Ohio-West Virginia Day 3
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May 2, 2016 | by Greg Miller
Hello from Southern Ohio right down on the Ohio River! What a day this was! We had rain overnight and NEXRAD radar looked great for Southern Ohio this morning. I was optimistic. Our first stop in Shawnee State Forest was decent, but not outstanding. Second stop was better. Time after time we added new species of warblers. By day’s end we had tallied a total of 24 species of warblers!
Pond Lick Run in Shawnee State Forest – photo by Greg Miller
Shawnee State Forest was just as beautiful as ever. Wildflowers were still in bloom although some plants like the trilliums were almost done. Butterflies were out in abundance with Tiger Swallowtails, Spicebush Swallowtails, and Zebra Swallowtails putting on a special show.
Tomorrow we pack up and bird our way northward through Columbus. Tomorrow’s birding will target a few odds and ends. We’ll hit a couple migrant traps, too.
Our trip total list of warblers now stands at 31 species! Of the 38 species of regularly occurring Eastern Wood Warblers there are only 7 more species that are possible save for an accidental surprise. And of those seven, three are quite rare. The list of remaining warblers: Kirtland’s Warbler, Connecticut Warbler, Golden-winged Warbler, Mourning Warbler, Black-throated Blue Warbler, Wilson’s Warbler, and Canada Warbler.
As always, you can check out the species list for each tour (plus the overall list) which I attempt to update daily during every trip on the Species Total tab of bigyearblog.com.
Today’s total species count was 84. The Ohio-West Virginia total is 130 at the end of day 3. And the total for the Big Year Tours is now 360 species.
This is the 4th tour out of 11 tours that I am doing this year in the Lower 48 States with Wildside Nature Tours. We are attempting to see 500 species of birds with tour participants in one calendar year. And we are raising money for American Birding Association’s Young Birders. Many thanks to Leica for sponsoring my optics with binoculars, telescope, and camera.
If you’d like to take one or more of these tours with me, check out my list of tours at bigyeartours.com.
Last year I ran a similar tour and had 33 species of warblers before Biggest Week ever began. Hopefully we can best that record this year.
See you all at Biggest Week in American Birding!