2022 Ohio Birding Big Year

  November 28 th (posted on November 29 th )           We had a rain-soaked twelve-hour drive home from the Hamptons on Sunday where the whole Gordon clan had celebrated Thanksgiving together.   Needless to say, I was less than enthused about the prospect of a long car ride to chase birds on Monday.   However, we had not seen a new bird during the month of November.   A few new birds had turned up, but we were either busy and unable to chase them or we were unsuccessful.           There were two really special gulls that had been seen on and off for several days in the Cleveland area.   Even though the laundry was calling me, I ignored that, and we left the house about 9:00am. We headed for the Edgewater Marina near downtown Cleveland to look for a Black-headed Gull.   This bird is in nonbreeding plumage, does not have a black head and really blends in with the hundreds of Bonaparte’s Gulls in the area.   It was like looking for a “needle in a haystack” and Mike and I could not fi

  November 1 st           October turned out to be a very good month for us.   We saw eight new species during the month and were able to accomplish our goal of seeing over 300 species in Ohio this year.   Four of the species including Red Phalarope, Nelson’s Sparrow, Townsend’s Solitaire and Scissor-tailed Flycatcher were all Ohio life birds for us.            We traveled to the Columbus area, Dayton and Defiance to find some of these very special birds.   We were fortunate that the Red Phalarope, Townsend’s Solitaire and Franklin’s Gull were all found close to home.   Our total species for the year is 301.   We are still hoping to see some new birds in the remaining two months of our Big Year. Species seen this month: Red Phalarope (rare) Nelson’s Sparrow (scarce) Scissor-tailed Flycatcher (very rare) Red-necked Grebe (rare) Black Scoter (scarce) Harris’s Sparrow (very rare) Franklin’s Gull (scarce)