Birds to watch for in early November

At this point in the fall, in early November, the warbler migration is essentially over and most of the shorebird migration has gone past. But we can still look forward to new arrivals over the next month or so. The main waterfowl migration still hasn't arrived, and we can anticipate big numbers of ducks, geese, and swans appearing in the next few weeks. Tundra Swans have been seen in passage over northern Ohio during the last few days, and these fly-by flocks could be seen anywhere. Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge is particularly good for numbers of Tundra Swans in early winter, and flocks of Snow Geese should be stopping off there as well. Along the Lake Erie shoreline we can still expect big numbers of scaup, Common Goldeneyes, and Common and Red-breasted Mergansers to show up soon, along with decent numbers of various other diving ducks.

Raptors are still moving, and Rough-legged Hawks should be arriving in northern Ohio about now. Areas to the north of us have been reporting fair numbers of Northern Goshawks, and this might be the season to find one of these big northern hunters in our area.

Some of our wintering sparrows and related birds have not yet moved into northern Ohio in full numbers, so we can still expect a major influx of American Tree Sparrows, Lapland Longspurs, Snow Buntings, and others.

This winter is not likely to see anything like last winter's invasion of White-winged Crossbills -- that species may not appear here at all this year. But just in the last few days there have been scattered Pine Siskins around, so we may have an "echo flight" of those.

There is still a lot of bird movement going on across the continent, so there is always the chance of something really unusual showing up. Strays from the west often are found in late fall, after most of the regular migrants have cleared out. But even without rarities, there are plenty of birds to seek right now.