May summary

 

May 31st

          May is always the peak time for Spring migration and for us everything happened at a frantic pace.  We started the month with 216 species and ended with 272.  A lot of these birds were either migrants or returning nesting birds.  The Barn Owl that we saw in Amish country completed our sightings of the regularly occurring owls in Ohio.  The Bell’s Vireo in Wood County completed our list of the vireos.  We also saw all 36 of the regularly occurring warblers that pass through Ohio.  This is something we have never done before.

          I wrote 20 blog posts for the month.  Feel free to review our adventures.  Going forward the posts will be more infrequent because there are not that many new birds for us to find right now.  Here is a list of some of the highlights we saw during the month of May including some rare and scarce birds: 

Kirtland’s Warbler – always a special bird

American Pipit – a bird that we don’t see every year

Sedge Wren – usually a difficult bird, was found close to home at Irwin Prairie

Piping Plover (rare)

Barn Owl (rare)

Neotropic Cormorant (very rare)

Ruddy Turnstone (scarce)

American Bittern (scarce)

Yellow-headed Blackbird (scarce) – easy to find at Howard’s Marsh

Black Tern – a special bird that we don’t always see

Least Bittern (scarce)

Lark Sparrow (scarce) – Oak Openings specialty bird

Golden-winged Warbler – so happy to find at Oak Openings

Bell’s Vireo (scarce)

Olive-sided Flycatcher (scarce) – another Oak Openings find

Henslow’s Sparrow (scarce) – Cannonball Prairie was the place for this bird

White-rumped Sandpiper (scarce)

Sanderling (scarce)

Yellow-bellied Flycatcher (scarce) – late migrant

Alder Flycatcher (scarce) – difficult bird

Connecticut Warbler – Skulky warbler

Chuck-will’s-widow (rare) – return trip to Shawnee State Park

Mississippi Kite (rare) – bonus bird at Shawnee

Cattle Egret (scarce) – found with help from a friendly birder

Yellow-breasted Chat (scarce)

 

Comments

  1. AnnJune 1, 2022 at 6:40 AM

    We enjoy reading of your adventures and successes. Looking forward to hearing of future quests.

    ReplyDelete
  2. SharonJune 1, 2022 at 10:16 AM

    This a wonderful blog. I have learned so much!! It is always interesting! The photos are also excellent!

    ReplyDelete
  3. alJune 1, 2022 at 11:13 AM

    Really enjoy the stories and photos!

    ReplyDelete
  4. John SobetzerJune 1, 2022 at 1:44 PM

    According to geotargit there are 10 places in the world named Ohio (the state would make 11) and in addition to the other 6 US places there are two are in Africa, one in the Philippines and another in Australia. Time to do some traveling?

    ReplyDelete

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