Does all the attention to a few Sandusky County potholes and a single godwit in central Ohio indicate minimalism among birders is becoming fashionable, or are we just making the best of a bad deal? To see whether I'm just a worry-wart, I looked back in the archives of ohio-birds and the Ohio Cardinal for this time of year. The earliest I could find of both was 1999. That year, 32 shorebird species were discovered in the state 21-30 August. There weren't all that many hot spots: some reports from Conneaut, a few from Medusa Marsh, fewer from spots in the interior of the state including Hoover Res for the best of them, but many from the Crane Creek estuary at ONWR and the old Cedar Pt causeway in Sheldon Marsh SNA. Species, and maximum numbers seen at one spot, plus number of spots where reported, follow for August 1999: Black-bellied plover--3,4 Am. golden-plover--1,2 Semipalmated plover--75, 5 Killdeer--1750, 8 Am. avocet--22,3 G. yellowlegs--110,4 L. yellowlegs--485, 4 Solitary sandpiper--2, 2 Willet--1,1 Spotted sandpiper--3, 4 Upland sandpiper--1,1 Whimbrel--20, 4 Hudsonian godwit--9, 3 Marbled godwit--2, 5 Ruddy turnstone--1, 2 Red knot--1, 2 Sanderling--50, 4 Semipalmated sandpiper--200, 4 Western sandpiper--1, 1 Least sandpiper--100, 6 Western Sandpiper--2,1 White-rumped sandpiper--1,2 Baird's sandpiper--4, 3 Pectoral sandpiper--180, 5 Dunlin--1, 2 Stilt sandpiper--30, 4 Buff-breasted sandpiper--3, 3 Short-billed dowitcher--300, 5 Long-billed dowitcher--17, 2 Wilson's snipe--2, 2 Wilson's phalarope--3, 5 Red-necked phalarope--1, 4 In my opinion, none of these maxima is all that remarkable for Ohio in August in recent decades, except that some are rather low. There are no rarities. The 32 species overall is on the high side of average for August, too. Other shorebirds reported later in 1999 included a piping plover, a long-billed curlew, purple sandpiper (5), ruff (3), woodcock (6), and red phalarope (6), for a fall season total of 38 species, the highest overall in the past decade. This is a higher total than that from other comparable species groups in the state, like waterfowl or warblers, in the period. Shorebirds are our most diverse migrants. In more recent Augusts, 2003 produced only 29 species, and 2004 thirty. August 2005 provided forage for shorebirds at the Miami-Whitewater Wetlands and Hoover Reservoir and Berlin Reservoir inland, and Conneaut, Medusa Marsh, Pipe Creek and Pickerel Creek wildlife areas, moist-soil units at ONWR, and the Cedar Point Chaussee along the Lake--an unusually large number of sites. The high single-day count of species was a nice 27, on 28 Aug, in or near ONWR. The month's total was 32 species, including two piping plovers and an out-of-season dunlin (1-3 alt-plumaged dunlins have been an August staple near NW Lake Erie since 2004). A decent year for Hudsonian godwits, with 85 reported. A spent Hurricane Katrina deposited a record 355 white-rumped sandpipers at Conneaut the 31st. Of course, other birds made autumn 2005 most memorable, with little and Sabine's gulls in August, magpies, white ibis, white-winged dove, m. frigatebird, gray flycatcher, western kingbird, numerous Selasphorus hummers, and first state records of cave swallow and green violetear. In 2006, the August total was 31, with three ruffs the highlight. Conneaut and Sandusky Bay spots were productive; inland, Miami-Whitewater was OK, Hoover was not, and Wright Marsh in Wayne Co and the Hardin Co wetland had a chance to shine. 2007 had 32 species, including another ruff and a piping plover. Perhaps it was because upper Hoover Reservoir was perfect for migrant shorebirds--great habitat so close to a large urban area--that we had 26 species during the first week of August last year. The August of 2008 was remarkable, shorebird-wise, mostly for scarcity of habitat. Conneaut delivered as usual, although the local humans did the best they could to scare off birds. Few inland reservoirs, despite a very dry month, produced mudflats until quite late in the month. The Sandusky Bay wildlife areas--Pickerel Creek briefly, and Willow Point longer--hosted reported shorebirds. Overall, it would have been a very disappointing August had it not been for the unusual hydrology of the Bellevue area, where many low-lying areas in agricultural land were flooded, then gradually dried, inviting thousands of shorebirds in a phenomenon last seen in 1933. More than anywhere else, this flooding contributed to a good count of 24 species for the first week of August in Ohio. The month's total was 31 species, with no remarkably high numbers of any, except for four of the one rarity: black-necked stilt. Are there trends here? We really don't see enough shorebirds in Ohio to reliably detect population changes, but we can confirm that piping plovers are recovering a bit. Recent nestings of black-necked stilts and Wilson's phalaropes seem encouraging, but may merely reflect poor conditions in their customary realms. Our regionally unique molt-staging long-billed dowitchers have been hanging on, despite loss of habitat. Over the past decade, the great northwestern marshes are playing a diminishing role for shorebirds as managers struggle with invasive plants and Bush-league budgets. The numbers of shorebird species we see each August remain remarkably stable, and only a few arrivals come later in fall--purple sandpipers and red phalaropes mostly, now that a few summering non-breeding dunlins seem to be regular. Ten years is too brief a period to be sure, but reported numbers of certain species--knots, and the larger ones like whimbrels, godwits, dowitchers, and willets--seem to be decreasing, even though more and more observers are afield. As for habitat, only Conneaut stands out as consistent year after year, despite boorish disturbances. Many shorebird refugia of recent years--unfilled dredge-spoil impoundments (Cleveland, Lorain, Huron, Toledo), marshes open to Lake Erie like Metzger, etc.--are no more. Managed impoundments--at wildlife areas, reservoirs, etc.--serve migrant shorebirds mostly when drawn down for other reasons, except for the noteworthy Mill Creek Wildlife Sanctuary (actually designed for shorebirds [!], with 24 species thus far this year). I believe overall numbers of shorebirds are falling in Ohio, some as part of documented population decreases overall, but also because stopover habitat here is growing scarcer. We continue to see similar numbers of species because so many more observers are reporting them, and perhaps because fewer available stopover habitats concentrate birds, but even so in my brief time as an observer it has grown harder to see 20 species in a day here than it used to be. I doubt anyone did this year. Do others who've been shorebirding in Ohio for many years agree? Bill Whan Columbus p.s. Bob Royse went to Alaska in June, and has posted some exquisite photos of birds he found there, including seventeen shorebird species, at http://www.roysephotos.com/whatsnew.html . I cannot recommend his work too highly, or often enough. Check it out. ______________________________________________________________________ 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]