Early March 2007 migration update

Posted: 03 March 2007 at 9:06pm

Today was as good a day as I have had this early in March in NW Ohio. The migration was spectacular along the Lakeshore today. There were massive numbers of waterfowl, blackbirds, American Crows, Horned Larks and Lapland Longspurs.

We had huge flocks of waterfowl (dabblers, Canada Geese, Tundra Swans) in the farm fields. Despite seeing nearly 7,000 Canadas, we could not find a single Cackling or Greater White-fronted! We found 18 species of ducks (missing only the two teal), many in good numbers between the fields and bay. Groups of meadowlarks were seen flying over the lake, Killdeer were going over, and clouds of Lapland Longspurs were staging in the fields.

Raptors were good. We saw numbers of Turkey Vultures, Northern Harriers, Cooper's Hawks, Bald Eagles, Red-tailed Hawks and American Kestrels. We found 2 Rough-legged Hawks (1 light and 1 dark) along Lickert-Harder road, 2 miles south of Ottawa Refuge (these were not migrants). We did not see any, but friends from MI saw a handful of Red-shouldered Hawks as well.

Our best bird was Sandhill Crane (3) in a field directly south of Maumee Bay State Park.

Some interesting stats from today (numbers are approximate, of course):

Lesser Scaup: 5,500
Common Goldeneye: 450
Common Merganser: 650
Horned Lark: 350
Lapland Longspur: 900 (viewable birds along road to Metzger, close)
Northern Harrier: 7
Tundra Swan: 300
Wood Duck: 15
Killdeer: 2
Eastern Meadowlark: 10
American Crow: 400

We ran into a couple BIG blackbird flocks, but could not find anything different. There were also a few Snow Buntings in with the big longspur flocks, but just a few.

69 species, and just huge individual numbers.