Hello, seekers. A report of a single black tern has become welcome news in Ohio. We can hope Ron's tern reaches Canada. Back in the late 19th century--forgive me for nostalgia--Langdon called this species "a very common summer resident in the marsh [Ottawa County], nesting or rather laying its eggs on the islands of decaying vegetation and and mud formed by sunken muskrat houses." Farther south, in 1940, Trautman wrote that at Buckeye Lake their migrant numbers peaked in late May and early June, and "on the average migration day between 10 and 50 birds were noted, and during the period of maximum abundance from 300 to 700 were recorded in a day" They did not nest so far south as Licking County, however. Later, in his 'Birds of Western Lake Erie,' he described the draining of the northern marshes, followed by planting in grain, then flooding during the spring and fall waterfowl seasons. This destroyed the tern's nesting habitat and its food supply. By 1960 "only a small remnant of the original tern nesting population remained." It's extirpated now. Agriculture and duck-hunting were the winners. For similar reasons, black terns are vanishing from places in Michigan, I hear. No doubt a few more will straggle through Ohio in weeks to come. Bill Whan On 5/10/2016 2:09 PM, Doreene Linzell wrote: > Ron Sempier just texted me the following message about Killdeer Plains: > > Black bellied Plover at corner of CH 71 & TH108. Black Tern there > as well. Also Black Tern at pond 3. Good group of shorebirds on CH > 67 at the end of Marseilles rd across from cell tower. > > Doreene Linzell > ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Please consider joining our Society, at www.ohiobirds.org/site/membership.php. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: listserv.miamioh.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]