An afternoon visit the Funk Bottoms Wildlife Area vicinity (2:30 to 4:00) to the Wilderness Road Peat mining area produced a mix of shorebirds today (8-29). Killdeer ~400 Pectoral Sandpiper 3 SANDERLING 2 (beautiful nearly all white/gray plumaged birds) AMERICAN GOLDEN-PLOVER 2 (1 breeding adult and 1 juvenile or molting adult) WHIMBREL/CURLEW/GODWIT 2 Seen flying against a dark background and landing in vegetation and not seen again. They were flying with a small (~25) flock of Killdeer. They were obviously large (~ 1.5 to 2x Killdeer size), predominately brown, long-necked birds. Bill length or shape could not be determined for the 10 seconds or so they were observed @ circa 150 yards. Non-shorebirds 1 horned lark that though that s/he was a Killdeer, walking among them for over an hour - even taking flight with them and returning with Killdeer. 1 Great Egret 3 D-C Cormorant 1 Great Blue Heron Mix of 20-30 Tree/Barn Swallows Mourning Dove 5 Red-winged Blackbird 10 Song Sparrow 1 Habitat Note on Funk Bottoms Wildlife Area and Vicinitiy. The Wilderness Road Peat Mining area (technically not a part of) the Funk Bottoms Wildlife Area has some limited amount of habitat for shorebirds as the flood waters continue to drop. (It is all wet/damp "edge" and no flats per se) Habitat should still be good for a week or more unless the mine operators decide to pump the pond near the road. BE EXTREMELY CAUTIOUS during mining operations as the passing peat trucks create zero visibility conditions from the dust. It would be best to get completely off the road into one of 2 pullouts/drives on the north side of the road. Also do not block any drives being actively being used by the trucks. A telescope is required to cover most of the area as walking is not permissible except along the roads. Note: this is all private property. As the the condtions of the Wildlife Area proper: Although slightly flooded during the recent rains, most of the crops (corn, soybeans and sunflowers) survived and furnish no shorebird habitat. There is some habitat south of Rt. 95, but access involves near 1/4 mile distances - too far except for ideal observing conditions and more or less inaccessible through the above crops. For all practical purposes there will be little shorebird habitat until and unless the area floods again. Roger Troutman ______________________________________________________________________ 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]