So it was that on this day that Dan Sanders and Ben Warner set out on a quest to see birds of a splendid array of browns and tans and whites - the shorebirds, and a few others as well. We braved flooding to the north, and dreary gray and drizzle to the south. Here lies the retelling of their valiant effort to avoid eyestrain. Hoover: we met here at the boardwalk in the morning and we finally found the Red-necked Phalarope, Kevin Metzger saw it yesterday in the rain when I got there, but it left by the time I got to where he had seen it, or maybe I just couldn't see thru all the rain. Today, success, a new county bird and the third one of these little guys I've seen this year and for that matter ever. List: RED-NECKED PHALAROPE -looks to be a juvenile was out at the part that faces the osprey tower in the mudflats near us WESTERN SANDPIPEr - 1 juv. Semipalm. Sandpiper - plenty Least Sandpiper - good numbers Pectorals Spotted Sandpipers Solitary Sandpiper - 4 Greater Yellowlegs Lesser Yellowlegs Semi. Plovers Killdeer Great Egret GBHe. LITTLE BLUE HERON - 1 imm. still out on his "mud island" Chimney Swifts Kingfishers (Belted) Alum - Hogback Road - Good habitat here but not as many birds, still worth lookin. STILT SANDPIPER - two Juv. Greater Yellowlegs - more than Hoover, calling and such Lesser Yellowlegs Short Billed Dowitcher - 1 juv. Solitary S.p. Pectorals Least Killdeer Osprey Findlay Res. - here we had to make a couple iffy water-crossings lots of flooding. We walked the dividing dike that splits the two resevoirs and just like last year at this time a Sanderling and Spotted Sandpipers were present, but unlike last year there were no Buff-breasted Sandpipers, maybe they are just later this year. Also seen were Bonapartes Gull - 2, Caspian Terns- 5, and a bunch of ringbilled and Herring gulls. Hardin Co. Wetland - we didn't go in to the wetland really since its sort of off limits I guess. But viewable from the road were a lot of wet fields with a lot of shorebirds in them. the field just to the south of the wetland was full of shorebirds, we looked in vain for Upland Sandpipers but mostly just the following was seen: STILT SANDPIPER - 1 Juv. Greater Yellowlegs - 10-"ish" Lesser Yellowlegs - 30 Pectoral Sandpiper - 50 Solitary Sandpiper Least Sandpiper Killdeer Blue-winged Teal - 20+ Green-winged Teal - 2 Mallards Great Blues Northern Harrier - female Am. Kestrel Bank Swallows Barn Swallows Meadowlark Killdeer Plains - many flooded areas that used to be good shorebird habitat before the rain. But on poind 27 we had two Black Terns in winter plumage (along with 20 GREG, and 5 of Bill Whans "fav." Swans) and many Wood Ducks. We saw many Eastern Kingbirds that seem to be amassing here to migrate, they were all over. A probable Willow Flycatcher was there. Also Bank Swallows are starting to gather in bigger numbers. We walked the road by the Sportsman's center in hopes of finding a Sedge Wren, we finally did as one scolded us, we must've been two close to its nest, but we got really neat looks. Also around Killdeer we saw Red-tails, Kestrel, and 1 juv. Bald Eagle and a pair of adults sitting with eachother. Oh, and we saw 1 Common Nighthawk flying over pond 27. Good stuff, I love those birds. Well we saw some other stuff too that I'm probably forgetting, but that was most of the "coolest" species. Bird On, - Ben Warner ________________________________________________________________________ AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free from AOL at AOL.com. ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]