Warblers & Shorebirds At Shawnee Lookout & Lost Bridge With Dave Helm
Fall Migration; Warblers & Shorebirds
Location: Shawnee Lookout & Lost Bridge
Saturday, September 27, 2025, 8:00 A.M.
Meet: At the Shawnee Lookout boat ramp upper parking lot. The upper parking lot is located directly across from the Shawnee Lookout Park entrance. (See directions below)
Leader: Dave Helm, (513) 403-4519, helmmd@icloud.com
Come out and join us for what should be a great day of birding. The focus of the trip will be fall migrants. The migration patterns of many types of birds overlaps around this date. Neo-tropical song birds (including many warblers) should be found even though this date is a bit past peak for them. Water birds of several families should also be seen. The Great Miami River and Oxbow area attract shorebirds, long-legged waders, terns, gulls, grebes and ducks and all can be expected around this date. Hawks, osprey & Bald Eagles are also likely to be seen and Broad-winged Hawk and Sharp-shinned Hawk migration is near peak on this date. A rare species is always possible.
Our trip leader, Dave Helm, is an expert skilled veteran birder, naturalist, long-time ASO advocate and current board member. Dave has always been a regular visitor to Shawnee Lookout and the Oxbow and knows the area extremely well. Dave’s experience will certainly come in handy as birds should be abundant on this date.
Since our primary focus of this field trip is the fall migration of warblers and other songbirds, Dave will spend most of the morning at Shawnee Lookout and then some time at Lost Bridge Depending on time and current birding reports, Dave may lead us over to the Oxbow to look for migrating shorebirds and other water birds there.
The plan is to bird until around noon. There will be quite a bit of walking on this trip, but most of it will be generally easy and at a comfortable birding pace. Binoculars are necessary if you expect to see birds. Restrooms are available at Shawnee Lookout. A Hamilton County Park Motor Vehicle Permit is required at all Hamilton County Parks. Daily Motor Vehicle Permits can be purchased for $5 for Hamilton County residents and $8 for non-residents at park entrance booths ($10 & $16 annual). Please feel free to contact Dave if you have any questions.
Directions to Shawnee Lookout Park: We will meet at the Shawnee Lookout boat ramps upper parking lot at 8:00 a.m. The upper parking lot is located directly across from the Shawnee Lookout Park entrance. Shawnee Lookout is located at 2008 Lawrenceburg Rd. North Bend, Ohio. Take I-275 to the Kilby Road Exit # 21. Turn south on Kilby Road and go about 1 mile to the stop light at U.S. 50. Turn right onto US 50 and go about 2 miles to the stop light at Lawrenceburg Road and turn left. Follow Lawrenceburg Road to the stop sign at the end of the Great Miami Bridge (Lost Bridge), turn right and go about 1.5 miles to the park entrance which is on the left. The upper boat ramp parking lot where we will meet is on the right, directly across from the Park entrance.
(Contributed by Jay Stenger)