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Date Posted: 07:56:02 05/01/01 Tue
Author: Greg Links
Author Host/IP: cblmdm205-162-223-29.buckeye-express.com / 205.162.223.29
Subject: New Ohio April Big Day Record

Before this spring, the Ohio April Big Day record had been 130, set a few years back by Tom Kemp and me. I have heard that others have run April Days since, and maybe one had around 140 or so, but the record was never submitted.

In any event, we have always thought the April record could be bumped up pretty good from the previous 130.

So, Tom Kemp and I again went at it, planning and running a route we thought could do it. We ran the route Saturday, hampered by brisk NE winds, from the western Lake Erie marshes to Scioto Trails, just south of Chillicothe, Ohio. Migration was lackluster at best, but we managed to plug along. When the work was finished at Scioto, we had 140 species, and chose not to continue south for nightjars.

Using Sunday for a little rest, I checked the weather reports for Monday, and they looked pretty favorable for a decent migration on Monday. I called John Chadwick, and successfully convinced him that doing a Big Day was more important than working.

I was able to refine our route just a bit based on knowledge from Saturday, and John and I were off and running at 4:45am Monday morning. The migration did not disappoint, and we ran the whole route--when the dust finally settled 365 miles later along the Ohio river in Adams County, we had 153 species, a respectable total for the month of April.

The highlights:

15 species of ducks, 11 shorebirds, 26 warblers. Eurasian wigeon, White-winged scoters, Yellow-headed blackbird, Prairie warbler all considered "bonus" birds.

The lowlights:

Some lousy misses: Pileated woodpecker, Barred owl, Turkey, Red-shouldered and Broad-winged hawks.

On paper, it seems like 160 is a fairly reasonable total for the month of April. In reality, 160 would take a remarkable combination of weather, scouting, and luck. On our 153, we always seemed to be ahead of schedule, and the birds kept coming. We had an interesting combination of species--Lincoln's sparrow and Winter wren, Bay-breasted warbler and junco, thing like that.

It was a fun (and tiring) few days, and now it's time to figure out which Big Day record will be our next victim...

Greg

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