Another good day at the Bird Trail yesterday. Before arriving at Magee I stopped by the flooded field along Benton-Carroll Rd. Water levels had receded some 40% since Sat. ... evaporation rates are high in the face of these very strong winds. Shortly before 9am I failed to locate the Black-necked Stilt but had approx. 1600 shorebirds made up of Dunlin - 1450 Pectoral Sandpiper - 90 Lesser Yellowlegs - 37 Greater Yellowlegs - 32 Semipalmated Sandpiper - 1 Arriving at the bird trail at 9:05, I was greeted moments later by an adult Peregrine zipping through at tree-top height. There was a modest diurnal passage overhead and I took this in for the next 30 minutes noting Eastern Bluebird - 1 Eastern Kingbird - 2 Pine Siskin - 18 American Goldfinch - 113 Blue Jay - 79 Sharp-shinned Hawk - 4 Cooper's hawk - 1 Cedar Waxwing - 11 The morning flight is sometimes referred to as a re-orientation flight as birds consider the formidable barrier that Lake Erie poses to their journey. This takes place from dawn for a an hour or so and can involve very large numbers of warblers and sparrows. Some of the great numbers published from Magee owe much to the inclusion of this flight which generally ends around 7:00 or well before the tourist birder arrives. About 8:00 am the diurnals begin their passage of which many should be familiar ... hoards of goldfinches and Blue Jays with sprinklings of siskins, etc. occasionally punctuated by a raptor. This flight has been better documented with a number of observers sitting a watch here. But getting a handle on the bird activity of the Trail boardwalk is not an easy task. A good to even modest morning can mean birds darting about with the frenetic energy of a need to refuel in the midst of the push-pull of human tidal forces. This is when I, like most everyone else, use the time to leisurely take in the scene qualitatively ... sampling the diversity ... get a picture or two perhaps ... chase down the rumoured Kirtland's Warbler that proves to be a Magnolia 99% of the time ;-) etc. But by afternoon (after 2pm), the Trail often takes on a different personality. Both Sat. and yesterday, I was especially reminded of this. Many of the people have departed, the birds have settled down and while a few of these too have moved on, others have trickled in. It was under these conditions I opted to survey the trail in its entirety late in the day from 2pm to 6pm. From west entrance east another qualitative run with a quicker return counting. I arrived at these numbers augmented in the case of some uncommon species by other reliable observers. Passerines only. House Wren - 6 Ruby-crowned Kinglet - 17 Blue-gray Gnatcatcher - 7 Veery - 1 Gray-cheeked Thrush - 9 (personal April high for OH) Swainson's Thrush - 47 (personal April high for OH) Hermit Thrush - 5 Wood Thrush - 2 American Robin - 23 Gray Catbird - 11 Brown Thrasher - 1 Blue-winged Warbler - 1 Tennessee Warbler - 4 Nashville Warbler - 3 Northern Parula - 3 Yellow Warbler - 16 Chestnut-sided Warbler - 1 Magnolia Warbler - 2 Yellow-rumped Warbler - 220 Black-throated Green Warbler - 9 Pine Warbler - 1 Prairie Warbler - 1 Palm Warbler - 44 Black-and-white Warbler - 2 Prothonotary Warbler - 3 Ovenbird - 4 Northern Waterthrush - 4 Kentucky Warbler - 1 (missed by me but m.ob.) Common Yellowthroat - 8 Hooded Warbler - 1 (missed by me) Yellow-breasted Chat - 2 Chipping Sparrow - 5 Field Sparrow - 1 Song Sparrow - 7 Swamp Sparrow - 1 White-throated Sparrow - 140 Rose-breasted Grosbeak - 2 Red-winged Blackbird - 11 Purple Finch - 1 Pine Siskin - 2 American Goldfinch - 15 This is a intended as a representative sampling and other observers may well have different results as a consequence of different effort. The most notable non-passerine was a Merlin. In addition to the warblers above, earlier Rick Nirshl had a Blackpoll on the Trail (I had another at the end of Howard Road near Reno Beach). I also had both Cerulean and American Redstart along the causeway at Magee (woods at south end). Both Wilson's and redstart were reliably reported on the Trail in the morning. I heard reports but could not confirm Cape May and Orange-crowned Warbler. Leaving at 6pm, there were 3 Snowy Egrets along the causeway. No sign of a godwit at the end of Veler Rd (a Hudsonian was reported by Mike Bolton and John Szanto). I was surprised to make out 34 snipe. Pictorial highlights. http://www.flickr.com/photos/victor_fazio-iii/sets/72157617425242464/ Significant Odes Swamp Darner - 8 at Metzger Marsh parking lot Wandering Glider - 1 hovering out of the wind at the warbler info board - west Bird Trail entrance. cheers Vic Fazio just another tourist birder :-) ______________________________________________________________________ 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]