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A Milestone is Reached!

After much effort to try for 100 species in January and falling short, I finally got a chance to do some birding again on February 12th. I checked St. Rose Church Riverview and Rivertowne Marina for White-winged Scoters, of which there are several reports over the past ten years of this species along Ohio River locations. No such luck among the flotsam of debris in the rising waters. However, I finally found one lone Killdeer (#99) at Rivertowne Marina. Where were they in the whole month of January? Very few ebird reports in January and February so far this year. I viewed and photographed one of the Bald Eagles at Four Season's Marina and noted three Herring Gulls among the multitude of Ring-billed Gulls there. I met Josh Eastlake, one whose name and Facebook posts I have seen often but had hitherto not met. He informed me of Horned Grebes at Lake Barber. That would be a nice bird for my milestone. After a quick check of California Woods Nature Preserve along the way, I headed to Lake Barber. There, while scoping the many waterbirds spread out over the lake, I ran into Jeff & Leslie Sluder, two more lifer birders! It was a real pleasure to show them side by side comparisons of male Greater and Lesser Scaup in my scope, as well as both sexes of Common Goldeneye and male Red-breasted Mergansers. The best bird here was Horned Grebe, #100 for the year! I'm happy to reach this milestone. I can only speculate what the 200th bird will be but I surmise that it will be some type of passerine during spring migration, or perhaps an interesting shorebird. Only time will tell.

New birds added today: Killdeer and Horned Grebe, bringing the county countable list to 100.
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