Northern Wheatear Seen In Ohio

Posted by: Loren Coleman on December 21st, 2009

Around this time of year annually, birdwatchers in North America have their yearly “Christmas counts,” in which a tally of every different species of bird locally observed is recorded, counted, and the year’s sightings are recalled.

Bruce Glick photo of the September 2009 Ohio visitor, Oenanthe oenanthe.

In the Columbus Dispatch, reporter Jim Fry gives an overview, and notes this recent special sighting:

The rare bird that drew the most attention was a Northern wheatear, seen on a Holmes County farm in September — only the third recorded sighting of the species in Ohio.

The bird’s breeding range is from Greenland through Scandinavia and Russia into Alaska and the Yukon. It spends winter from France and Greece to China.

The family at the farm kept a log of people who came to see the wayward bird. The wheatear was there just four days, Sept. 12-15, and drew at least 580 visitors from Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas and West Virginia.

Roger Tory Peterson’s keys to identifying the Northern wheatear. Credit Houghton Mifflin Books.

Loren Coleman About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct). Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015. Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.


2 Responses to “Northern Wheatear Seen In Ohio”

  1. cryptidsrus responds:

    Cool post. I’m not a “bird-fanatic” as such but it is always good when rare species are shown to be still around.
    Good show. 🙂

  2. semillama responds:

    I went and saw this bird. It was interesting to stand shoulder to shoulder with Amish birders speaking their dialect while watching the bird. One thing that is interesting about Ohio is the sheer number of rare birds that turn up in Amish country.

Sorry. Comments have been closed.

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