Fresh off my buzz from the first ever Brown Booby in Ohio, I was down in South Carolina visiting my aunt. We spent the weekend birding and I got to see/hear my second chance lifer Red-cockaded Woodpecker!! Well, the FB Birding Ohio page, showed a picture from a local birder, who saw a Jaeger at an inland reservoir in southern Ohio. Now this was quite unique, because again here was another ocean/coastal bird stuck in Ohio and not on Lake Erie. At first it was ID'd as a Pomarine Jaeger, which made sense. Last year, October 2019, a full size Pomarine showed up in Mansfield, so what the heck? Anything is possible?? But after further pictures and better identification from birders . . . it turns out to be a . . . .
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| Parasitic Jaeger |
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| Lifer #625 |
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| Not my pictures |
Parasitic Jaegers, known as arctic skuas in Europe, are fast-flying relatives of gulls with a piratical lifestyle. They breed on the Arctic tundra, where they prey mainly on birds and their eggs. They spend the rest of the year on the open ocean, harrying other seabirds and sometimes attacking in groups, until they give up their catch
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| Harveysburg Rd. |
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| Jaeger range |
Wow!! Can you believe it!! I was just saying how 2020 Covid-19 year was hard to get life birds. I only had 2 new birds for the year, when BOOM, Ohio comes calling with Brown Booby and Parasitic Jaeger!! I have now seen all 3 Jaeger species in Ohio. Long-tailed lifer in 2017, Pomarine in 2019 and Parasitic lifer in 2020.
Gambill family history:
Buddy saw all 3 Jaegers in 1980!!! Attu Island and Nome, Alaska
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