Hello folks,

 

Today I led an expedition to the far reaches of Ottawa NWR with Hank
Hiris. Though the avocet from the week before was gone, there were still
good birds around. The highlight was an Upland sandpiper, seemingly out
of place habitat-wise, at pool 2a. It was spotted by Linda Monnes, and
identified by Helen Taft. This was a life bird for Linda, and she really
earned it! The bird was seen in the southeast corner of pool 2a, in the
vicinity of the other shorebirds. If you walk north about 25 yards from
the intersection of the trails at the southeast corner of 2a, you will
come to a break in the willows where there is a good view of the
shorebirds feeding. The upland was in an area of American lotus plants
(large lily-pad leaves with pale yellow blooms) about 100 yards looking
due west from the break in the trees. It appeared only briefly before
hiding amongst the lotus. The habitat has dried up some and the
dowitchers have mostly left, save for one in deeper water in the far
west end of 2a. The egrets found the change to their liking, as a
handful of snowies and immature little blues were also seen at 2a. An
adult little blue was seen again at pool MS 8b. Here again is a map of
the Ottawa walking trails from the Black Swamp Bird Observatory website:

 

http://www.bsbo.org/birding/pdf/OttawaNWR-Trails.pdf

 

Here are some of the other shorebirds seen during our trip:

 

Semipalmated plover

Killdeer

Long-billed dowitcher

Great yellowlegs

Lesser yellowlegs

Solitary sandpiper

Stilt sandpiper

Pectoral sandpiper

Spotted sandpiper

Least sandpiper

Semipalmated sandpiper

White-rumped sandpiper

 

 

Jim Witter

Seasonal Naturalist

Sportsmen's Migratory Bird Center

Magee Marsh Wildlife Area

13229 W. St. Rt. 2

Oak Harbor, OH 43449

419-898-0960 ext. 29

 


______________________________________________________________________

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]