Ohio Ornithological Society: Birding News

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Essay: Shorebirding In Ohio, Past, Present, and Future

Essay by Bill Whan

Most folks in Ohio take little notice of shorebirds. For the most part only birders notice them, those huddled brown and gray birds out in open �waste areas� around the state, eating mud or piping sand, then rising all at once in flickering clouds to ride the wind elsewhere. Only four of the 47 species recorded here nest regularly; two of these may now be shot in season as game, but regular successful hunters of snipes and woodcocks wouldn�t fill a high-school auditorium today. For the most part in Ohio, these birds are long-distance migrants, birds of passage, mysterious travelers, strangers.

We too often forget that Ohio is a major destination in the region for birders looking for shorebirds. These birds are usually to be found on every day of the year here, and even though it may take some skill and luck to find a killdeer or a snipe or a woodcock or a dunlin or a purple sandpiper in January and February it is often possible. Two great migratory pulses, one in April and May, and another from July through November, dominate their schedule here, as they travel to nesting sites mostly north of here, than back to wintering sites to our south or on the Atlantic seaboard. In this they resemble many of the warblers and tanagers and orioles and vireos and grosbeaks more beloved by many bird watchers, except that they are far more prodigious travelers�some of them nesting in the extreme high Arctic�s short summer, some wintering at the very southern tips of the world�s land masses.

In the Arctic, shorebirds abandon their precocial chicks on the breeding grounds after a few days� tending. The young undertake a separate migration later, and how they know where to go is a great mystery. Peak migration dates of adults and juveniles may differ by more than 50 days at our latitude, depending on species. Spring migrants are all adults eager to reach the breeding grounds (among some species, first-year birds may skip breeding and stay at lower latitudes), and fall migrants generally follow the pattern of adults first, youngsters later. Only in short periods of overlap are healthy adults and juveniles of many species seen together at our latitude. Failed breeders may show up here way ahead of schedule, such as the odd alternate-plumaged dunlin showing up here in July or August. Adults tend to be more conservative in the choices of fall migration routes; thus, we are far more likely to see inexperienced juveniles in species like Baird�s or buff-breasted sandpipers, because adults take the more established routes to our west.

Because nesting is not at stake, fall shorebird migrants take a more leisurely trip, spending some time at good foraging areas, dodging weather, etc. Many species delay molting into new feathers until they�ve reached the wintering grounds; molt is an energy-intensive process that can be risky to undertake during migration. Some species, however, have evolved to take a break to molt along the way at staging areas. Dunlins stop to molt body plumage near the breeding grounds, as do purple sandpipers (analogous to molt migration in waterfowl), and more, like many of the peeps, sanderlings, the yellowlegs, and stilt sandpipers, drop and replace body feathers-- but not the essential flight feathers--along the way. A few, like our local long-billed dowitchers, stop well along the way to undertake a complete molt, including the vital flight feathers (even though they remain capable of flight throughout).

Another vital variable is habitat, and for migrant shorebirds that means safe places to feed and roost. Although a few species nest in trees, shorebirds are adapted to open, relatively flat landscapes as migrants and in wintering areas. Seldom do we see a migrating shorebird in the shade in Ohio. Even in prime foraging areas, most species will avoid the more heavily vegetated spots in favor of clear open space; presumably this affords them a better view of potential predators, such as raptors or land mammals. It also enables them to see one another; shorebirds are social animals, and their multi-species flocks ensure that individual birds can feed or snooze while others keep an eye out for predators. A few species, such as woodcocks, prefer wooded habitats. Some species, like the curlews and upland sandpipers, prefer open grasslands, but most shorebirds, as the name implies, prefer areas close to bodies of water: beaches, marshes, mudflats, and open areas of periodically drier soil on watery margins.

Some, like buff-breasted and Baird�s sandpipers, tend to stay on drier or unflooded portions of the larger �shore� habitat. Many others forage in mud or shallow water. Those who probe for food while in the water tend to be quite selective as to depth, and you can predict their preferences according to the length of their bills and legs. Greater yellowlegs may be found in deeper water than lessers, and western sandpipers in slightly deeper water than semipalmateds. Visual feeders like plovers stick to muddy areas where they can more easily detect prey. It is possible to divide a piece of �shore� habitat into strict zones that appeal pretty much exclusively to predictable species. You might see a yellowlegs picking in a dry muddy area once in a while, but you are quite unlikely to see a semipalmated plover wading around breast-deep in water.

A good spot for migrant shorebirds has water that varies gradually in depth; you want a �saucer,� not a �cup,� in cross-section. Wet or muddy areas will be adjacent to the water, and still higher areas that though they may appear dry are wet often enough to discourage the growth of a lot of vegetation higher than a few inches. Even the �depth� of vegetation has zones: godwits will walk around in foot-high grass, but not least sandpipers. Along the seacoasts, tidal variations create many water depths routinely, and many shorebirds resort to these areas. Fewer shorebirds nest coastally, because changing water levels can also threaten nests, but on migration many seek �shore� habitat---in marshes, on beaches, along the edges of lakes, in �sky ponds� created by heavy rains in cultivated areas in spring, etc.

Where do such habitats exist in Ohio? Well, we have lots of cultivated areas, and in spring when vegetation there is low, birds will use them, especially if it affords nourishment in the form of aquatic invertebrates. Not every field of corn and beans, doused as they often are with herbicides and insecticides, offers food, and shorebirds may stop only briefly in the tainted ones. There seems to be some sort of ancestral memory among these birds that leads them to drop down, even when forage has long been wiped away, in areas that for thousands of years before farming were shorebird areas---the primordial wet prairies, the vanished marshlands, the spreading margins of formerly wild rivers. Shorebirds still stop at low spots in farms or athletic fields, but they seldom stay long, nor does the habitat persist.

Lake Erie, so large as to be almost an inland sea, once had fluctuations in water levels on the shore that mimicked the oceans� tides. Water moved by winds sloshed and crept inland continually, then withdrew. Changing overall water levels changed the shape of the lake. This invited the formation of shallow sloping substrates with the vegetation types and subaquatic invertebrate life essential to shorebirds. The shallowest of the Great Lakes, Lake Erie in its shallower western basin spawned vast marshes, mudflats, sand and gravel bars, and allied wetlands that presented a huge and ever-changing mosaic of fruitful foraging habitats for migrant shorebirds�and of course many associated birds and other life-forms such as fishes, mussels, insects, and plants---for thousands of years after the last glaciation. Nearly all these features have been eradicated. Controlling the wild Lake�keeping highways open, protecting nuclear plants from flooding, making boating easier, and even providing more predictable hunting opportunities for hunters�has been necessary or at least more convenient for civilization, but accomplishing these ends by diking off the Lake almost completely from the land has left precious little for shorebirds. The same goes for devoting every island, beach, and strip of sand to human recreation, habitation, or commerce. Now there are no sizeable natural marshes in the western basin. The few remaining marshes are controlled, and securely protected by huge stone dikes from the natural actions of the Lake�s influence. The lack of quasi-tidal fluctuations in water levels, the lack of protected sand beaches, the spread of inappropriate exotic invasive plant and animal species, have all conspired to deprive Ohio�s migrant shorebirds�and former nesters like the vanishing piping plover---of vital stopover spots. This situation is of course not unique to Ohio, and it should not be surprising that so many of North America�s shorebird species have been in precipitous decline.

How to find shorebirds, then? It depends on the season in some ways. In spring, when crops in the fields are not high enough to discourage birds, and when certain conditions�springs, dike breaks, or heavy rains�prevail, ponds will form in open fields, and if not too polluted will attract migrants. In fall, fields are usually too heavily vegetated, but then reservoirs may be depleted, or deliberately drawn down, producing shallows and mudflats attractive to birds. Fall shorebirds are a tradition at some spots, such as Hoover Reservoir in Delaware County and Berlin Reservoir in Stark County.

Beaches are often the only quasi-natural areas open to the Lake�s presence along the shore, and some provide habitat for shorebirds. The legendary status of Conneaut as a shorebird Mecca depends precariously on the persistence of a large shelving sand/mud bar within the breakwalls of the harbor; it is probably reduced scouring by waves that makes it a spot so much more productive than beaches like that at Mentor Headlands or Edgewater Park further west in the central basin. Still further west, shallower water in the western basin contributes to fair shorebirding at Crane Creek State Park and the adjacent beach at Magee Marsh Wildlife Area, but such habitat at Cedar Point is only a memory, recorded by Lynds Jones a hundred years ago. The beach at Little Cedar Point is less disturbed, though it is off-limits to most birders; when the Lake�s levels are normal or lower, it shelters shorebirds outside its armored dike. Elsewhere, at small municipal or private beaches, shorebirds will occasionally appear, but the setting is far from a natural one, and the foraging possibilities, in the absence of a big midge hatch for example, are minimal.

The urge to control the Lake Erie shore has to allow rivers and creeks access to the Lake, of course, and while most of these outlets are extremely urbanized (the Flats area in downtown Cleveland used to be marshy, and a great spot for shorebirds 150 years ago), at least one waterway, Crane Creek, runs through protected land at Ottawa NWR, and the necessity to keep it open requires a break in the otherwise continuous dike. When the creek outflow is moderate to low, the Lake level is normal or lower, and winds from the west prevail, this creek�s wide estuary becomes a maze of mudflats and shallows on either side of the deeper creekbed, and thousands of shorebirds, waterfowl, gulls, and terns gather. Sections of the estuary are accessible to the general public, and the shorebirding can be spectacular here. Even though it requires a four-mile walk, many birders are glad to make the journey during migration seasons.

The ubiquitous huge chunks of rock along the Lake�s shore are an advantage to only one shorebird species in the state. Landowners have learned to discourage Canada geese from ponds by ringing them with chunks of rock. Strips of rock such as dikes and breakwalls discourage shorebirds as well, except for the �rockpipers,� birds adapted to precarious slippery rocks and the wind and splash of waves on shorelines. The only species of this group we ever see here is the purple sandpiper, which is found almost exclusively during the colder months on Lakeside breakwalls in the central basin from Sandusky east.

For many years, dredge-spoil impoundments were magnets for shorebirds along the Lake Erie shore. These huge rings of enormous stones, intended as disposal sites for muck dredged up to keep channels navigable near harbors, found no other human use except among hunters, fishers, and birders. Birders came when the muddy spoil attracted birds, and old-timers fondly recall the great shorebirding of the past at places like Bayshore Power Plant, Huron Harbor, Lorain Harbor, and Gordon Park. All of these basins have been filled in recent years, no longer support mudflat habitat, and have reverted to weeds, thickets of willows, and the like. While some are great for certain birds---they remain, after all, important stopping points for migrants right along the Lake�s shore�they no longer attract shorebirds. Certain cities, however, recognizing the value of these impoundments as wildlife habitat (and their unsuitability for other uses because of toxic spoil), have made some moves to manage them for outdoor recreation. The Lorain impoundment has been tended in various ways in recent years, and shorebird habitat may return there. The City of Cleveland has decided to make a wild park out of Dike 14, the old Gordon Park impoundment, and has specifically built shorebird habitat into its plans. These welcome developments bear watching, and deserve our support.

The marshes of western Lake Erie are managed mostly by public agencies, but their priorities often differ little from those of the private hunting clubs that manage the rest. Under normal conditions these impounded marshes are kept flooded deep enough for motorboats and are inhospitable to migrant shorebirds. The same goes for most wildlife areas inland. Shorebird watchers should keep an eye on these spots all the same, because periodic maintenance and breakdowns compel managers to draw water down from time to time, whereupon shorebirds drop out of the sky in great numbers. This spring for example, Metzger Marsh Wildlife Area was briefly restored to its former glory for shorebirds when weed-control measures exposed mudflats there, and dike repair at an impoundment at Big Island Wildlife Area has exposed habitat for shorebirds off and on for the past two years. Work at Grand River Wildlife Area not long ago briefly allowed shorebird habitat to prevail.

Big Island Wildlife Area has been the fastest-growing wetland under State jurisdiction, mainly because it is the principal site for acquisitions of land under wetlands mitigation programs. It also seems to be the scene for the Division of Wildlife�s first hesitant experiments in managing wildlife habitat for biodiversity. True biodiversity of course should benefit shorebirds along with other forms of wildlife neglected in the old stagnant-impoundment model of wetlands managed principally for hunters and trappers. Big Island, while it still features new impoundments of giant proportions, also has the largest unimpounded wetlands of any ODOW property in the state. These wetlands, whether or not they have appeared simply because of the removal of agricultural drain tile in this primeval wet prairie (note the name �Big Island�), have benefited certain shorebirds during migration, when thousands have been counted, and have hosted very rare nesting Wilson�s phalaropes, as well as upland sandpipers in the dry margins, in recent years, but the vegetative cover is too dense for most shorebird species.

Finally, there have been signs in recent years that Federal land managers in the US Fish & Wildlife Service are willing to experiment with deliberate management on behalf of shorebirds in the large Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge complex. From time to time, biologists there have tested drawing down one or more of the many impounded pools to benefit shorebirds. These experiments have not always succeeded, as some of the impoundments lack the best topography, but even an attempt attracts birds in good numbers. This fall two moist soil impoundments at Ottawa have been drawn down somewhat, and attracted an excellent variety of species in August. Unfortunately they are in the closed part of the refuge, though accessible on the monthly auto tours.

Some of our county park systems, in part because they do not directly benefit from, and hence do not regard as clients, the community of hunters and trappers, are often the most progressive land managers on behalf of shorebirds and other neglected non-game wildlife, and when they do not yet deliberately provide for shorebirds are often open to the idea.

The loss of nearly all of Ohio�s wetlands, and the single-use management of much of those that remain, have caused our legacy of teeming stopover spots for shorebirds to dwindle to next to nothing. While there are some hopeful signs that some enduring shorebird spots might be in the offing, in the near future birders will have to emulate the birds, and constantly adjust to change. Lake Erie levels rise and fall, winds shift, rain creates and destroys habitat, dike repairs create habitat for a couple of months, management policies shift and evolve�whether the birds overfly us or stop for us to admire them depends on lots of things. Shorebirds are resilient and adaptable animals, able to improvise stopover spots, but there have to be some spots somewhere. Ways of communicating with one another are improving, and keeping an eye on Birding News, and the ohio-birds mailing list, will help keep everyone informed on what�s available in the way of shorebird habitat year-round. Birders constitute most of the humans whose interests overlap with those of these beleaguered birds, and if we don�t keep learning about them and advocating for their habitat needs the wind birds may be swept away.

---Bill Whan
Columbus

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