St. Marys Fish Hatchery yields several migratory birds
Fall migration starts early, and no group of birds represents autumnal wanderlust more than the shorebirds. Avocets, plovers, sandpipers, stilts and their allies begin appearing in Ohio in late June, and pass through into early winter.
On Sept. 1, I ventured to the legendary St. Marys Fish Hatchery on the eastern shore of Grand Lake St. Marys in Auglaize County. The lake was created in the early 1830s as a feeder lake for the short-lived Miami and Erie Canal. For a while, the 13,500 acre waterbody was the largest manmade lake in the world.
The hatchery opened in 1913, and has long been known as an important bird area. In 1970, Clarence Clark and James Sipe published a small but informative book, “Birds of the Lake St. Marys Area”. The fish hatchery and its rare avian visitors figure prominently in their publication.
There are 26 ponds dotting the hatchery’s 150 acres, and on my visit several were drawn down and contained mudflats — excellent shorebird habitat. I ran into the hatchery coordinator, Jay Williams, who is very familiar with both birds and the birders using the hatchery, which is owned by the Ohio Division of Wildlife. Birders are welcome, just don’t block roads, and steer clear of hatchery management activities.
It didn’t take long to hit the plover/ sandpiper jackpot. A semipalmated plover darted about the mire, in its typical start-and-stop locomotion. Several of these elfin “killdeerlets” with the single breastband were present. They breed far to our north, up to 2,500 miles, well into polar bear country.
A Wilson’s snipe was of interest. It had departed from its normally reclusive habit of hiding in dense vegetation and was out on the mudflat. The snipe plumbed the muck with an extraordinarily long bill, seeking small macroinvertebrate animals. When moving, it locomoted with a comical bouncing gait, as if it were dancing to hip-hop music.
Many killdeer, least and semipalmated sandpipers, and a smattering of solitary sandpipers were present. Excepting the killdeer, these species also breed well to our north. Forty-seven shorebird species have been recorded in Ohio, but the killdeer is one of only five species that regularly breed in the state.
Especially exciting were two Baird’s sandpipers. This 7.5-inch-long, one ounce bird is one of the bird world’s greatest long-haul migrants. They breed in the farthest reaches of the North American tundra, and winter in South America. Some birds travel all the way to Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, some 9,000 miles south of their breeding grounds.
Most plentiful were lesser yellowlegs, which numbered about 150 birds. Among their ranks were a few of the much larger greater yellowlegs. While the two species look nearly identical, the greater weighs twice as much — 160 grams versus 80 grams.
Unregulated market hunting in the late 19th century took its toll on yellowlegs, and many other species of shorebirds. They were shot by the thousands, primarily for food. The naïve birds would often repeatedly return to fallen comrades, making for an easier slaughter.
Following enactment of wildlife laws that protected migratory birds, many shorebirds species rebounded nicely, including yellowlegs. But not all fared as well. The heavily hunted eskimo curlew is now possibly extinct, although tantalizing reports offer occasional glimmers of hope.