Howdy All, Again as on Saturday, I got a late start birding and headed to Mosquito Lake to see what I could find. On the way I found a big traffic jam caused by construction at the intersection of I-76 and I-80 near Youngstown that cost me about an hour. I arrived at the northeast corner of Mosquito Lake Wildlife Area at Hoagland Blackstub Road at the shorebird location at about 5:30 pm. There were five birders there, including Ethan Kistler and family. They filled me in on all the goodies that had been seen. There was good back-lighting but the birds were mostly very far out. The Whimbrel showed up again after disappearing earlier and stayed around for the duration of my stay. This was one of the birds that I hoped to see. Most of the shorebirds stayed way out and a good scope is a necessity as others have mentioned. Not too long after I arrived, the other birders left. I stayed until about 6:50 pm. I did not find anything new that had not already been reported. After the other birders left, the shorebird flock way out started flying and swirling around the area, probably due to at least one Bald Eagle, a young bird that was spooking them. Quite a few peeps came in closer and stayed for about 10-15 minutes, but continued to fly around. During that time I was able to find a Western Sandpiper relatively close in, a juvenile/immature bird. It was close enough that I could see the red in the scapulars as well as the significantly longer and down-curved bill and larger size relative to the Semipalmated and Least Sandpipers. I looked hard for a White-rumped and Baird's Sandpipers but didn't find either one. However, in the 1.5 hours that I was present, I saw a good assortment of shorebirds: Semipalmated Plover, Killdeer, Whimbrel, Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs, Solitary Sandpiper (came in close with the swirling flock), Semipalmated, Western and Least Sandpipers, Pectoral Sandpiper, Stilt Sandpiper (at least three far out with dowitchers and yellowlegs), Short-billed Dowitchers (close), and a Wilson's Phalarope. Most of the dowitchers were too far out to ID any Long-billed Dowitchers with any degree of certainty. After Mosquito Lake, I stopped by Conneaut briefly to try for some evening birds flying in or flying by. I arrived at Conneaut at about 7:40 - 7:45 pm. There were 5 Semipalmated Sandpipers that looked like juvenile/immature birds, one each of a juvenile/immature Short-billed Dowitcher and Stilt Sandpiper that gave great close looks. Several Sanderling and one Semipalmated Plover. Just at 8:00 pm, three Red Knots flew in and started feeding. These also looked like birds of the year. These were probably the same ones that were present Saturday and Sunday at Conneaut. I left Conneaut at about 8:15 pm. In a few hours of birding late in the day on Saturday, August 26 and Sunday, August 27, I saw some very good birds for Ohio---Little Blue Heron (Saturday), Whimbrel, Western Sandpiper, and Red Knot (Sunday). All of these were new birds for the year for Ohio for me. There was however, a lot of driving involved. However, one cannot get lucky in seeing the rarer species in Ohio by staying home and sitting on the couch! :>) :>) :>) Jay Jay G. Lehman Cincinnati, OH [log in to unmask] ______________________________________________________________________ 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]