Northwest Ohio Birding

I have been pretty busy with school the last few months so I haven't been able to bird as much as I would like. The one exception was when I went to Belle Isle to see the Golden-crowned Sparrow a few weeks ago. I was able to get a few poor pictures of it.

I was finally able to spend almost a whole day birding when I went to northwest Ohio with Karl Overman yesterday. Our first stop was at Metzget Marsh to see the Sabine's Gull that had been seen there since Monday. We got there just after it had showed up and I was able to take this picture.

After checking Ottawa NWR for Cave Swallows with no luck we headed down to Bluffton Ohio to see a Black-bellied Whistling Duck. We were surprised to see it with a bunch of really weird looking Mallards eating the corn a girl was throwing to the ducks. I was able to take lots of pictures and at times it was even too close for the camera to focus on it.

After a brief stop north of Lima where we saw Ross's and Snow Geese we headed west to Paulding County to look for the Brant that had been seen for a week or so. The pond it had been seen in earlier in the day had about 15 Cackling Geese and 2 Snow Geese but no Brant. We decided to check the nearby fields where it had been seen before as well. As we were driving along I noticed a small dark goose sitting all alone in one of the farm fields with its head tucked under its wing. When we got out of the car it looked up showing the all black head and neck of a juvenile Brant. I took tons of pictures but none of them turned out super well because of the lighting. Here are a few of the better ones.

While we were watching the Brant a Snow Bunting landed along the side of the road.

A little more driving back roads turned up a flock of about 200 Lapland Longspurs as well. After a brief stop at a sewage lagoon we headed home. It was quite a successful day, I had three lifers and fifteen state lifers.