Sandusky County 5/16--Alder Flycatcher, Willow Flycatcher, Bobolink

After the blast off of the first day, it wasn't reasonable to expect a large number of new birds. We went on a van trip to "private lands," places that are usually restricted but whose owners had given permission to have them birded during the festival. As it happened, they were all in Sandusky County, south of where we were staying. One them, Harder's Grasslands, we had previously visited two years ago.

It was another damp morning and it was led by the two rookies again. My estimation for the two leaders changed with one going up to much higher levels, while the other fell into the basement. What we thought was a team turned out to be a random matching--the Biggest Week folks apparently don't give a lot of thought to team chemistry when they assign the trips. None of this really mattered aside from my personal prickliness--the sites were good and the value in trips were, as far as I was concerned, just getting us to different places we wouldn't know the what & where of.

Since my sense of Ohio geography is just a little sketchy, I can't say exactly where the first place we birded was, but I did recognize the spot when we passed it a few days later. It was called Christy Farm Nature Preserve and was serving as a Boy Scout camp when we arrived. Not a particularly birdy spot, but we did hear and see our first Willow Flycatcher--"fitz-bew!"

I make the point of the explosive song because essentially, the only way to separate Willow Flycatcher from our next year bird is by voice. We went to our next stop, McClure's Marsh, a relatively large man-made wetlands, and the birding there was better. In a fallow field that looked much like the ones outside Bombay Hook in Delaware we found a Horned Lark, as we also would in DE, and Purple Martins were abundant.

Photos: Shari Zirlin

As we walked around the marsh we were accompanied by the family dog who, when she wasn't rolling in the grass, liked to take a quick dip in the marsh. She also had bowel and stomach issues, so as the walk progressed she went from being the Big Wet Dog, to the Big Wet Tick-infested Dog, to the Big Wet Tick-infested Diarrhea-spewing Dog, and finally to the Big Wet Tick-infested Diarrhea-spewing Belching Dog.  Someone in our group scratched her behind the ear but thought better of it when she heard the name.

I spotted another flycatcher which struck me, for no good reason I can say, as not a Willow and it sang, something to the effect of "ree-bee-a." In any case, not the easily identified "fitz-bew." I had a good look at the Alder Flycatcher in my binoculars and it does look identical to Willow--no wonder they were both considered one species in the recent past.

At our next stop, Arnold Marsh, we were again greeted by the family pet, this time a Helmeted Guinea Fowl named, I believe, Petey. This dopey bird followed us along the entire trail with his owners, occasionally attacking someone's shoe and trying to untie their laces with his mouth. It was funny for the first 5 minutes, bizarre for the next 5 minutes, and just plain annoying after that. We saw and heard a few interesting birds like Black-crowned Night-Heron and Trumpeter Swans, but we didn't find anything new and we certainly couldn't count the Guinea Fowl.

Our last stop was the place Shari & I had gone on a trip two years ago, Harder's Grasslands which is exactly how it sounds--acres and acres of grasslands with the expected grassland birds. The target bird here was Bobolink and after walking out along a mowed path for about a quarter of a mile we found at least 3 of them displaying and singing, looking, as Peterson describes them, as if they were were wearing their dress suits reversed.

It is also perfect habitat for grassland sparrows and after some looking and listening our guides redeemed themselves in my eyes when they were able to put a Henslow's Sparrow in the scope. I got a brief look, let the next guy behind me see it, and after he saw it he accidentally kicked the scope, preventing Shari from getting a view. I rarely see Shari upset by something like that (I'm usually the one in a rage) but this time she was very unhappy.

We had 64 species for the county so I count the excursion a success:

Species     Location

Canada Goose     McClure's Marsh

Trumpeter Swan     Arnold Marsh

Wood Duck     McClure's Marsh

Mallard     McClure's Marsh

Double-crested Cormorant     McClure's Marsh

Great Blue Heron     McClure's Marsh

Great Egret     Christy Farm Nature Preserve

Black-crowned Night-Heron     Arnold Marsh

Turkey Vulture     Harder grasslands

Northern Harrier     McClure's Marsh

Bald Eagle     McClure's Marsh

Red-tailed Hawk     Harder grasslands

Killdeer     Christy Farm Nature Preserve

Dunlin     McClure's Marsh

Caspian Tern     McClure's Marsh

Mourning Dove     McClure's Marsh

Ruby-throated Hummingbird     Christy Farm Nature Preserve

Red-bellied Woodpecker     Christy Farm Nature Preserve

Downy Woodpecker     McClure's Marsh

Hairy Woodpecker     Christy Farm Nature Preserve

Northern Flicker     Harder grasslands

Eastern Wood-Pewee     Christy Farm Nature Preserve

Alder Flycatcher     McClure's Marsh

Willow Flycatcher     Christy Farm Nature Preserve

Eastern Phoebe     Christy Farm Nature Preserve

Great Crested Flycatcher     Christy Farm Nature Preserve

Eastern Kingbird     Arnold Marsh

Red-eyed Vireo     Christy Farm Nature Preserve

Blue Jay     Christy Farm Nature Preserve

American Crow     Christy Farm Nature Preserve

Horned Lark     McClure's Marsh

Purple Martin     McClure's Marsh

Tree Swallow     Christy Farm Nature Preserve

Barn Swallow     McClure's Marsh

White-breasted Nuthatch     Christy Farm Nature Preserve

House Wren     Christy Farm Nature Preserve

Marsh Wren     McClure's Marsh

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher     Christy Farm Nature Preserve

Wood Thrush     Christy Farm Nature Preserve

American Robin     Christy Farm Nature Preserve

Gray Catbird     Christy Farm Nature Preserve

Brown Thrasher     McClure's Marsh

Ovenbird     Christy Farm Nature Preserve

Common Yellowthroat     Christy Farm Nature Preserve

Yellow Warbler     Christy Farm Nature Preserve

Blackpoll Warbler     McClure's Marsh

Chipping Sparrow     Christy Farm Nature Preserve

Field Sparrow     McClure's Marsh

Savannah Sparrow     Christy Farm Nature Preserve

Henslow's Sparrow     Harder grasslands

Song Sparrow     Christy Farm Nature Preserve

White-crowned Sparrow     McClure's Marsh

Scarlet Tanager     Christy Farm Nature Preserve

Northern Cardinal     Christy Farm Nature Preserve

Indigo Bunting     Christy Farm Nature Preserve

Bobolink     Harder grasslands

Red-winged Blackbird     Christy Farm Nature Preserve

Eastern Meadowlark     Christy Farm Nature Preserve

Common Grackle     Christy Farm Nature Preserve

Brown-headed Cowbird     Christy Farm Nature Preserve

Baltimore Oriole     Christy Farm Nature Preserve

House Finch     Arnold Marsh

American Goldfinch     McClure's Marsh

House Sparrow     McClure's Marsh