now every time we add a new bird we are asking ourselves, “How manydoes that give us?” We double check our count on the way to Howard Marsh to besure we know exactly how many we have. We also admit we want to know exactly howmany we need to reach the magical 200. It is within reach!7:00PM: The brand new, sparkling Howard Marsh is going to makeor break our dreams. We stand at 191. We need shorebirds!! A nice group ofshorebirds are gathered along the entrance road. We quickly see numerousShort-billed Dowitchers there—192. Unfortunately the shorebird diversityappears pretty low and all the plovers are gone.  Tons of Dunlin, but not much else. We head tothe NW end and start scoping the distant corner that had held lingering duckslast week. The Canvasback are gone but the Redhead pair remains for 193. Lotsof hardcore scoping turns up nothing new. Then a “Beerk” in the sky behind ustells of approaching Common Nighthawks—194. Back to intense scanning of thevegetation and water to the north when finally James says, “I’m looking at aPintail”. We all quickly look in his scope before it disappears into thegrasses again—195. Further scoping reveals a small, backlit duck about as faraway in the marsh as it could get . We study it for a while. Finally thelighting is good enough to reveal it to be the female Bufflehead I had seenlast week.—196. Now we’re getting serious! Surely those Wilson’s Phalaropesthat have been here for about a week are still around somewhere. I turn myscope towards the south where it had been before and start panning the weedyedge. There it is! “Phalarope” I proclaim victoriously—197 in the bag! Beforelong the Black-crowned Night-Herons arrive. Two different birds come flying inover the marsh—198! Lots of time left!! But not much daylight. We discussvarious strategies for getting 2 more birds. American Bittern is likely a given.How to get one more?! Should we stay and wait for a new bird to drop in here atHoward Marsh? At 8:50 we pull the plug here. The race is on!9:00PM: We pull into the parking lot at Mallard Club Marshand James is headed out the path while the rest are still gathering our gear.With the car doors still open and gear gathering still happening, an AmericanBittern loudly “Oink-a-lunks” from very close by! That was easy and fast! Andthat’s 199!!!!We decide there’s enough light to race to Maumee Bay to tryand scrounge up Turnstone or Sanderling. By now there’s still a bit of lightbut we are spotlighting the shore of the inland beach. No luck. We walk theouter beach along the shore. No shorebirds here either. Now it’s hardcoredecision time. It’s not quite 9:30, plenty of time but to try for what? Wediscuss heading to the University of Toledo where a Peregrine Falcon on thebell tower has been a lock for us every year in the dark. We could also tryIrwin Prairie for the lingering Yellow Rail or winnowing Snipe but experiencetaught us last week that after about 10:00PM it is almost impossible to hearanything but tree frogs. Or we could head east and try for winnowing snipealong the Magee causeway, then a Port Clinton Peregrine (which usually hasn’tworked at night), and lastly spotlighting for a Cackling Goose at the pond in frontof the Kalahari Water Park. Though the surer bet is the Toledo Falcon I admitto my teammates that I don’t think I will be able to stay awake until the 3 or4:00 AM I’d need to be driving it we went west to Irwin and/or Toledo. So eastit is. We listened for winnowing snipe at Magee. We’d heard them in the darkhere in mornings past and there would be a report right here pre-dawn thefollowing morning, May 15. But no snipe winnowed for us. East on Route 2 weheaded toward Port Clinton. In fatigue we missed the exit for the Falcon anddecided not to go back on it since it had never worked in the past. On to Kalahariwhere we’re awkwardly looking for geese in the dark while guests are millingabout. The fountain in the middle of the pond has red, blue, & yellowlights that give off enough light to make out that there are Canada Geese inthe pond. But it is very questionable whether there is enough light to sort outa Cackling Goose. We try. Hard. And we find no Cackling Goose. It’s past 11:30.We have an hour and a half drive to where I’ll drop off my teammates and thenanother hour drive for me to get home. We pull the plug. We will gladly accept199.From what we know, 199 represents the second highest Big Daytotal in Ohio’s history. On May 11, 1987 John Pogacnik & Kirk Alexander hit205. As far as I know that same team has the third highest total with 186 onMay 10, 1985. We had two near misses for 200. While driving down Route 2we all saw two swans far back from the road in the marsh that had curved necksand raised wings. It was too far to see the bill. We talked quite a while ifthere was any way Trumpeter Swans could show that neck and wing structure anddecided we couldn’t count them. We also saw 2 swans along the Magee Causewaythat were likely Mute but we passed them before we noticed and couldn’t stopand back up due to traffic and by the time we got back there they were gone. Wesaw many Trumpeter Swans but we didn’t count them due to the current status of thisspecies in Ohio. On the Auto Tour James saw a warbler fly by that heimmediately called a Palm Warbler. He has studied many warblers in flight andquickly called out all the pertinent field marks. He said for a regular daylist he wouldn’t hesitate to call it a Palm. But for this list he couldn’t.  He was the only one who saw it. Only 95% of ateam’s species need to be seen by all the team. We only had 2 that weren’t seenby everyone. In hindsight the closed road at Mohican likely cost us 200 by wayof Hermit Thrush. But maybe our time would have shifted just enough we’d havemissed the Golden-crowned Kinglet. Other key misses were Ruddy Turnstone, Sanderling,White-rumped Sandpiper, Wilson’s Snipe, Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, PectoralSandpiper, Forster’s Tern, Green-winged Teal, Prairie Warbler, &Sharp-shinned Hawk. That list seems long when you just wanted one more but byBig Day standards there were no glaring, real easy misses. As I finish writing this on May 17, Kenn Kaufman points outthat today marks the 120th anniversary of two Ohioans, Lynds Jones& W.L. Dawson becoming, as far as we know, the first people ever to see 100species of birds anywhere in the world, in one day; traveling from Oberlin toLorain. It was an honor and an absolute blast to add another piece to Ohio’slong Big Day history by ALMOST doubling the total of those two legends almostexactly 120 years later. At one point I thought 205 would stand forever. Now I amconvinced it will not. Hopefully someone reading this will have a fire lit thatpropels them to push the bar even higher. For now, I will joyfully tuck away 24hours’ worth of golden memories spent careening across the state with two goodfriends the year they got married and another who saw a Harpy Eagle in one ofmy favorite spots on the planet. Shared memories are one of the most treasuredcomponents of Big Day birding. Birding is largely about treasure hunting. A Scarlet Tanageris a treasure. So is a Song Sparrow. For many, seeing 50 species of birds inone day would be a treasure. For others, hitting 100 would be a treasured day. Forsome readers the thought of 200 in an Ohio Big Day sparks a shiny gleam deepinside. For some, the number 206 kindles the imagination like a buriedtreasure. So who’s next? Treasured days of adventure await!Kent MillerHartville, OH
 

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