Greetings... Gilmore Ponds in Butler County has been closed to the
public for most of the past two years, but it reopened recently. In
years past, when water and mud conditions have been favorable, there
has been some really good shorebirding at Gilmore Ponds. This year,
the water and mud conditions are very favorable. What isn't favorable,
though, are the number of trees, particularly silver maples, that have
spread into the West Pond portion of Gilmore Ponds. This has broken up
some excellent shorebird habitat into smaller chunks, some a few acres
in size, but all bordered one side or more by walls of silver maples.
From the trail I couldn't see the shorebird habitat until I waded
through the vegetation and water and there before me in one open area,
were over a hundred Killdeer and a mix of other shorebirds, all
running about in shallow pools and atop beautiful, rich black mud,
abounding in insects. It's nice to see some decent habitat and think
of the potential for good birds and good numbers.

A number of people on the list have visited Gilmore Ponds at one time
or another, so I figured I'd make mention that the area is open again
and has potential, though you'll have to do some work to get into the
habitat. Considering how things usually are in Butler County, Gilmore
Ponds opened again and with the signs of some decent habitat is a nice
development.

Here's a site account for Gilmore Ponds from the OOS website:
http://www.ohiobirds.org/birdingsites/showsite.php?Site_ID=30

Take care,
---Mike Busam
Butler County, OH

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