2022 Ohio Birding Big Year

  August Summary August was a busy month for us with travel and family visits and our birding time was somewhat limited.   We were able to find four new species that were all considered to be either scarce or rare in Ohio.   My favorite birds were the beautiful Swallow-tailed Kite which was an Ohio life bird and the incredible views we got of the King Rail. As summer winds down, it is time to reflect on the first two thirds of our Birding Big Year.   With four new species this month our total for the year is 290.   We are currently in second place, two behind the leader (who was last year’s winner).   I guess it is time to reveal our goal for the year which is 300 species.   This has been our goal, our benchmark since January 1 st but we didn’t know if it would be possible.   Even though we still have four months left, we are still not sure we can do it.   We missed a couple of birds (a Ruff and a Laughing Gull), but we were fortunate to see four new birds this month.   Going fo

  August 29th (posted August 30th)           We had a busy weekend and didn’t have time for birding, although several good birds showed up including a Ruff and a Buff-breasted Sandpiper.   I was supposed to play golf this morning, but was washed out by the morning rain.   With the unexpected free day, we decided to chase the Ruff and the Buff-breasted Sandpiper although we didn’t know if they would still be around.           This meant a return trip to Wilderness Road and Funk Bottoms Wildlife area located between Mansfield and Wooster Ohio in Amish country.   We left the house about 8:00am and arrived around 10:30. Mike was skeptical that either bird would still be there, but we gave it a shot.   At Funk Bottoms, we had to hike about half a mile on an overgrown grassy path in the rain to reach the spot where the Buff-breasted had been seen the previous day.   Initially, we couldn’t find the bird but with careful scanning using the spotting scope, Mike finally located him.   Unfo

  August 22 nd (posted Aug. 23 rd )           Mike and I have been busy visiting with our son Andy and his family from Aug.13 th until today.   First, Andy, Brian and Caleb flew in from Baltimore and stayed for a few days.   Then we had a few days alone with our grandson Caleb and Saturday we flew with him back to Baltimore.   Today we came home  and landed in Detroit about 2:00pm.           As you can see, we have been on a birding hiatus, but we kept an eye on the bird sightings.   The most interesting birds were two Swallow-tailed Kites that showed up in Perry County east of Columbus on Aug. 14 th and continued to hang around.   Then yesterday another kite showed up much closer to home.   It was seen at the intersection of four counties (Wood, Putman, Hancock, and Henry) about an hour from home.           We drive home from the airport, changed our clothes, grabbed the binoculars, spotting scope, camera and took off.   We arrived at the four corners location and saw a birde

  August 6 th           We found out around noon yesterday that a Yellow-crowned Night-Heron had been found in Euclid which is on the east side of Cleveland.   I had a mah jongg game in the afternoon (very important), but we actually thought about chasing the bird after that.   In the end, we decided that was a little too crazy even for us.   Someone did relocate the bird in the evening, so we decided to go after it this morning.           We left about 7:30am which is a much more reasonable hour.   We arrived at the Euclid Creek Reservation about two hours later.   Although we  had fairly detailed information about where to look for the night-heron, but it took us a little while to find him.   Fortunately, he was out in the open and we were able to get good scope views.   This bird was an immature night-heron and there are several identifying features to differentiate it from its cousin the much more common, Black-crowned Night-Heron.   The juvenile, Yellow-crowned Night-Heron

  August 4 th           I was dragged out of bed this morning at 5:00am which seemed way too early.   Mike and I wanted to chase a King Rail that had been reported west of Columbus for the last three days.   Mike was convinced that we needed to arrive early to maximize our chance of seeing the rail.   Against my better judgement, I got dressed, made a cup of coffee and we left in the dark at 5:30am.             We arrived at Prairie Oaks Metro Park about 8:00am.   As we got out of the car, we spoke to a woman who had seen the King Rail earlier.   She showed us where to look and right away we saw movement in the reeds.   Within a couple of minutes, the bird was out in the open.   The lighting was perfect, and we all got great looks at the rail and Mike took some excellent photos.   This was the best look we had ever had of a King Rail which is usually a very skulky bird.           A King Rail is a chicken-sized marsh bird, the largest of our rails.   It has become an uncommon spe