If you just want the bird list skip to the end, if you want to read a touching, heart-warming tale of birding then read everything. Sometime back in the mid to late 90s, when I was in my teens, my dad showed me a news paper article about a flock of American White Pelicans that landed in a retention basin off Route 2 in Mentor. In the article it mentioned that when birders went to view the pelicans they also found a Wilson’s Phalarope. Some of you reading this probably saw those birds and remember that exact day, whereas, I obviously do not. At that point, I more or less knew there existed some sandpipers called phalaropes, but knew nothing about them. Later that day, my dad and I had to drive out past that very pond and saw those very pelicans, my first “non-regular” Ohio bird sighting, but of course missed the phalarope. Over the years, I learned more about these fascinating little sandpipers and really wanted to see one. It wasn’t until last fall when I saw my first, the Red Phalarope that came into Mentor Headlands. So, when it came up on the listserv this morning (6/1) that a Red-necked Phalarope was seen at Conneaut, I decided to give it a go after work. Well, I failed to find the Red-necked Phalarope, but did find an energetic Wilson’s Phalarope spazing around! My first ever! I do wish my dad was there to see it with me. It would have been fitting since we missed that one so many years ago, but he decided to call earlier in the day from his hotel in Colorado to inform me that he saw his first Pygmy Nuthatch, so sucks to him. Pictures of this bird can be seen on the Birding Ohio Facebook page. Anyways, I made a short story long, so if you want to know the actual bird details: Conneaut Sand Spit, 7-9pm Weather was cold, windy and drizzly, AKA miserable. Killdeer Semipalmated Plover Greater Yellowlegs Ruddy Turnstones Dunlin White-rumped Sandpipers Semipalmated Sandpipers Wilson’s Phalarope Andy ______________________________________________________________________ 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]