Howard's Marsh, OH - 19 Aug 2018


Robin and drove down to NW Ohio to visit Howard's Marsh Metropark, Ohio's latest gem of a natural area. The brand new park consists of hundreds of acres of open marsh, ponds and trails. We would arrive to hundreds of Caspian Terns, Common Terns, Forster's Terns, Ring-billed Gulls, Great Egrets, and even Black Terns. The place has even been blessed with several pairs of nesting Black-necked Stilts!

We ran into Don Burlett, who was kind enough to steer me toward roosting Black Terns in the marsh next to the parking lot. Though it was quite breezy this morning I managed to digiscope a couple of birds before kayakers chased them away.



I then spent some time photographing a massive roost of mainly Caspian Terns farther down the trail. Common Terns and Ring-billed Gulls were among them, as well.



I returned to the spot where the Black Terns were roosting and decided to try my luck at hand-holding  digiscoping birds in flight. At an effective focal length of 1125 mm hand-holding a Swarovski STX85 and Sony a6300 was surprisingly possible. The hardest part was manually focusing on terns as they zipped by. I was very happy with my efforts.




It was also a nice time to check out the numerous Common Terns that were progressing from juvenal plumage to winter basics. Common Terns are threatened in Ohio, so it was good to see these birds.



I then wandered across the lot to the back side of the park where the Black-necked Stilts were in residence. I managed to see 3 birds at a long distance, but too far away to walk or photograph. I'll have to wait for a next trip. I would settle for a few pics of a Lesser Yellowlegs. It and a Least Sandpiper were the only shorebirds seen today.


Lovely place! I'll be back. In the meantime, Robin and I drove to the Maumee Bay Brewery for lunch.


Howard Marsh Metropark, Lucas, Ohio, US
Aug 19, 2018 9:30 AM - 11:00 AM
Protocol: Traveling
2.0 mile(s)
Checklist Comments:     Robin and I
9 species

Black-necked Stilt (Himantopus mexicanus)  4     2 nesting pairs
Least Sandpiper (Calidris minutilla)  1
Lesser Yellowlegs (Tringa flavipes)  2
Ring-billed Gull (Larus delawarensis)  60
Caspian Tern (Hydroprogne caspia)  36
Black Tern (Chlidonias niger)  3
Common Tern (Sterna hirundo)  12
Forster's Tern (Sterna forsteri)  24
Great Egret (Ardea alba)  12

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S152290280

This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (https://ebird.org/home)