2022 Ohio Birding Big Year

  September 18 th           Mike played golf this morning and arrived home about 12:30pm.   We both noticed that a Limpkin which was originally spotted near Massillon, Ohio on September 12 th had been relocated this morning and was being seen by numerous birders.   We ate a quick lunch and decided to chase the bird.   Massillon is near Canton and is about a 2 hour and 45-minute drive from home.           We arrived at the spot and saw two birders who were looking at the Limpkin which was feeding in a culvert along the side of the road.   We got great looks at the bird which was an Ohio lifer for us.   Normally, in the United States, a Limpkin is only found in Florida and is very rare in Ohio.   They can also be found in the Caribbean and in Central and South America.              A Limpkin is a gangly brown-and-white bird that looks like a heron or ibis but is actually more closely related to rails and cranes.   The Limpkin got its name because it appears to limp when it walks.

  September 16 th (posted September 18 th )           On Friday, Mike and I had a birding adventure far out onto the open waters of Lake Erie.   Initially, I decided not to do a post because we didn’t see any new birds but it was a truly memorable experience so I will briefly recount the highlights of our trip.           Every year, Jen Brumfield, one of the top Ohio birders makes arrangements to charter a speedy fishing boat with Captain Gary Norman and Dog Pound Charters to do several Lake Erie Pelagic trips.   Our hope was to find Long-tailed or Parasitic Jaegers or maybe a Sabine’s Gull.   Normally, the boat can accommodate five participants plus Jen and the captain, but this trip was just Mike and I and one other birder.   We had plenty of room to spread out on our “three-hour cruise”.             We covered a lot of ground and went at least 10-12 miles out into the lake.   The highlights of the trip were many sightings of Red-necked Phalaropes and also Black Terns.   Jen,

  September 10 th           New birds on back-to-back days!   We were having a leisurely morning at home when Mike mentioned that the Red Knot was seen again at Walnut Beach Park in Ashtabula.   This Red Knot has been reported on and off for a week.   We really hesitated to chase it, because Ashtabula is a good three-hour drive and is way east of Cleveland.   Mike had mentioned several times that he thought a Red Knot would probably turn up closer to home.   In the end, we decided “a bird in the hand”.   So, we got organized and left the house about 11:00am.           We had an uneventful trip and arrived in Ashtabula about 2:30pm.   After a short walk along the beach to a mudflat, we found the juvenile Red Knot almost immediately very close to shore.   A Red Knot is a large, stocky sandpiper with a straight, medium-length bill and rather short legs.   The breeding adults are orange below with an intricate pattern of gold, buff, rufous and black upperparts.   The juvenile has a g

  September 9 th           Mike came down with COVID on Saturday and I tested positive on Monday, so we have been isolating all week and feeling pretty lousy.   There were several new birds around earlier in the week, but we were in no condition to chase anything.   By today we were both feeling much better but we still don’t have much energy. This morning, Mike got an alert that a Laughing Gull, which has been reported sporadically the last few days, was seen again at St. Mary’s Fish Hatchery.   We thought about it for a while and after lunch decided to chase it.           St. Mary’s Fish Hatchery is located on the eastern shore of Grand Lake St. Mary’s.   This is about a two-hour drive south and is a little west of Wapakoneta.   First, a little side note about the lake.   It is 9 miles long and 3 miles wide and is the largest man-made lake in Ohio.   Grand Lake covers almost 3 times as much ground as all of Ohio’s natural lakes combined (excluding Lake Erie).           The sha