2022 Ohio Birding Big Year

  October 25 th           I was working in the garden all afternoon pulling out annuals and had just returned from disposing of the yard waste about 4:30pm when Mike met me at the door as I pulled into the garage.   He said, “Did you know that a Franklin’s Gull was seen this morning at Cullen Park?”   I replied, “No I did not but I don’t have time to chase it now.   You know I have dinner plans with the “Round Table” girls at 6:00pm.”            Mike was pacing around and finally said, “Well, maybe I’ll go and see if I can find the gull and if I do, I’ll call you.”   So, I jumped in the shower, got cleaned up and at 5:15pm I got the call.   Even though it was totally crazy, I hustled to Electra and got to Cullen Park at 5:40pm.   When I pulled into the parking lot and grabbed my binoculars, some woman asked me if I was there to see the gull. I said that I was, and she said that it had just flown off!   I quickly called Mike and he said, “No, we’ve got it!”          I hurried alo

  October 23 rd           Mike woke me up out of a dead sleep at 6:15am and said, “If you want to chase the Harris’s Sparrow, you need to get up now.”   The Harris’s Sparrow was in Dayton, and I needed to be home by 4:00pm so I got out of bed and tried to wake up.          We left about 6:45am and headed for Dayton.   Our destination was the Huffman Prairie Flying Field which is actually located within the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.   Google maps kept routing us right through the base, so we drove up to a gate.   The soldier asked if we had a military ID and we said no.   He asked for Mike’s driver’s license, filled out a report and said we couldn’t enter through the base but gave us directions for the civilian entrance to Huffman Prairie.   After driving in a few circles, we finally figured it out.          We found the entrance to Huffman Prairie and saw several birders who were looking for the very rare Harris’s Sparrow which had been seen earlier that morning.   We sta

  October 22 nd           As some of you may know, we have been out of the state recently on a Wisconsin getaway.   We attended a Bar Mitzvah in Milwaukee, visited our good friend from medical school, went looking for some ancestors’ graves in Appleton and northern Wisconsin, and spent some time exploring Door County.   We returned on Thursday ready to look for some Ohio birds.          Friday was a busy day, but we noticed that an extremely rare Scissor-tailed Flycatcher had been seen by many birders on a country road directly east of Columbus.   Also, there was a Red-necked Grebe reported at the Hoover Reservoir north of Columbus.   The University of Michigan had a bye week, but the Buckeyes were playing Iowa in Columbus, so we decided to get an early start Saturday morning to beat any game day traffic headed for Columbus.          It was a beautiful day, and we left the house by 6:30am.   I wore my most comfortable birding pants and my lucky yellow Magee Marsh birding hat hop

  October 12 th (posted Oct. 14 th )           Mike and I found out that a very rare Townsend’s Solitaire had been seen Monday evening at Magee Marsh.   Due to various commitments, we were unable to chase the bird on Tuesday when “everybody and their brother” saw the Townsend’s.            Bright and early Wednesday morning we headed for Magee, hoping that that Townsend’s Solitaire would still be present.   We entered the boardwalk from the east end, turned right at the big loop and headed for the bridge where the bird had been seen the day before.   There were other birders there, but no one had spotted the bird yet.   We continued west past the bridge and ran into a guy who had seen the Townsend’s further west by the start of the small loop but said it had flown off.   Mike exchanged cell phone numbers with a woman, and they promised to call each other if the bird was spotted.   We were all the way down by the small loop when Mike’s phone rang.   We hustled back and everyone got

  October 8 th           Today was “ déjà vu all over again” but with a happy ending.   Last Saturday, Mike and I got up really early and left the house at 6:00am to chase a Nelson’s Sparrow at Battelle Darby Creek Metro Park which is west of Columbus.   We arrived at 8:30am and spent 1½ hours searching for the sparrow with no success.   While driving back home, we received an alert that the Nelson’s Sparrow had been sighted 40 minutes after we left.   We were definitely frustrated and disappointed.          At least two Nelson’s Sparrows continued to be seen at the same location all week but the first time we were able to return was today.   Once again, we left early and arrived at the park about 9:00am.   We walked to the exact same location where we stood one week ago, but this time I immediately saw movement in the reeds and spotted the bright orange face of the Nelson’s Sparrow.            We both got great binocular looks at the bird, but Mike was unable to get a photo.  N

  September Summary           September was a slow month for us, and we only saw three new species but one of them was an Ohio life bird.   We were out of commission the beginning of the month due to COVID.   By September 9 th we were feeling well enough to chase a Laughing Gull at the St. Mary’s Fish Hatchery near Wapakoneta.   The very next day we drove to Ashtabula and found a Red Knot. Both these birds are scarce in Ohio.           We really enjoyed our pelagic trip on Lake Erie.   Even though we didn’t find any new birds, it was great to see all the Red-necked Phalaropes and Black Terns.   Our best bird of the month was a Limpkin which we saw in Massillon (near Canton).   This was a very rare bird and an Ohio lifer for us.             We put a lot of miles on Electra (my Prius) but at least our chases were successful.   At the end of September our total for the year is 293 species and we are still in second place.       

  October 6 th (posted October 7 th )               Wednesday night we noticed that someone had seen a Red Phalarope at Howards Marsh. This is a bird that we needed, so we decided to go look for it this morning. We arrived at the marsh about 9:00am and had to walk about half a mile to get to the area where the phalarope had been seen. There were several birders present but the Red Phalarope had just flown a short distance and it took us awhile to relocate it. We got fairly good looks at the bird, but we could not get that close to it.   There are some subtle differences between a Red Phalarope and a Red-necked Phalarope in nonbreeding plumage. The Red Phalarope is larger and chunkier and has a shorter and thicker bill than the Red-necked Phalarope.  Mike and some of the other birders took lots of pictures and we all studied the bird closely. It was definitely a Red Phalarope which is an Ohio life bird for us.     Phalaropes have an unusual mating arrangement known as polyandry i