Semipalmated Llama

Ohio bird # 306 - Spotted Towhee

2010-03-09T09:34:00.003-05:00

Got my latest Ohio lifer on Saturday - a female Spotted Towhee up in Holmes County. Also got a Eurasian Wigeon for the year list in Newark. My year list is definitely doing better than last year - I'm up over 70 species right now, which is about 20 more than at this point last year. Of course, last year I had a newborn baby in the house which limited birding.

2009 in review

2009-12-31T10:08:00.002-05:00

Well, 2009 was the year of birding with baby for me. Not my top year of birding, but not too shabby considering I probably averaged getting out to seriously bird once a month, whereas in the last couple of years it was more like once a week. No major birding trips like last year as well, as I did not attend any family reunions or conferences in new birding regions for me. Here's the numbers and highlights:

Year list: 226 ABA area, 214 for Ohio
Life list: ABA area is up to 464 species.
Life birds added: ABA area-6 (Smith's Longspur, Golden-winged Warbler, Trumpeter Swan (countable in MI), Northern Wheatear, Harlequin Duck, Dovekie).
Ohio birds added: 5 (Smith's Longspur, Golden-winged Warbler, Eurasian Collared-Dove, White Ibis, Northern Wheatear)

Last year, in comparison, I had 416 ABA area birds, 277 Ohio birds, 137 life birds, and 15 Ohio birds. Of course, last year was my top year birding so far, so it's perhaps not a fair comparison...

In addition, I added 26 birds to my Massachusetts list this year through being out in the woods doing fieldwork in September and October, plus my one day of birding in December during the holidays. I also added 19 birds to my Michigan list, 7 birds to my Indiana list, and kicked off a Connecticut list with 16 birds.

My goals for the coming year are to work on my Ohio list, with my main targets being Ruffed Grouse, Little Gull, Connecticut Warbler, Cattle Egret, and Pomerine Jaeger. I'll be going to a family reunion somewhere this coming year as well, and if it's in St. Louis, I'll be going after the Eurasian Tree Sparrow for my life list. Otherwise, it's pretty much up in the air, as I have no major travel plans ahead.

Finally going birding tomorrow!

2009-11-13T12:19:00.002-05:00

Through a combination of work and family responsibilities, I haven't really gotten out much in the last couple of months. I am finally going on an Avids trip tomorrow. Won't matter what we see, it's being out birding with friends that I'm really looking forward to.

Highlights of the last couple months:

I saw the Northern Wheatear that was in Holmes County (Life bird 462, Ohio bird 305!)
Added about 30 birds to my Massachusetts list when I spent a month working in south-central Massuchusetts
Twitched after a Yellow Rail in Holmes County, but missed it
Showed my son his first birds that he actually saw at the new Grange Insurance Audubon Center at the new metro park (American Goldfinches)

Woodpecker humor

2009-07-24T08:04:00.001-05:00

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/woodpecker.png

Ohio Bird number 304 -White Ibis!

2009-07-24T07:58:00.002-05:00

There's been a big post-breeding dispersal this summer, it seems. While not getting the rarities that Indiana has to our west, Ohio hasn't been completely overlooked: we've had two Brown Pelicans in the state (which I didn't see) and a juvenile White Ibis -which I did get to see!

The White Ibis was found in a little wetland along some old RR tracks in Guernsey County. The day it was posted to the Ohiobirds listserve, I was invited by my friend Brad to accompany him and Bill to go see it after work. I picked up Bill and we sneaked through rush hour traffic to get to Brad's house. Brad then took up driving duties and we headed off to Guernsey County. To make a long story short, we got there, saw the bird, and spent another hour birding this location, which was pretty productive - about 41 species of birds were present.

Sadly, it appears that the RR may be private property (Although not posted as such) and many people will not get the chance to see the bird.

New tripod, finally!

2009-06-22T21:15:00.002-05:00

I've been wanting a new tripod for a while. The one that came with my Nikon is somewhat flimsy and has been missing a foot for over a year, and tends to tip over in a stiff breeze. My lovely wife has purchased for me a Manfrotto tripod - a low end model for about $130, but still a vast improvement over the current one. I hope to test it this weekend at some point - perhaps on Sunday, when I would like to do a little atlasing for the Ohio Breeding Bird Atlas. There's a couple "Priority Blocks" about 50 miles north of here that aren't getting coverage, and while I don't have the time to really devote to covering them, I can at least get some observations recorded for them.

That's about all, really. Haven't had a chance to get out much, what with the current family schedule. There's a possibility I will be spending a good chunk of the fall doing archaeology around marshy areas in Massachusetts, which would have the side effect of providing good opportunities for adding to my Mass. list. And of course, I'm going to the UP this August for a week, and hope to get some good birding in then as well.

More Magee birds

2009-05-15T06:53:00.004-05:00

I had my best day ever for bird photography last Sunday, I think. Here's a couple of the highlights:

Black-throated Green Warbler

Cape May Warbler

Tree Swallow

Nashville Warbler

Black-Throated Green Warbler

Bird gets its own private beach

2009-05-15T06:51:00.002-05:00

Check this out. The Maleo, a bird that only breeds on the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia, has been given it's own private beach for the nesting season. This bird buries its eggs in volcanic sand which incubates them, and when the young hatch, they are able to fly immediately - talk about precocious!

Here's the story:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090515/ap_on_re_as/as_indonesia_bird_beach_3

Golden-winged Warbler at Magee Marsh

2009-05-12T20:27:00.002-05:00

Finally - one of the last warblers on my Ohio list, and a life bird to boot! I saw this guy on Sunday at Magee Marsh. At first it was fairly far out, but then came in really close and I got halfway decent photos. This bird in number 460 for ABA, 303 for Ohio.

Wow -two months between posts!

2009-04-24T15:48:00.002-05:00

I guess fatherhood will do that to you. I didn't do a whole lot of birding in the last two months, but I have done some quality birding! First off, I picked up another life bird last Saturday, Smith's Longspur (ABA 459) near Rockford, Ohio (Making it Ohio 301). A good sized flock of birds was feeding in a corn field and many birders got to see them. On the same day, I finally got my Ohio Eurasian Collared-Dove (302) and as a great bonus, the bird we saw was carrying nesting material. This observation, it turns out, is the best breeding evidence yet for these birds in Ohio, so there's a little bit of ornithological history that I got to be a part of.

Of course, there's lows with the highs: I was unable to get away to see Ohio's first record Golden-crowned Sparrow, and Ohio's second Mountain Bluebird. Funnily enough, it was pretty much work that got in the way of me going after these birds, not parenthood!

Tomorrow is the big warbler day for me - the Columbus Avids annual end of April trip to Shawnee State Forest near Portsmouth. And we're going to have a nice sunny day. AND - there's been a huge wave of migrants that just showed up last night, so they should be dripping off the trees down there! I'm nearly giddy with anticipation, especially since I haven't seen even a Yellow-rumped Warbler this year.

Well, hopefully I will get off my ass and post some more this weekend about the Shawnee trip, and perhaps not let months go by between posts again!

Birding into history

2009-02-25T13:15:00.002-05:00

I've signed up to transcribe data for the USGS Bird Phenology Program (http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/bpp/index.cfm). Here's the project summary from the website:

"The North American Bird Phenology Program houses a unique and largely forgotten collection of six million Migration Observer Cards that illuminate migration patterns and population status of birds in North America. These handwritten cards contain almost all of what was known of bird status from the Second World War back to the later part of the 19th century. The bulk of the records are the result of a network of observers who recorded migration arrival dates in the spring and fall that, in its heyday, involved 3000 participants.

Today, those records are being processed and placed into a modern database for analysis. This information will be used, along with recently collected arrival times of migrant birds, in conjunction with historical weather data to show how migration is affected by climate change. The information from this analysis will provide critical information on bird distribution, migration timing and migration pathways and how they are changing. There is no other program that has the depth of information that can help us understand the effect that global climate change has on bird populations across the country."

Essentially, you enter in data from scanned observation cards dating all the way back to the 1880s. You can come across some really interesting observations, too. Today I transcribed a card that was documenting a Great Grey Owl specimen taken in NW Indiana in 1897, for example. It's also neat to see the old names for birds, such as Long-billed Marsh Wren (today just the Marsh Wren), and it's easy to start feeling a connection to these long-ago birders.

One big advantage for me in doing this is that I feel that I am doing some form of birding at this point in my life where birding on a regular basis isn't really an option, so that helps cut back the birding fever. Hopefully by the time spring migration is in full blast, I'll have less problems getting back into the field, but for now, it's the lab!

Checking in

2009-02-11T14:54:00.002-05:00

Well, no new bird news to report on the home front - mainly because I'm the father of a baby boy!
Ian Michael Sewell was born January 30, 2009 at 2:41 in the afternoon. His first bird was a starling!

I don't foresee myself getting out to bird this month, as we're still settling in with Ian and trying to get caught up with errands and chores, since he decided to come a week early. I think I will be able to get out more in the coming months, though, and even go on a few Avids trips, which will be all the more fun since I won't be going on as many of them. My work on the Ohio Breeding Bird Atlas will probably come to a standstill this year, though. I just don't think I'll have the time and energy for concentrated survey work.

Anyhow, I'm still alive, and looking at the neighborhood birds, and thinking of spring!

Starting off a little slow but steady

2009-01-20T13:48:00.002-05:00

So far I have been birding twice this month, once for the Kingston Christmas Bird Count and then again last Sunday. I've seen 51 species, highlights being White-winged Crossbill, Barn Owl, Black-legged Kittiwake, Dickcissel, and Greater White-fronted Goose. My birding is going to be taking a back seat pretty quickly here, as my baby will be arriving very soon. My posts will probably be more sporadic for at least the part of the year. I think the theme this year will be "Birding with Baby!"

2008: My Best Birding Year Ever (Yet?)

2008-12-25T17:35:00.002-05:00

Well, 2008 was a heck of a year for everyone - stock markets going nuts, gas prices up and down, and a historical presidential election. For me, it was also quite active - learning I was going to be a dad was the most momentous part for me. But this is a birding blog, so 2008 was big for birding in my life. Lots of milestones - first trip to Florida for birding, first experiences in Southeast Arizona, ABA milestones of 400 and 450, and finally hitting my major goal for the year - making it to 300 on my Ohio state life list. So let's start with that.

I posted back in February, after seeing the Hoary Redpoll, that I had 14 species left before hitting 300 in Ohio, and speculated what those species most likely would be. Here's the original list:

Least Flycatcher
Marsh Wren
Cattle Egret
Franklin's Gull
Eurasian Collared Dove
Golden Eagle
Little Gull
Connecticut Warbler
Clay Colored Sparrow
Least Bittern
Chuck-wills-widow
Marbled Godwit
Golden-winged Warbler
Pomarine Jaegar

And here's the list of what I actually saw:

Golden Eagle, March 16
Red-necked Grebe, March 22
Least Flycatcher, May 6
Chuck-will's-widow, June 7
Black Rail, June 9
Common Raven, July 12
Upland Sandpiper, July 12
Western Meadowlark, July 19
Clay-colored Sparrow, July 19
Marsh Wren, July 19
Marbled Godwit, August 25
Wood Stork, August 27
Franklin's Gull, October 18
White-winged Crossbill, December 13

I only saw half of the birds I thought I would see. Four of the birds are really rare for Ohio: Black Rail, White-winged Crossbill, Wood Stork, and Common Raven.

I also added a ton of birds to my life list - 135 ABA area birds and 137 in total (two exotic birds are state countable but were not on the ABA list when I saw them). My year list for the ABA region was the best ever - 412. My Ohio list was not as good as last year, since I never made it up to the Lake Erie marshes for spring migration, but still a respectable 255 (I also had 155 species in Florida and 131 in Arizona!).

My big challenge for next year is to balance fatherhood with birding. I suspect I won't hit 255 birds in Ohio next year, but having hit the magic number of 300, I don't feel I have to get out all the time either. I think my theme for this next year is to just see what I can see, birding serendipitously as I am out and about with a new baby. I will probably have some good opportunities to sneak off now and then when we take the baby on family visits, so we'll see what happens!

I Did It!!!!

2008-12-18T18:58:00.003-05:00

May I present Ohio Bird 300:

White-winged Crossbill! After three unsuccessful tries at this species, I finally found this stunning male bird at Oak Hill Cemetery, located south of Upper Sandusky. We waited for about an hour before it showed up, calling as it flew. Once it started foraging in the hemlock, however, it clammed up, emitting not a sound. We speculated that if there were other crossbills around, it would be calling. Hitting 300 in Ohio was my goal for the year. Next week, I will post an end of year roundup on what has been the best birding year of my life (so far!).

Crossing fingers for 300

2008-12-04T12:13:00.004-05:00

I'm going birding on Saturday with the Avids. Our big goal is to get to experience the White-winged Crossbill irruption that is going on across Ohio right now. If we are successful, then I'll hit 300 birds for Ohio. Depending on where else we go, there's a decent chance to go over 300 birds, since there are still reports of Pomarine Jaegers and Black-headed Gulls, and there's always a chance for Little Gull. The Harlequin Duck that was up in Cleveland was unfortunately shot by a hunter, though.

We'll see what happens, and I'll report back.

Jaegers and horrible weather

2008-11-15T22:30:00.002-05:00

Went up to Lake Erie today with Bill and Brad to look for rare gulls and jaegers. We got lucky with good looks at what I think may have been three different Parasitic Jaegers, including one I tried to turn into a Pomarine Jaeger (and Ohio Bird Number 300), but it was not to be.

Oddly, no out of the ordinary gulls were present. We did have some late shorebirds, including a Ruddy Turnstone at Lorain Harbor and a juvenile Long-billed Dowitcher at the Cedar Point Chausee.

The weather got progressively worse during the day, and we left the lake early, just ahead of another cold front that turned the driving rain to snow. Another good day of birding!

Arizona, Day 2

2008-10-31T14:10:00.003-05:00

Black Phoebe, Sweetwater Wetlands

Most of Day 2 in Arizona was spent at my conference. As I left in the morning to go to the conference, I did pick up ABA#419, Lesser Goldfinch, in a willow tree outside the hotel. After the conference was over for the day, I headed up to the Sweetwater Wetlands, where I had a number of very good birds, starting with Harris's Hawk flying up onto a telephone pole as I was driving towards the wetlands.

I spent about 2 and a half hours exploring the wetland, which was teeming with birds. Ducks included Mallards, Northern Shoveler, Green-winged Teal, Ring-necked Duck, Ruddy Duck and my target duck, Cinnamon Teal. Passerines included Barn and Tree Swallow, Yellow-headed and Red-winged Blackbirds, Black Phoebe, Abert's Towhee, Song Sparrow, Common Yellowthroat, Orange-crowned Warbler, Rufous-winged Sparrow, Cassin's Kingbird, GIla Woodpecker, and Marsh Wren. Other birds I observed included Killdeer, American Kestral, American Coot, Common Moorhen, Pied-billed Grebe, Black-crowned Night Heron, Sora, Starling, and, just after dusk fell, Lesser Nighthawk - ending my day by occupying #425 on my ABA list. Satisfied, I left the wetlands and drove back to my hotel.

Arizona, Day 1

2008-10-28T19:49:00.003-05:00

9-25-08

I began my first day in Arizona with two life birds over breakfast at the Riverpark Inn in Tucson: Anna's Hummingbird and Gila Woodpecker, which got me to ABA #400 before I had two sips of coffee. The day was sunny and clear, and I was headed to the northeast of Tucson, with the morning planned for Sabino Canyon and the afternoon at Mt. Lemmon.

I spent 3 hours hiking around Sabino Canyon, which wasn't as birdy as I had hoped, but it was birdy enough. I started out with Cooper's Hawk, House Finches and Mourning Doves, and then started hitting the desert birds. I had great looks at Cactus Wren, Gambel's Quail and Cassin's Kingbird.

Cactus Wren

In a riparian corridor, I picked up Green-tailed Towhee, Verdin, more Anna's Hummingbirds, a Costa's Hummingbird, and another couple of Cooper's Hawks. I followed a gnatcatcher's scolding hoping for Black-tailed, but had Blue-gray instead. Further hiking gave me more birds, such as Common Raven, Turkey Vulture, Northern Cardinal, Gila Woodpecker and Northern Mockingbird, and I added Black-throated Sparrow, Gilded Flicker and Greater Roadrunner to my life list.

Black-throated Sparrow

Mt. Lemmon

At 11:30, I felt I had probably seen all the birds I would at Sabino Canyon and headed up to Mt. Lemmon, stopping frequently to bird. I spent a little over 6 hours at Mt. Lemmon, birding up the mountain. Mt. Lemmon was fairly productive, especially in a rocky dry creek bed at a campground, where I had Canyon Wren, Bewick's Wren and House Wren; Summer Tanager; Brewer's Sparrow; Painted Redstart; Western Wood-Pewee, Canyon Towhee, and Nashville Warbler.

Summer Tanager

A little further up at a picnic area I came across the only Yellow-eyed Junco I would see, along with Mexican Jay, Acorn Woodpecker, Spotted Towheeeand Red-naped Sapsucker. Finally, I made it up to the top and had a very late lunch/very early dinner at the Iron Door restaurant. I was the only customer at that time and had excellent service, enjoying German food and beer while watching the Broad-billed and Rufous/Allen's Hummingbirds feed next to me. Then, I headed to the very top, picking up Hermit Thrush, "Red-shafted" Northern Flicker, Pygmy Nuthatch, Mountain Chickadee, Yellow-rumped ("Audubon's") Warbler, Stellar's Jay, and Hermit Warbler. Light was beginning to fail and I could see rain clouds rolling in, so I headed back down the mountain, stopping to enjoy the scenery and feeling pretty good - having added 20 ABA birds in one day!

Detailed AZ posts coming, I swear

2008-10-21T16:08:00.001-05:00

I've been pretty busy with work and life since getting back from AZ. But I promise, I'll have a summary of each day up here soon, with pictures!

In the meanwhile, I just saw my 458th ABA area bird this last weekend - Franklin's Gull, at East Fork Lake State Park. The gull also happens to be my 299th state bird!

Brief Arizona results

2008-10-02T14:56:00.006-05:00

I've re-written this post after finally entering in my eBird data. I actually had 131 total species, 59 ABA species and 52 life birds (7 birds I had seen in Mexico - if I had Vermillion Flycatcher, I would have added all the birds I saw in Mexico to my ABA list). So here's the GRAND TOTAL copied and modified from eBird (ABA species in bold):

Mallard
Cinnamon Teal
Northern Shoveler
Green-winged Teal
Ring-necked Duck
Ruddy Duck
Wild Turkey
Gambel's Quail
Pied-billed Grebe
Great Egret
Black-crowned Night Heron
White-faced Ibis
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Northern Harrier
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Cooper's Hawk
Northern Goshawk
Harris's Hawk
Gray Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
American Kestrel
Sora
Common Moorhen
American Coot
Killdeer
Greater Yellowlegs
White-winged Dove
Mourning Dove
Inca Dove
Common Ground-Dove
Greater Roadrunner
Great Horned Owl
Lesser Nighthawk
White-throated Swift
Broad-billed Hummingbird
White-eared Hummingbird
Violet-crowned Hummingbird
Blue-throated Hummingbird
Magnificent Hummingbird
Lucifer Hummingbird
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Black-chinned Hummingbird
Anna's Hummingbird
Costa's Hummingbird
Broad-tailed Hummingbird
Rufous Hummingbird
Belted Kingfisher
Acorn Woodpecker
Gila Woodpecker
Red-naped Sapsucker
Ladder-backed Woodpecker
Arizona Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Gilder Flicker
Western Wood-Pewee
Willow Flycatcher
Hammond's Flycatcher
Gray Flycatcher
Black Phoebe
Say's Phoebe
Dusky-capped Flycatcher
Cassin's Kingbird
Western Kingbird
Loggerhead Shrike
Bell's Vireo
Plumbeous Vireo
Hutton's Vireo
Stellar's Jay
Mexican Jay
Common Raven
Tree Swallow
Barn Swallow
Mountain Chickadee
Bridled Titmouse
Verdin
White-breasted Nuthatch
Pygmy Nuthatch
Brown Creeper
Cactus Wren
Rock Wren
Canyon Wren
Bewick's Wren
House Wren
Marsh Wren
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Hermit Thrush
Northern Mockingbird
Curve-billed Thrasher
European Starling
Phainopepla
Orange-crowned Warbler
Nashville Warbler
Virginia's Warbler
Lucy's Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Black-throated Gray Warbler
Townsend's Warbler
Hermit Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Wilson's Warbler
Painted Warbler
Summer Tanager
Western Tanager
Green-tailed Towhee
Spotted Towhee
Canyon Towhee
Abert's Towhee
Rufous-winged Sparrow
Cassin's Sparrow
Chipping Sparrow
Brewer's Sparrow
Vesper Sparrow
Lark Sparrow
Black-throated Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Yellow-eyed Junco
Northern Cardinal
Black-headed Grosbeak
Blue Grosbeak
Lazuli Bunting
Varied Bunting
Red-winged Blackbird
Yellow-headed Blackbird
Brewer's Blackbird
Great-tailed Grackle
Bullock's Oriole
House Finch
Lesser Goldfinch
House Sparrow

Breif update from Arizona

2008-09-26T21:46:00.001-05:00

27 ABA birds so far! Including Cactus Wren and Black Phoebe, which I had seen in San Miguel de Allende when I was on vacation there. A big update when I come back, plus photos. oh, and ABA bird #400? Gila Woodpecker. Had that and Anna's Hummingbird with breakfast yesterday morning...

Targets for Arizona

2008-09-23T16:15:00.002-05:00

According to my friend Joe, who is kindly hosting me for two days and birding with me next week, these are the most likely birds I will be adding to my ABA/life list in Arizona:

Cinnamon Teal
Gambel's Quail
Harris's Hawk
Gray Hawk
Inca Dove
Lesser Nighthawk
Broad-billed Hummingbird
Magnificent Hummingbird
Black-chinned Hummingbird
Anna's Hummingbird
Costa's Hummingbird
Acorn Woodpecker
Gila Woodpecker
Ladder-backed Woodpecker
Arizona Woodpecker
Gilded Flicker
Black Phoebe
Say's Phoebe
Cassin's Kingbird
Hutton's Vireo
Plumbeous Vireo
Cassin's Vireo
Mexican Jay
Bridled Titmouse
Verdin
Cactus Wren
Bewick's Wren
Curve-billed Thrasher
Black-throated Gray Warbler
Grace's Warbler
Lucy's Warbler
Townsend's Warbler
MacGillivray's Warbler
Painted Redstart
Hepatic Tanager
Green-tailed Towhee
Abert's Towhee
Rufous-winged Sparrow
Black-throated Sparrow
Yellow-eyed Junco
Pyrrhuloxia
Black-headed Grosbeak
Lazuli Bunting
Varied Bunting
Lesser Goldfinch

45 seems like a nice number to add to my list - that would put me at 443 ABA area birds. Four of the birds on the likely target list I have seen in Mexico, so they wouldn't be life birds (Black Phoebe, Curve-billed Thrasher, Cactus Wren, and Lucy's Warbler). Still, I'd end up with 470 life birds if I see these 45 birds!

Filling in some gaps in the year list

2008-09-08T14:53:00.003-05:00

I went out after a morning rain shower on Saturday to Blendon Woods Metro Park. I thought about sleeping in but it was just nagging at my brain that morning to do some birding, so off I went.

Good thing I did, it was one of the best days for warblers I've had at the park. I spent about 2 hours birding and had 11 species of warblers for my effort, plus I finally saw the mother turkey and her youngsters that are living around the blinds near the pond. I added Blackpoll and Bay-breasted Warbler to my Ohio year list, which was good - I' m missing Cape May Warbler and Northern Waterthrush from the common warblers that pass through Ohio. I also looked for Mourning Warbler as it had been reported from one of the trails, but no luck. I'm hoping we luck into some great warblers and shorebirds on the Avids trip this saturday. I think I have a decent shot at 250 for a state list this year - not bad considering I barely birded at all in Ohio during the month of May, which is typically my best month for adding to a year list.

I also leave in a little over two weeks for Tucson, AZ. I'm really eager to get there and do some birding - I figured I could add 21 life birds just by hanging out in my friend's yard alone...

State Bird #298: Wood Stork!

2008-08-28T15:59:00.002-05:00

Three juvenile Wood Storks are hanging out in Coshocton County right now. I went out to see them last night with Brad, Paul and Jeff from my birding group, and we ran into Bill and Troy while we were there (along with about 30 Amish birders).

Wood Stork is an incredibly rare find for Ohio, with only a handful of previous records (I think - I need to check on that). Here's a photo of the birds from last night.

Glacier Ridge Shorebirds and waders

2008-08-26T13:26:00.004-05:00

Yesterday I spent a fair amount of time at the Honda Wetlands Education Center at Glacier Ridge Metropark, primarily to see the Marbled Godwit. There was also a fair amount of other birds actively feeding around the boardwalk, which of course was ideal for amateur photographers like myself to practice taking pictures of birds. Besides the godwit, I got great photos of other birds. Here's the best of the lot.

Marbled Godwit

Juvenile Semipalmated Plover

Virginia Rail

Solitary Sandpiper

Semipalmated Sandpiper

Marbled Godwit- third times the charm!

2008-08-26T07:52:00.000-05:00

I went out after work last night to try for the godwit again, and this time the bird was right there in all its glory! I'll have pictures up shortly. This is my 398th ABA bird and Ohio bird 297!

Waiting for Godwit

2008-08-25T14:31:00.003-05:00

So, there's a Marbled Godwit hanging out at Glacier Ridge Metro Park. It's been there since Saturday. So far, I have been stymied TWICE in going after this bird which is about 25 minutes drive from my house:

-yesterday the park was closed for a marathon

-today I went at lunch and the bird was not making itself visible.

I should note that the bird was seen within a half hour of my arrival AND departure at the park.

I'm going again after work. This bird is NOT getting away from me that easily!

"Shall we hang ourselves?"

More shorebirding

2008-08-18T16:30:00.002-05:00

I went out on what may have been the least well-attended Columbus Avids trip I've ever taken part in on Saturday - 5 people showed up (including me)! We went back up to the Bellevue area in search of more shorebirds. I was also hoping to snag a couple birds for my state list, but alas, I was stymied in that regard - no Eurasian Collared-Doves in Fort Seneca, missed Cattle Egret by a day at one location, and heard about a Marbled Godwit at Ottawa NWR (which happened to have the auto tour cancelled for the day).

Still, I got to study a lot of Semipalmated and Least Sandpipers, and didn't manage to turn any into a Western Sandpiper. I suppose that means I'm getting better at identifying shorebirds, but it sure doesn't feel like it! I did add one bird to my Ohio year list - White-rumped Sandpiper. We also had good looks at some Stilt Sandpipers and juvenile Short-billed Dowitchers. So, not a total bust for the day, and any day birding is pretty much a good day in my book. I'm starting to look forward to the fall warbler migration, which actually should be starting around here - have to start taking the dog on the ravine walks on weekend mornings again...

Going to be a lot less bird-related travelling next year

2008-08-06T15:19:00.001-05:00

Because I'm going to be a dad! My wife is due in February, so most of my birding will probably involve a stroller in local parks next year - perhaps I'll be able to get to go on a couple Columbus Avid trips, but I expect to be mostly a homebody next year.

Shaping up to be a poor shorebird season

2008-07-31T16:08:00.003-05:00

Solitary Sandpiper, Bellevue area

I went out last Sunday with some friends to check out shorebird habitat in the NW corner of the state. While we found some pretty good birds, the amount of habitat was pretty sparse. Everything has either too much water or not enough, it seems. A lot of traditional great areas look like total busts, such as Medusa Marsh (too much water), Pipe Creek (not enough water) and Pickerel Creek (ditto). One exception is the Bellevue area south of Sandusky, which had suffered some severe flooding earlier in the summer.

Black-necked Stilts (background), Killdeer, Tree Swallow,
and Lesser Yellowlegs, Bellevue, Ohio

Due to a quirk of local geology, the flood waters around Bellevue are taking a very long time to recede, so long in fact that the flooded fields served to host dozens of breeding Pied-billed Grebes and ducks. More interestingly, a group of four Black-necked Stilts showed up there in June and attempted to nest, although it seems the attempt failed. We saw the stilts, along with an American Avocet, a raft of Ruddy Ducks, Solitary Sandpipers, Semipalmated Sandpipers, Least Sandpipers, Pectoral Sandpipers, Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs, Killdeer, Semipalmated Plover, and Short-billed Dowitcher.

American Avocet (sleeping), Killdeer, Lesser and Greater Yellowlegs

I also found out I'm getting to go to Tucson for a work conference at the end of September. I've already scheduled in two or three days to go birding!

Goodbye, nemesis bird!

2008-07-21T14:24:00.002-05:00

On Saturday, I finally was able to place a check mark in the gaping hole of my life list and especially my Ohio list - Marsh Wren. I had a definitive observation of this species at Ottawa NWR on Saturday, which was an extremely productive day. Besides the Marsh Wren, I also added Western Meadowlark and Clay-colored Sparrow to my Ohio list (the sparrow was also a new ABA area bird), as well as Little Blue Heron, Snowy Egret, Lark Sparrow, Summer Tanager, Blue Grosbeak, Semipalmated Sandpiper, Short-billed Dowitcher, Stilt Sandpiper and Spotted Sandpiper to my Ohio year list.

So, I'm now four species away from 300 in Ohio and three species away from 400 ABA birds. The next couple of months will be interesting to see what might fill in the last slots before those milestones. I may actually hit 400 ABA before 300 Ohio birds, as I am probably headed to Tuscon, Arizona in September for a conference ( and you know I'll be spending an extra day or two birding...).

Two new birds for my state list

2008-07-15T11:18:00.002-05:00

Last Saturday, I went out with my group of birding friends to Jefferson County, which is on the Ohio/West Virginia border, south of Youngstown. Our goal was to see the Common Raven family that had bred successfully, the first time in over a hundred years for this species in Ohio. To make a long story short, we did manage to see the birds, five of them swooping and playing in the air, and I got a great look at one on someone's lawn before it flew off. I also had the best look I've ever had at a Black-billed Cuckoo at Fernwood State Forest where we started birding that morning.

Later that day, I also added Upland Sandpiper to my state list, ticking it off at the Harrison County Airport (where I also added Bobolink to my Ohio year list).

So now, I'm up to 293 species on my Ohio list. This weekend, I'm probably going out with a couple friends to the NW corner of the state, to see the Western Meadowlark and Clay-colored Sparrows up near Toledo. Both would be additions to my state list, and Clay-colored Sparrow would also be an ABA area bird for me. I'm trying to convince my buddies that we should hit a decent marsh for Marsh Wren - my Nemesis bird. I really don't want such a common bird to be a "milestone" bird -either Ohio #300 or ABA# 400!

The Smithsonian Field Guide to the Birds of North America

2008-07-10T13:49:00.006-05:00

A couple weeks ago, I won a free copy of a new field guide, the Smithsonian Field Guide to the Birds of North America. I won the copy by participating in the 10,000 Birds blog giveaway contest, thus saving me $25 I would have otherwise spent on this book. Since I didn’t have to pay for the copy, I figured I would do Smithsonian and Harper Collins a favor and review the book. The first thing to know about this book is that it was compiled by Ted Floyd, the editor of Birding magazine, the official mag of the American Birding Association, and thus has been put together with the membership of the ABA in mind. Each species entry in the book includes its ABA Difficulty Code, and there’s a handy ABA checklist in the back. The guide uses high quality photographs that shows all the most important and visible fieldmarks of the birds. The accounts are mainly placed two to a page in columns. At least two photos are included for each account, focused on depicting the main plumage differences that the species displays. Some accounts have further photos showing species in flight as well. Under the photos is a line with the measurements for wingspan, length and weight, followed by a set of three information lines about the plumage, including number of molts, degree of difference between sex and age related molts, and any variations in plumage. Under the plumage information is a section with a short descriptive paragraph about the species, its nesting and breeding habits and range along with a range map. Finally, a concluding section briefly describes the vocalizations of the bird. This guide does a great job of cramming a lot of information into concise, clear packets. The guide isn’t as comprehensive as the National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds, as it seems to mainly include only those birds that breed or are common vagrants within the ABA area, and doesn’t include rare but increasing vagrants, such as Green Violet-ear or Green-breasted Mango. Granted, the omissions seem most evident with the southwestern hummingbirds, but it still sticks out.

Another interesting feature of the guide is the inclusion of a bird song DVD with vocalizations for 138 species, totaling 587 mp3 files. The files are intended for download onto a portable mp3 player, which I suppose is a sign of the ubiquity of these devices in birding culture (although I have yet to pick one up). While the inclusion of the DVD is a great idea, I do agree with other reviewers that it would have been more useful to include sound files for ALL of the species in the guide, at the sacrifice of the variety of vocalizations. The DVD includes many very common species, but there’s some weird omissions – Willow Flycatcher is included, but none of the other common Empidonax flycatchers that are virtually indistinguishable from Willow Flycatcher – except by voice! I think that while the idea is great, by not including an mp3 file for every bird in the book, the concept falls flat. It’s nice to have the short perch songs, dawn song, dawn flight song, and calls from two different regions for Tree Swallow, but the limited number of species on the disc just makes it more frustrating than useful for the experienced birder. The beginning birder, though, might find the disc far more useful, since the multitude of calls included for common species may be very handy in developing the skills of birding by ear.

I personally am going to stick with Sibley’s regional guides for my main field guides, but I think that the Smithsonian field guide will make an excellent back up field guide. The photographs are much clearer than the paintings in the National Geographic guide, and this guide is the equal of the National Geographic guide in everything except for comprehensiveness.

Back from Colorado

2008-07-09T15:47:00.004-05:00

My trip out to the Rocky Mountains for my family reunion was not as productive as I had hoped for my life list, but it was still a good birding experience. I added 8 species to my ABA list and 7 to my life list: Great-tailed Grackle (ABA), Swainson’s Hawk, Violet-green Swallow, Broad-tailed Hummingbird, Band-tailed Pigeon, Sage Thrasher, Scissor-tailed Flycatcher and Upland Sandpiper. Of these, only the swallow and hummingbird were birds I saw while out birding, and not as a drive-by while traveling – although I did get better looks at Swainson’s Hawks on the 4^th at Windy Gap Reservoir. The Sage Thrasher was sort of an iffy look at a rest stop as we were getting in the car but I’m about 98% certain that’s what the bird was. The Band-tailed Pigeons I saw weren’t cooperative either, as I had a very brief look at a pair flying away as we drove up the mountains on our first day, but luckily one of the species’ major diagnostic marks is best viewed on a bird flying away – the banded tail, which is what I saw on the birds. That field mark plus the habitat pretty much cinches the identification.

Violet-green Swallow - The only life bird I was able to get decent photos of!

One of the reasons I think I missed a lot of life birds, besides the fact I was doing family activities and only had an hour devoted to nothing but birding, was the fact that there was a lot of active logging of lodgepole pines at the YMCA ranch we were staying at. The logging was to remove trees killed by the pine beetle infestation, which is on track to eliminate 90% of the lodgepole pines in Grand County in two years. Considering that most of the forest in Grand County is lodgepole pine, this is a major disaster. To get an idea of the scope of the infestation, take a look at the picture of the mountain below. Normally, that mountain should look green but instead is rust-colored from all the dead trees.

Anyway, the logging at the ranch was concentrating on removing dead trees from the property as a fire prevention measure, which I am sure has driven out a lot of birds. Still, I had a lot of good birds at the ranch, including Violet-green Swallows, Red Crossbills, Mountain Bluebirds, Northern Goshawk, Spotted Sandpiper, Green-winged Teal, American Widgeon, Pine Siskin, Broad-tailed Hummingbird, and others.

"Red-shafted" Northern Flicker (note the dead pines in background)

Pine Siskin, Rocky Mountain National Park

Female Mountain Bluebird

We only spent a little time in Rocky Mountain National Park, and it wasn’t very birdy where we stopped, unfortunately. I did get some spectacular shots of some bull elk browsing at 12,000 feet, thought, and a good moose photo!

Bull Elk, Rocky Mountain National Park

Cow moose, Rocky Mountain National Park

All in all, it was a good trip, and just a taste of the birding that awaits me on future trips out there…

Going to Colorado for a couple of days

2008-07-01T09:24:00.002-05:00

I'll be in Colorado from Wednesday night through Friday night attending a family reunion. The reunion is at the Winter Park Lodge in Winter Park, at an elevation of roughly 12,000 feet. Obviously, I'll be birding as much as I can in between reunion activities. This won't be much of a problem, since we have a free day on the third. A lot of folks are going white water rafting, but my wife and my dad and his partner will probably go up to Rocky Mountain National Park to do some sightseeing. This will be my wife's first visit to the mountains, too, so that's exciting. It's been a long time since I birdwatched in Colorado - actually, this will be my second time, and it will be my first as an experienced birder. The first time I was there was on a family vacation when I was about 15 and I saw a lot of great birds but I didn't actually go looking for them, only saw them as encountered randomly while sightseeing with the family. I'm fairly sure that I saw a white-tailed ptarmigan that time, but I want to see one this time to be 100% sure. I don't have it on my list right now.

I went and looked at my eBird list to see what I had entered for Colorado, based on photos and memory. There are only 5 birds: Golden Eagle, Clark's Nutcracker, Black-billed Magpie, American Dipper and Mountain Bluebird (although I'm sure there's other birds on there I just didn't add, like Dark-eyed Junco which I know we saw). I should add significantly to that list this time out. In addition, my ABA list is at 388 right now (ebird says 389, but that's because they don't seem to have a good ABA filter right now - Black-hooded Parakeet isn't on the official ABA list yet). I think there's an EXCELLENT chance of hitting 400 on this trip. This is due to the fact that besides spending 2 whole days in the Colorado mountains, we had to fly into Kansas City because of airfare costs instead of flying into Denver. So we have about a 12 hour trip to and from Winter Park that will take us across the Colorado and Kansas plains, givining me a good chance at birds like Swallow-tailed Flycatcher, Say's Phoebe, Swainson's Hawk, and Ferruginous Hawk. I'll basically be plastered to the minivan window, staring out at the plains the entire time, hoping for one of these birds, as well as starting my Kansas list . . . A birder is never bored on a long car trip!

Skipped on the Burrowing Owl

2008-06-26T15:00:00.000-05:00

No positive reports + violent T-storms on the way = me not going out for the owl. That is all.

Burrowing Owl in Ohio!

2008-06-25T13:45:00.004-05:00

Just in - a Burrowing Owl has been photographed in Darke County Ohio. This is the fourth record of the species in the state. I'm going out after work tonight with friends to try and see it. Apparently it's been hanging around some culverts for the last week. If we see it, it will be my second burrowing owl for the year (the first was in the Florida Keys).

Also, I won a copy of the new Smithsonian Guide to North American Birds by participating in 10,000 Birds Great Smithsonian Guide Giveaaway! I'll post a review of it here when I receive it. Thanks to the jammy finger of Charlie's child for selecting my entry!

Black Rail!

2008-06-12T07:35:00.002-05:00

I went out Monday night and spent two hours at Charlie's Pond, a little wetland in Pickaway County that has a history of producing odd birds every now and again. Since the 1st of June, at least 1 Black Rail has been calling here, and appears to have set up a territory. I waited for about an hour, heard the birds at 830, and waited another hour, but one call was all I was going to get, it seems. One call is all it takes to add it to my life list though!

The Scioto County atlasing went well - my best breeding confirmation was Kentucky Warbler. We also went out on Saturday night for nocturnal birds, and had a great encounter with a Barred Owl that called and flew in so we could look at it, and in a different spot we had four Eastern Screech-owls and a Chuck-will's-widow (another heard-only lifer!).

Doing some blockbusting this weekend

2008-06-05T14:57:00.004-05:00

I'm going to be helping my friend Brad do some breeding bird atlas survey work down in southern Ohio this weekend. He arranged for free camping, which is a nice bonus. Hopefully, I'll get some more state year birds as well - I'm having an average year for the state list, but my best year ever for the ABA area - which is partly why my state list is suckin'!

We're going to stop in Pickaway County on the way down tomorrow to try for Black Rails that may have set up shop in a local wetland - at least two males and perhaps a female have been calling all week. Of course, with my luck, it will be gone by the time I get there...

Florida Trip, Day 6: May 16

2008-06-03T09:32:00.006-05:00

Willet, Fort Desoto State Park

The Last Day

After a fine day in the Gulf of Mexico, our last day in Florida was devoted to a bit of “mop-up” and then some time in the Tampa/St. Petersburg area. First off, we arose very early in the morning and headed back to Miami in search of Spot-breasted Oriole and White-winged Parakeet, both of which we had missed on Monday but had gotten some tips about good locations. We ended up back in the same neighborhoods, just at more likely times. We spent nearly 2 hours searching. An oriole was heard but never seen at our first location, which also featured Monk Parakeets and Yellow-chevroned Parakeets. Our target birds were not present, but a great bonus prize was an Eastern Screech-Owl that flew up and perched in a tree right in front of me! After two hours, we gave up on our target birds. We were stopped at a light right before the freeway ramp, ready to head north and west, when John yelled out “Oriole! It flew into that tree!” We all whipped our heads around and while not the best views in the world, there was a Spot-breasted Oriole, perched up in the top of a palm! It flew off, and our light turned green. Our mood of defeat was turned to triumph, and away we went, life bird number 415 safely ticked.

We made it to Fort DeSoto State Park about 1pm, a place known for shorebirds and as a location for Black-hooded Parakeets. We did not find the parakeets, but some careful scrutiny of shorebirds revealed an American Oystercatcher (ABA bird 383 for me) and a Snowy Plover (ABA 384, life bird 416)! After an hour and a half at the park, we followed some directions in Bill Pranty’s guide to a marina in St. Pete, and we drove around for a bit until we heard the screeching of parrots. We found a house with platform feeders and Monk Parakeets, along with a Snowy Egret in a pine tree and a Great Egret on their deck.

Snowy Egret, pretending to be a Pine Warbler

Suddenly, a big parakeet dropped down onto a platform feeder, and there it was – Black-hooded Parakeet, a recent addition to the ABA list, and now the most recent addition to my lists (ABA 385, life 417)! This was a big, good looking bird, and pretty vocal – this was the parakeet we heard that drew us to this location. The parakeet was also the only bird of the trip that was a life bird for everyone.

Black-hooded Parakeet, St. Petersburg

We headed north again, towards Hernando Beach and possibly the last place in Florida where there is an established population of wild Budgerigars, or Budgies. For a typical noisy psittacid, these guys were difficult to find, and we spent two and a half hours driving around a sleepy retiree neighborhood until, just as we were about to give up, a small flock flew overhead and perched in some bushes. This was our last target bird and closed out our trip, as we decided to head home a day early. I finished up the trip with a life list totaling 418 and an ABA list of 386, an increase of 46 birds. Overall, the trip was highly successful, with around 180 species observed and hitting almost all of our target birds, minus Greater Flamingo, White-tailed Kite, Cape Sable Seaside Sparrow, Red-crowned Parrot, White-winged Parakeet, and Fulvous Whistling-Duck.

Florida Trip, Day 6: May 15

2008-05-30T15:02:00.006-05:00

Birding The Dry Tortugas

We left our hotel before dawn on the 15th and drove down to Key West to catch our ferry to the Dry Tortugas, the Yankee Freedom II. The boat was crewed by merry sailors, including the boat's tour guide, Tortuga Jack, who resembled the unlikely combination of Santa Claus and Luke Skywalker. The trip out to the Tortugas takes about two and a half hours, and allowed for a bit of pelagic birding along the way. Birds were infrequently seen until we got closer to our destination, but the ones we saw were pretty much all life birds for me (with the exception of the Brown Pelicans): Brown Booby, Audubon's Shearwater, and Bridled Tern. When the Dry Tortugas were in visual range, another couple of life birds were spotted, Brown Noddy and Masked Booby, and then we docked at Garden Key, amazed at the swarms of Sooty Terns and Brown Noddies in the air.

Huge swarm of terns

Garden Key is home to Fort Jefferson, an antebellum US fort built with some 16 million bricks, which covers nearly the entire key. It's quite the interesting structure, and it's amazing to think about all the labor it took to transport the building materials and then build the fort in such a remote and inhospitable location.

Our first order of business was to attempt to locate our two target birds: Black Noddy and Red-footed Booby, both of which had been reported recently. We set up scopes near the coal dock and spent some time scanning all the Brown Noddies, but no luck. We did add Indigo Bunting to our trip list at this point, though, and I got some decent photos of noddies and Magnificent Frigatebirds. We then set up on the dock next to the ferry and scanned Long Key for the Red-footed Booby, and again, no luck. We did have some nice company in the form of Ruddy Turnstones scurrying about our feet, though. Then it was time for lunch aboard the ferry (make your own sandwiches).

Brown Noddies on the coal dock

Magnificent Frigatebird

Brown Noddy

Ruddy Turnstones

After lunch, a few of us explored the fort a bit while those with scopes went up to the top battlements, as a park ranger helpfully pointed out that we'd get a great view of the entire coal dock from a higher vantage point. While exploring the interior, I was able to imagine what the place must look like after a major fallout - and imagination was all I had, since this late in May, there were few migrants present. Birds present within the fort included Yellow-billed Cuckoos, American Redstarts, Common Yellowthroats, Blackpoll Warblers, and a female Black-throated Blue Warbler that caused some initial confusion, due to it's skulking about in the interior of a bushy tree and its odd field marks: an overly bold supercilium and an extremely faint wing patch. Cattle Egrets were stalking about, and Barn Swallows swooped over head. After surveying the grounds, I headed up to join the scope patrol.

Cattle Egret looking for frail neotropical migrants to snatch up

Female Black-throated Blue Warbler

Scope Patrol

After some time, we finally picked out a juvenile Black Noddy from the surrounding Brown Noddies. This was a bird that was very subtle in its differences from its compatriots, being only slightly smaller, with a slightly longer bill. The bird also had some scalloping visible on the upperwing coverts, which was what first drew our attention to the bird. The white cap on its head was fairly bright, but to be honest, I couldn't really say in the bright sunlight that it was any more brilliant than a Brown Noddy's head. Still, the differences were real, and there was a fine life bird in the scope.

Satisfied with our Black Noddy, we left the battlements and headed back out to the dock, determined to find our Red-footed Booby. We set up the scopes again, and scanned the masses of nesting and roosting Magnificent Frigatebirds on Long Key. Finally, the bird was found! Perching with some frigatebirds on a dead tree, this was a juvenile Red-footed Boobie, which stood out from the black frigatebirds through its sandy plumage. Patient scrutiny through the scope was rewarded with views of the booby's distinctive bluish-gray, dagger-shaped bill, although it was too distant to make out leg color. No other booby features this color combination, so we were confident this was the bird. Success!

Masked Boobies on Hospital Key

Satisfied, we boarded the ferry and headed back to Key West, with a pause to examine the Masked Boobies nesting on Hospital Key, the only location in the United States where they do so. On the way back, I scanned and scanned the ocean, hoping for tropicbirds or even a Cory's Shearwater, but no more life birds for me today. Still, scanning was rewarding, as I saw a loggerhead turtle swimming at the surface and numerous flying fish. Only as we neared Key West did I realize one thing: I had forgotten to put any sunscreen on the back of my calves!

Florida Trip, Day 5: May 14

2008-05-29T15:12:00.005-05:00

Birding the Florida Keys

Wednesday was spent exploring some local birdy spots in the Florida Keys and going after certain target birds. We hit locations on Key Largo, Big Pine Key, Lower Matecumbe Key, and Vaca Key. The morning started at Dagny Johnson Key Largo Hammock Botanical State Park, where we picked up another Mangrove Cuckoo, had great looks at a Black-whiskered Vireo, and I had my life White-crowned Pigeon. Otherwise, it wasn’t really too birdy, with the only new bird (besides the pigeon) a Blackpoll Warbler.

We then made our way down to Vaca Key and the town of Marathon, and hit a local golf course for Burrowing Owl ( a lifer) and visited a state office building complex that had Least Terns and Roseate Terns nesting on the roofs. We waited in the heat for a while, and finally had a pair of Roseate Terns show up (another lifer). After that, we decided to have lunch at a great local spot, Herbie’s. I highly recommend it.

Burrowing Owl, Marathon

After lunch, it was on to Bahia Honda Key, which is a state park. Not much of interest there besides girls in bikinis, but I did get some good scenery photos and decent photos of Blackpoll Warblers.

Blackpoll Warbler, Bahia Honda Key

We ended up in Big Pine Key and searched vainly for a motel that wasn’t charging $100 a night for a 2 bed room with no phone, but alas. This motel did have a pool, but it was being used by Common Grackles and Eurasian Collared Doves, so any desire for a refreshing dip was quelled.

Common Grackles using the pool, Big Pine Key

Eurasian Collared Dove, contemplating a dip

After a dinner of Cuban food, we drove back up to the Marathon Airport and camped out on a picnic table on the south side, awaiting dusk and my last life bird of the day – Antillean Nighthawk. Then it was back to the hotel, eagerly anticipating tomorrow’s destination: The Dry Tortugas!

Antillean Nighthawk

Florida Trip, Day 4: May 13

2008-05-28T07:56:00.005-05:00

A Day in the Everglades

The fourth day of our trip was devoted to birding the Florida Everglades. We spent nearly 12 hours in the National Park and racked up a good amount of birds, although we dipped on a couple I had hoped to see.

Our first stop was at Royal Palm , normally a great spot for waders, but not today. It was a great stop for gators, though, as I counted at least 18 individuals along the raised boardwalk.I did get a good photo of the Florida subspecies of Red-Shouldered Hawk (B. lineatus extimus) and an artsy-fartsy shot of a Black Vulture.

Red-Shouldered Hawk

Black Vulture

American Alligator

We stopped along the road near Mahogany Hammock, a location in past years that was good for Cape Sable Seaside Sparrow. We didn't see or hear the sparrow, but we had a fantastic fly-by from a pair of Swallow-tailed Kites, and got some close looks at Lubber Grasshoppers.

Swallow-tailed Kites

We then hit Mahogany Hammock, where we heard our first Black-whiskered Vireo (an ABA bird for me). On the way out from the hammock, one of our group pointed out a raptor and said "Snail Kite! No, I mean Swallow-tailed..." But I got my binoculars on it and said "No, it really IS a Snail Kite!!" We stopped the car and watched it hunt for a bit, then noticed another Snail Kite perched in a low tree. So we had a pair, male and female. Then another Snail Kite flew in, and another, and... In the end, we had THREE pairs of Snail Kites hunting the same field! A great life bird at 401!

Snail Kite

We stopped at the West Lake area to use the bathroom. In the lake, we noticed two crocodiles, which was pretty neat. As we were headed out of the parking lot, a Mangrove Cuckoo flew over, and began calling in the trees. A life bird for a few of us, but I had it in Puerto Rico a couple years ago. Still, great to get it on the ABA list!

Then, it was time for Snake Bight. The trail out to the bight is notorious among North American birders as being one of the most mosquito-infested places on the continent. Accordingly, we prepared by wearing long-sleeved shirts and even brought head nets. It turns out we barely needed them, as drought conditions and perhaps storm damage have resulted in lower numbers of skeeters. We didn't really need our head nets, but I wore mine anyway since it kept the skeeters that were there from buzzing my ears. At the end of the trail, we set up scopes and peered into the heat haze for something, anything pink. No luck. The Greater Flamingos weren't there at all. A bonus prize for me, however, was a Clapper Rail (lifer 402) and Wilson's Plover (lifer 403). Another treat was finding a Great "White" Heron on the way out - the white morph of Great Blue Heron that only occurs in Florida.

Having been disappointed on the flamingos, we then stopped at Flamingo for microwaved burgers and beer. While eating lunch, we enjoyed the company of a crow who was waiting for us to be careless with our food. We also added Laughing Gull and Northern Rough-winged Swallow to our trip list, and I spotted an American White Pelican soaring with a Turkey Vulture, a great trip bird! After lunch, we hit the visitor's center (unmanned) and noted a developing sand spit in the bay, making a note to stop back and check it out for shorebirds later. We then hit the campground in search of Shiny Cowbirds, and checked out Eco Pond, which before Hurricane Andrew was a great roost for waders, but had been pretty well damaged. Still, we got our only American Avocet of the trip here. We then headed back to the visitor's center to scope the sandbar, where I noticed a flock of cowbirds. We scanned them, and I found a Shiny Cowbird among them, and added another species to my ABA list. Then we spent some time scoping the now-well developed sandbar, which held a number of birds, including Osprey, Black-bellied Plover, Short- and Long-billed Dowitchers, Stilt Sandpiper, Ruddy Turnstone, Willet, Dunlin, Forster's Tern, Least Tern, and a pair of Royal Terns (yet another bird for the ABA list). We then headed out of the park, hoping for a White-tailed Kite, but no such luck.

Black-necked Stilt and American Avocet

Overall, a pretty good day. I gained three life birds and four ABA-area birds, but we dipped on Greater Flamingo, Cape Sable Seaside Sparrow, and White-tailed Kite. Not too bad!

Florida trip, Day 3: May 12

2008-05-22T12:22:00.003-05:00

Exotics in Miami

Monk Parakeet at Nest, Miami

We started bright and early in Miami by returning to the neighborhood we had the Yellow-chevroned Parakeets in the night before. Sure enough, the parakeets were back, and joined by Monk Parakeets (life bird 398), Red-Masked Parakeets and Red-Mitred Parakeets. Of these, only Monk Parakeets are on the ABA/Florida state list so far, although from their abundance, I can't imagine that Yellow-chevroned Parakeets will be unlisted for too much longer. We searched for a Spot-breasted Oriole as well, but no luck.

Red-masked Parakeets (lower left) and Red-mitred Parakeets

We headed over to the Kendall neighborhood near a Baptist hospital that is normally a psittacid hotspot, but no parakeets or parrots were to be found, a recurring theme for the day. Parakeets were in short supply, and we'd only see Monk and Yellow-chevroned Parakeets at a couple locations in Miami. I did pick up Red-Whiskered Bulbul (#399) in this neighborhood, though, and got a cute picture of a Muscovy Duck and her brood.

Mama Muscovy and her 13 kids

We headed out towards Matheson Hammock next, stopping for Burger King and gas first. While we were filling up, I looked out the front window at the BK drivethrough and there was a Common Myna - which ended up being my 400th life bird. Not what I would have liked, but I'll take it. In the palms at the drivethrough was a Gray Kingbird building a nest, a new ABA bird for me, so a good consolation prize for a dubious 400th bird.

My 400th life bird - a @#$% Common Myna at Burger King!

The goal at Matheson Hammock was Mangrove Cuckoo, and we thought we had one. A cuckoo showing a dark mask was observed, and when it flew off, no rufous showed in the upper wings. However, when the bird flew again, it did show some orangish color in the underwings. So, we figured this was just a Yellow-billed Cuckoo. I did get my ABA-area Magnificent Frigatebird here, though, so not a total wash.

We ended the birding day at Cutler Ridge, where we pulled off to observe the nesting Cave Swallows, another ABA bird for me. Then it was on to Homestead for the night and the best motel of the trip, the Fairway Inn - affordable, nice pool, clean and comfortable. I recommend it as a good base for the Everglades and upper Keys.

Florida trip, Day 2: May 11

2008-05-21T14:41:00.005-05:00

Our first destination on Sunday, May 11, was a location in Polk County that was known for nesting Short-tailed Hawks. We arrived there about 8:30, having added White-winged Dove to my ABA list along the way and seeing some Wild Turkeys as well. We waited a while, meeting up with another birder who had driven out from Arizona, and ticking off Tufted Titmouse, Pine Warbler and Northern Parula for our trip list, all the while scanning through kettles of vultures for a smaller, dark raptor. Finally, at 9:30 AM, a dark morph Short-tailed Hawk soared over head, my first life bird of the day!

Short-tailed Hawk

We then headed off to Lake Arbuckle State Forest, where the Arizona birder had seen mating Limpkins the night before at the campground. We did in fact get our only good Limpkin (life bird #394) sighting of the trip here, as one was poking around the weeds and walking about the shore. We were treated to more great views of Swallow-tailed Kites and Red-shouldered Hawks as well. Then it was on to the state forest in search of pine woods specialties. We did a bit of searching in the woods, which were fairly quiet. We finally managed to get a Bachman's Sparrow to respond to a tape (#395) and headed south towards Miami, bidding farewell to the Arizona birder.

Limpkin

Bachman's Sparrow

On the way over to the Florida Turnpike, I saw a Crested Caracara being harassed by smaller birds - not a great look at 60mph but good enough for an ID and number 396 on the list! We made a stop in Palm Beach County at the Wakodahatchee Wetlands, and got a load of great photos of Purple Gallinule, Tri-colored Heron, Great Blue Heron, and Common Moorhen, among others.

Purple Gallinule

Tri-Colored Heron

After the thrill of close-up experiences with wading birds at Wakodahatchee, we headed into Ft. Lauderdale to find the breeding Smooth-billed Anis, which were nesting in a low-income neighborhood just south of the airport. We had no luck at first, so we cruised the airport looking for the birds and possibly burrowing owls (picking up Muscovy Duck, life bird 397, which is countable in Florida, even though it's the duck equivalent of Rock Pigeon), then went back to the neighborhood, where a helpful and friendly resident told us that they were being seen routinely at 7pm. So, off to dinner at Quizno's to kill time, and then back to the ani spot. We parked, got out and started scanning. A dark, grackle-sized bird flew up behind us into some trees, and I thought "probably a grackle, but better look at it" and voila! there's the bird! I thought at the time it was a life bird, but have since recalled that I had seen it in Puerto Rico (for some reason I was recalling the Puerto Rican anis as Groove-billed, but they don't occur there). We had some great looks at the bird, which was carrying food, and then headed south again to Miami. Along the way, a Hill Mynah flew across the highway, but it's not a countable bird right now.

Smooth-billed Ani

We hit the parrot/oriole spot near the Miami airport once we got in, and did see some (uncountable) Yellow-chevroned Parakeets and found some Monk Parakeet nests, but no "quakers" were there. So, we drove around trying to find an affordable and non-crappy hotel, finally settling on a Sleep Inn after deciding we wouldn't find anything for less than $100 a room. This would be the only hotel with a coffee maker we would stay in. The following day was to be devoted to Urban Birding: parrots and Spot-breasted Oriole were our targets.

Florida trip, Day 1: May 10

2008-05-20T12:24:00.008-05:00

Roseate Spoonbills, Merritt Island NWR

The trip from Columbus to Titusville, Florida, took 15 hours. I had a hard time falling asleep in the van until about 5AM, and then had to keep myself awake once it became light enough to see and start seeing birds. My first life bird of the trip came at about 7:30 AM, a Swallow-Tailed Kite.

We arrived at the house of a former Ohio resident and birder who graciously volunteered to lead us around the area and hit the hot spots, such as Merritt Island NWR and Viera Wetlands. On the way to his house, I added White Ibis and Eurasian Collared-Dove to the life list. So far, a productive day, and as it would turn out, the most productive in terms of adding numbers to my life list, with ten life birds.

After a breakfast of coffee and donuts at our guide's house, it was off to Merritt Island, with a brief stop for Black Skimmers (yet another life bird) and Least Terns. One thing I noted was the high density of Osprey nests in the Titusville area - it seemed like there was one everywhere you looked.

Reddish Egret, Merritt Island NWR

Merritt Island was incredible. Wading birds everywhere you looked - White Ibis, Great Egret, Cattle Egret, Reddish Egret (another lifer), Tri-colored Heron, Little Blue Heron, Great Blue Heron and Glossy Ibis abounded. Other great birds were present, including Wood Storks and Roseate Spoonbills (yes, another lifer). In addition, shorebirds were present in decent numbers, including Black-necked Stilts, Short-billed Dowitchers, Semipalmated Sandpipers, Least Sandpipers, Stilt Sandpipers, Semipalmated Plovers, Killdeer, Dunlin, Black-bellied Plover and White-rumped Sandpiper. Ducks were not too common, but did include Mottled Duck (a lifer), Northern Shoveler, American Wigeon, and Red-breasted Merganser.

Florida Scrub-Jay

Florida Scrub-Jays were fairly easy to find, and seemed acclimated to humans. Other perching birds were in short supply, however, and limited to Loggerhead Shrikes, Boat-tailed Grackles, Blue Jays, Eastern Towhee, Red-winged Blackbird, and a few others, such as Great Crested Flycatcher, Eastern Kingbird, and Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. A nice find was a singing Sedge Wren, as well.

Manatee, Merritt Island

Other birds of note included Northern Bobwhite, Common Ground-Dove, and Red-shouldered Hawk. We also got to see a manatee at a little marina and a gopher tortoise, nice bonus animals.

Mottled Duck, Viera Wetlands

After a morning at Merritt Island, we had a nice lunch and proceeded to West Cocoa Beach, where I added Black-Bellied Whistling Duck to my life list, and then onto Viera Wetlands, a wetland constructed as part of a waste water treatment plant, and a nice one, too. Here we had a lot more Black-bellied Whistling Ducks, Sandhill Cranes, the now-usual gang of waders, Common Moorhen, and my life Least Bittern! We also had Purple Gallinule and Black-Crowned Night Heron here, and in the cattle ranching area accessible by a dirt road, we had Northern Harrier and Red-tailed Hawks, along with a Limpkin and white-morph Short-tailed Hawk, neither of which I got a look at here.

Loggerhead Shrike, Viera Wetlands

Glossy Ibis, Viera Wetlands

We then bade farewell to our guide and headed southwest to St. Cloud, in search of a hotel and Limpkins. We did find a decent hotel, but no Limpkins yet. We all turned in early, anticipating the first target bird of the next day: Short-tailed Hawk!

Back from Florida, detailed updates to follow

2008-05-19T14:10:00.005-05:00

Well, I'm back! What a great trip it was. I hit many of my target birds, and added 46 birds to my ABA list. This week, I'll post a summary of each day with photos, and a trip list as well.

For now, here's a list of the target birds I did see from the list I posted earlier (note that this list does not include all the life birds I saw):

Life Birds (Potential of 56):

Black-Bellied Whistling Duck
Mottled Duck
Audubon's Shearwater
Masked Booby
Brown Booby
Red-footed Booby
Least Bittern
Reddish Egret
White Ibis
Roseate Spoonbill
Swallow-tailed Kite
Snail Kite
Crested Caracara
Clapper Rail
Limpkin
Snowy Plover
Wilson's Plover
Roseate Tern
Bridled Tern
Brown Noddy
Black Noddy
Black Skimmer
White-crowned Pigeon
Eurasian Collared-Dove
Budgerigar
Monk Parakeet
Smooth-billed Ani
Burrowing Owl
Antillean Nighthawk
Florida Scrub-jay
Red-whiskered Bulbul
Bachman's Sparrow
Spot-breasted Oriole

ABA-area birds (Potential of 12) :

Magnificent Frigatebird
American Oystercatcher
Royal Tern
White-winged Dove
Common Ground-dove
Mangrove Cuckoo
Gray Kingbird
Black-whiskered Vireo
Cave Swallow
Shiny Cowbird

On another note, chew on this news about an ex-parrot:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080516123153.htm

And it's off to Florida!

2008-05-09T11:24:00.003-05:00

Well, it's time. In 4 hours, I'll be on the road, headed south to Florida and hopefully a whole slew of great birds. Look for the results of my adventure to be posted the week of the 19th!

#382: Least Flycatcher - one nemesis bird down, one to go!

2008-05-06T17:15:00.002-05:00

Today I spent about 6.5 hours in a woodlot in Montgomery County, Ohio. I wasn't there to bird but for work - however, I have eyes and ears, and the woodlot was full of migrants. During lunch, I pulled out my crappy field binoculars and looked around. Loads of warblers - Yellow-rumped, Yellow, Common Yellowthroat, Black-throated Green, Nashville, and Hooded. I also had a Yellow-throated Vireo, a truly beautiful bird.

But the best was that I finally saw a Least Flycatcher, a common migrant anda bird that has been avoiding me for the past four years. I heard it calling and tracked it down and had a halfway decent look at it while it called. SCORE!

Least Flycatcher: Life bird #382, ABA bird #340, Ohio Bird #289, Year bird #200, and Ohio Year bird #178!

T-minus 100 hours and counting....

2008-05-05T13:25:00.006-05:00

This week is going to be hell at work. I'm already having problems concentrating on my work with my trip to Florida rapidly approaching. To illustrate the potential of this trip for me, here's a list of the potential life and ABA area birds that I could see next week (compiled from Bill Pranty's A Birder's Guide to Florida). I'll publish a follow-up post after I return, so we can compare this list with what I actually see.

Potential Life Birds:

Black-Bellied Whistling Duck
Fulvous Whistling Duck
Mottled Duck
Masked Duck
Cory's Shearwater
Audubon's Shearwater
Leach's Storm-petrel
Band-rumped Storm-petrel
White-tailed Tropicbird
Masked Booby
Brown Booby
Red-footed Booby
Least Bittern
Reddish Egret
White Ibis
Roseate Spoonbill
Greater Flamingo
Swallow-tailed Kite
White-tailed Kite
Snail Kite
Crested Caracara
Clapper Rail
Limpkin
Snowy Plover
Wilson's Plover
Upland Sandpiper
Gull-billed Tern
Elegant Tern
Roseate Tern
Bridled Tern
Brown Noddy
Black Noddy
Black Skimmer
White-crowned Pigeon
Eurasian Collared-Dove
KeyWest Quail-Dove
Budgerigar
Monk Parakeet
Green Parakeet
White-winged Parakeet
Red-crowned Parrot
Smooth-billed Ani
Burrowing Owl
Antillean Nighthawk
Red-cockaded Woodpecker
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
Florida Scrub-jay
Red-whiskered Bulbul
Bahama Mockingbird
Western Spindalis
Bachman's Sparrow
Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrow
Seaside Sparrow
Painted Bunting
Bronzed Cowbird
Spot-breasted Oriole

Potential ABA-area birds:

Magnificent Frigatebird
American Oystercatcher
Royal Tern
Sandwich Tern
White-winged Dove
Common Ground-dove
Mangrove Cuckoo
Gray Kingbird
Black-whiskered Vireo
Cave Swallow
Bananaquit
Shiny Cowbird

The weirdest bird-related story you'll read this weekend

2008-05-02T15:28:00.001-05:00

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7379554.stm

Talk about sexual confusion...and determination!

May Day birds at Greenlawn Cemetery

2008-05-01T15:08:00.004-05:00

Eastern Phoebe, near the crypt where it nests

I spent two hours at Greenlawn Cemetery before work this morning, looking for migrants. Greenlawn Cemetery is a local Important Bird Area, and is especially attractive to migrants as it features large numbers of mature trees, a former gravel pit that has filled with water, and a little wooded ravine. I tallied 46 species of birds there, including six first-of-year birds: Swainson's Thrush, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Magnolia Warbler, Nashville Warbler, Blue-headed Vireo and Baltimore Oriole. A few photos from this morning's visit are presented below.

I have to try and hit migration hotspots when I can this week, as I will be gone for the remaining weekends in May (two weekends in Florida and one in Chicago). Tomorrow, I plan on hitting Whetstone Park in the morning in hope of getting Least Flycatcher, one of my Ohio nemesis birds (the other being Marsh Wren). Sunday, we're going to take Henry on a walk on the pet trail at Highbanks Metropark, which just happens to be a good spot for birding as well, with recent sightings of Summer Tanager and Golden-winged Warbler. I'll be hitting the local ravine every night as well, taking Henry there on his walk. Last night's walk was productive, as I added Wood Thrush and Kentucky Warbler to my neighborhood list, making it an even 50 (oddly, I still need Yellow-rumped Warbler for the list).

Chestnut-sided Warbler

Chipping Sparrow

Blue-headed Vireo

Shawnee State Forest in the spring

2008-04-29T12:27:00.004-05:00

Last Saturday's Avid Birders trip was to Shawnee State Forest in Scioto County, with a few visits to places in Adams county afterwards.

Overlooking the Ohio River from Shawnee State Forest.

Shawnee State Forest, or just "Shawnee" for short, is a favorite place for many Ohio birders for early spring migrants. This is a great place to tick off the arriving warbler wave, and Saturday was no exception, with 20 species of warblers sighted or heard by the group (I myself only had 17 species in Shawnee, with an additional species sighted in Adams County). Highlights included great views of Broad-winged Hawks, Orchard Oriole, Scarlet Tanagers, White-eyed Vieroand of course, the warblers. The best warbler of the day was an obliging Cerulean Warbler, who came down and foraged just above eye level for us (on a side note, after getting back and taking Henry the Pug for his walk, I had even better looks at a Cerulean Warbler in Walhalla Ravine!). Shawnee is gorgeous in the spring, with all the dogwoods and redbuds blooming, imparting a palette of pastel whites, pinks and greens to the landscape - a perfect background to the boldly colored birds! I took a lot of photos, but only a few really came out. The best ones are below.

Cerulean Warbler

Worm-eating Warbler, living up to its name

Prairie Warbler

Blackburnian Warbler

In all, I saw 81 species on Saturday, a pretty awesome day of birding! I added 30 new birds for the year, so I'm now at 191 species for the year and 168 for Ohio. My first of year birds from Saturday include (species followed by location of first sighting):

Green Heron (Shawnee Marina [SM])
Broad-Winged Hawk (Shawnee State Forest [SSF])
Ruby-throated Hummingbird (SSF)
Great Crested Flycatcher (Edge of Appalachia Preserve, Adams County [EA])
White-eyed Vireo (SSF)
Warbling Vireo (Pike County)
Red-eyed Vireo (SSF)
Bank Swallow (SM)
Cliff Swallow (Pike County)
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher (SSF)
Gray-cheeked Thrush (Walhalla)
Wood Thrush (SSF)
Gray Catbird (EA)
Blue-winged Warbler (SSF)
Northern Parula (SSF)
Blackburnian Warbler (SSF)
Prairie Warbler (SSF)
Cerulean Warbler (SSF)
Black-and-white Warbler (SSF)
American Redstart (SSF)
Worm-eating Warbler (SSF)
Ovenbird (SSF)
Kentucky Warbler (SSF)
Common Yellowthroat (EA)
Hooded Warbler (SSF)
Yellow-breasted Chat (SSF)
Scarlet Tanager (SSF)
Rose-breasted Grosbeak (SSF)
Indigo Bunting (SSF)
Orchard Oriole (SM)

Some nice neighborhood finds this morning

2008-04-25T11:57:00.003-05:00

I decided to get up a little earlier than usual and take Henry out for a morning walk to Walhalla Ravine, to see if any warblers had decided to show up yet. I wasn't disappointed, having a look and listen to a Yellow-throated Warbler and a Black-throated Green Warbler. Besides these warblers, Ruby-crowned Kinglet and a Veery also made it onto both my neighborhood and year lists, while a Chipping Sparrow was new for the neighborhood. Pretty productive little walk, although I did end up missing my bus!

Getting close to Florida time

2008-04-24T12:08:00.003-05:00

Tomorrow marks two weeks from the start of my Florida birding trip. This will be my first week-long birding adventure that I've ever taken. Previously, the longest stretch of time I've spent that was solely devoted to birding was a three-day weekend a couple years ago in New Jersey. That trip was originally meant to be a pelagic outing, but the company canceled the trip due to heavy seas while we were already halfway to New Jersey, so we just went ahead and birded the coast.

This trip promises to be exhilirating, with tons of life birds awaiting me. I think at a bare minimum I will add 20 life birds and three ABA region birds to my list, but I bet I'll double those numbers, as I'm going to be traveling with some really good birders. I'm still figuring out the best way to pay for the trip - Bush's $600 bribe, I mean rebate, will cover most of it but that check will probably not arrive until after the trip. I may just take some money out of savings and replace it with the federal bribe money.

Rails, banding, and the first swift of the year

2008-04-21T14:21:00.003-05:00

This weekend, I went birding with my friend Brad at Springfield Marsh State Nature Preserve in Seneca County. Our objectives were Sora and Virginial Rail. We arrived about 7 am and were greeted by more singing Swamp Sparrows than I've ever heard in my life. We had a little trouble at first with the rails, trying to call them in with Brad's palm pilot loaded with some birding software. We did get a nice look at a Sora eventually, and heard a Virginia Rail calling. I managed to add a few year birds there besides the rails, including Brown Thrasher, House Wren, Yellow Warbler, and Northern Rough-winged Swallow.

While we were there, we ran into Tom Bartlett, who was doing some banding with a college class. We got some great close-up views of some birds I couldn't count for my year list due to ABA rules: Ruby-crowned Kinglet and White-eyed Vireo. We also got to admire Brown Thrasher, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Black-capped Chickadee, and numerous Swamp Sparrows among others.

We then headed to Killdeer Plains Wildlife Area, where a friend of ours had seen a bunch of golden-plovers the previous day. We dipped on the plovers, but I was able to add Pectoral Sandpiper, Dunlin and Barn Swallow to my year list there. Killdeer Plains is (or was) a birding hotspot for north central Ohio, and it's a good place for waterfowl and winter raptors. But it's getting tougher to bird there, as the state DNR has closed the main east-west road through the area and there are no trails.

Finally, I added Chimney Swift to my year and neighborhood list yesterday - had one over the Giant Eagle grocery store as I went in for bread and wine last night!

Neighborhood birding - the map

2008-04-15T07:50:00.002-05:00

I created a google map of the neighborhood I bird in. Up to now, I've only mentioned the two ravines, Walhalla and Glen Echo. There's also a good little wetland and a riparian corridor that are actually closer than I thought, but a little too far for walking the dog. I can probably go there on an early weekend morning and bird - perhaps this weekend if I don't go chasing a Eurasian Green-winged teal that's shown up in Ohio, although I promised my wife I'd stick close to home. So, probably no teal for me.

View Larger Map

Birding close to home

2008-04-14T14:54:00.002-05:00

Since the wife is away at a conference and visiting friends (and has our car), any birding I do and have done while she's gone is confined to places I can reach on foot. As I noted in an earlier post, I am fortunate enough to have a couple of "bird oases" if you will within walking distance of my house.

Saturday, I took Henry the pug out for a walk in the morning to the ravine north of me, hoping for early warblers. No warblers. But I did see my first Hairy Woodpecker of the year for Ohio, so that was a bonus. Hermit thrushes were also present and at least three phoebes were singing away.

Later that day, I took Henry to the ravine south of me, which has been partly converted into a neighborhood park. It's not as birdy as the other one, since it has a lot of lawn space and not as much undergrowth, so I don't go there as often (even though it's closer). However, luck was with me and I saw my first Brown Creeper for 2008 - really cute little bird.

If it's not raining later, I'll hit the good ravine after work with Henry and see if anything new has moved in. I'm hoping for Yellow-rumped warblers at least!

More birds appearing in my neighborhood

2008-04-11T12:22:00.002-05:00

As I've mentioned previously, I live in a neighborhood in the middle of a big Midwestern city, and I have about as bird-unfriendly a yard you can have without it being bare concrete. However, I am fortunate enough to live between two wooded ravines that are accessible by pedestrians - Glen Echo and Walhalla Ravines. Lately, I've been spending more time in Walhalla Ravine since I've added it to the dog walking route. I'll take Henry, our pug mix, for his walk and bring along my spare binoculars. He gets to sniff all the dead leaves he wants while I look at birds. It's a win-win situation.

Anyway, I started keeping track of the birds I see in the neighborhood between the two ravines. I added three new birds yesterday, Northern Flicker, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, and Eastern Phoebe. The phoebe was a bird I had expected to see before now, since the Walhalla ravine seems like great habitat for them, but I'm just glad to have it. Last weekend I saw a Winter Wren in the ravine, so now I'm hoping for Louisiana Waterthrush when I take Henry for an early morning walk tomorrow. I haven't been in the ravine in the morning yet, usually I take the dog out after work.

So far, I have seen/heard 34 species in or over my neighborhood:
Mallard
Turkey Vulture
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Cooper's Hawk
Red-shouldered Hawk
Re-tailed Hawk
Killdeer
Ring-billed Gull
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Common Nighthawk
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Eastern Phoebe
Blue Jay
American Crow
Carolina Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
Red-breasted Nuthatch
White-breasted Nuthatch
Carolina Wren
American Robin
European Starling
Eastern Towhee
Song Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Northern Cardinal
Common Grackle
House Finch
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow

One of my photos is on 10,000 Birds

2008-04-07T15:05:00.002-05:00

http://10000birds.com/the-life-of-your-skies.htm

Scroll down to the seabirds section and see the Greater Shearwater I photographed on my honeymoon!

Saturday: Dipping on birds for my state and life list

2008-04-07T14:57:00.003-05:00

I went out with a couple buddies on Saturday, hoping to get to see or at least hear some Ruffed Grouse at Tar Hollow State Park in southeastern Ohio. No such luck. We did get our first Louisiana Waterthrush of the year, with obliging views. I just missed adding Marsh Wren to my life list at a nearby swampy area - it was singing, but I just felt weird adding this bird when I knew I could probably see it as well. As my friend Brad said, "The hormones aren't flowing yet." I may go back on the 19th and try for both the grouse and wren again. The day wasn't a bust, it was beautiful out and I had my first Ohio Field Sparrow, Purple Martin, Swamp Sparrow, Golden-crowned Kinglet and Hermit Thrushes for the year, and we ended the trip by looking at some Great Horned Owls in a nest.

I just made my reservation for the Dry Tortugas ferry for my Florida birding adventure. Our first stop on the trip has the good possibility of netting me at least an even dozen life birds. I'm kinda starting to twitch already...

I'm in Indiana

2008-04-02T18:53:00.002-05:00

Not birding, but for work. Still, when you are an archaeologist, you tend to get to work outside every now and then, and the last two days have been spent walking up and down a field in Gibson County, looking for artifacts. I don't get much chance to look at birds on this sort of project, since I'm staring at the ground most of the time, but I do get to hear them, and that got me a couple of good birds today - an early Eastern Wood-Pewee in the wooded area next to the field, and a singing Western Meadowlark. Now, if I can only get that Western Meadowlark to follow me back to Ohio so I can stick him on my state list...

I also kept my eyes out for Eurasian Collared Dove, but so far, no luck. We finished our first round of fieldwork today. We're supposed to come out again next week to finish surveying the rest of the area after the rains come and go again. Perhaps then I'll get that bird, although I'd rather get it in Ohio.

Going after some migrants tomorrow/Life of the Skies giveaway

2008-03-28T14:27:00.002-05:00

Some birding buddies have invited me along to chase some Evening Grosbeaks at Mohican State Park and then an Eurasian Widgeon somewhere else. I don't need either bird for my state list but both would make great additions to my year list.

Also, the blog 10,000 Birds is giving away five copies of the new book Life of the Skies by Jonathan Rosen at this link: http://10000birds.com/the-life-of-the-skies-giveaway.htm

This book just got on my to-read list, it looks like a thoughtful examination of WHY we bird, and what that means in modern life. It's pretty highly recommended.

A good end to a day of birding: Red-necked Grebe

2008-03-24T13:12:00.004-05:00

Saturday was our monthly Avid birders' trip. We decided that the action was at the Lake Erie marshes, so we headed north, unaware that the 1-2 inches of snow forecast had turned into 6 inches of snow. The roads were generally awful until about noon, when the sun came out and the road surface re-emerged. We had to push Paul's car out of the ditch twice!

We hit a few different places, starting at Pearson Metropark for feeder birds, including a nice Fox sparrow, then hit Maumee Bay SP in search of waterfowl and Rusty Blackbirds. The best blackbird of note there was Eastern Meadowlark, although for me the best bird there was Tundra Swan, year bird number 100. We only spent 15 minutes at Ottawa NWR, as the parking lot near the dikes was unplowed, but we did add Red-shouldered Hawk to the list. We then headed to Metzger Marsh, where I added Lesser Yellowlegs to my year list, and we sorted through thousands and thousands of ducks hoping for rarities. Metzger Marsh is where I saw my life (and only) Eurasian Widgeon, but no such luck today. Diving ducks were the vast majority of the huge mixed flocks, and seemed to be mainly Redheads, with large numbers of Canvasback, Ring-necked Duck, and Lesser Scaup as well. Gadwall and American Widgeon were present as well.

Then it was off to Magee Marsh, a very productive location for us. I added Wilson's snipe, Tree Swallow, Winter Wren, Rusty Blackbird, and Northern Shrike to my year list, and we had another good look at a Fox Sparrow, as well as a first year Bald Eagle. I also got a free "Warblers of Ohio and Eastern North America" song cd at the Sportsmens center. It was interesting walking through 4 inches of snow on the boardwalk - the next time I will probably be there will be in May, when it will be thronged with many birders and hopefully even more warblers.

Northern Shrike, Magee Marsh

Wilson's Snipe, Magee Marsh

First-year Bald Eagle, Magee Marsh

Our last stop was Hoover Reservoir back in Columbus, where a number of rare migrants had been reported, including Red-throated Loon, Eared Grebe, and Red-necked Grebe. We never found the Eared Grebe, but had good looks at the Red-throated Loon, and I got a decent but breif look at the Red-necked Grebe before it dove and disappeared. Also present was an Eastern Phoebe, a nice addition to the year list to bring me to 133 for the year and 110 for Ohio.

The Red-necked Grebe was the bird of the day for me, as it was a new bird for my Ohio list. It was also not one of the 14 target birds from my earlier post in February - somehow I managed to overlook it. So, I have 12 left before 200, but still have 13 birds on that target list. Pretty good omen, I hope.

Ohio bird #287: Golden Eagle

2008-03-17T14:38:00.003-05:00

Yesterday I ticked off my first target bird of 2008, Golden Eagle. As readers may recall, Golden Eagle is on the list of 14 most likely bird species I can observe to hit 300 Ohio species. I went out yesterday to The Wilds, an area of reclaimed coal mining lands in Muskingum County that has been turning into a rolling grassland, and has somewhat of a Pleistocene feel to it, as it is home to large fauna such as bison, bactrian camel, native white-tailed deer, Przywalski's horses, giraffes, rhinos, cheetahs and the like (The Wilds is a 10,000-acre wildlife conservation and restoration facility). Of course, the African species aren't out and about in the winter, but the effect is still there. As a side effect, the Wilds habitat is highly attractive to grassland birds, and in the winter is known for its high numbers of Northern Harriers and Rough-legged Hawks. In the past five years or so, it's attracted a couple rarer birds to Ohio: Prairie Falcon and juvenile Golden Eagles. The Prairie Falcon was a one (possibly two)-year wonder, but Golden Eagles have become regular visitors, albeit challenging to get good looks at. Since 2004, I've tried at least 15 times to see the Golden Eagle at the Wilds, and failed every time.

Not so yesterday! I arrived at the Wilds about 9 am and drove the roads, enjoying the singing Eastern Meadowlarks and the aerial displays of harriers and "roughlegs". About 10:30, I was at the birding station overlooking a large section of the Wilds and got my scope on what appeared to be a dark raptor with a large wingspan as it flew away and disappeared behind a hill. My fellow Avid Birder, Jay Lehman, showed up at this moment and we spent about 20 minutes scanning the skies until we found the bird again. It soared high into the air and about all we could say was that it sure looked like a Golden Eagle, but not 100%. The bird then flew north and descended to the level of the hills and headed back south. This allowed us several excellent looks at the bird in full sunlight, and we were able to clearly see the golden color to the plumage of the head and upper wing surfaces, as well as the white feathers at the base of the tail. Juvenile Golden Eagle - no doubt about it!

As an added bonus, Jay noted an early Osprey on the nesting platform at the pond below the station. This could be the first Osprey reported for Ohio this year, but I'll need to check. All in all, a fine morning, and mission accomplished!

Vicarious birding

2008-03-13T15:46:00.003-05:00

Having been stuck inside all week due to weather/lack of car/illness, I must take my birding where I can get it, and that means webcams.

Here's my new favorite, the Owlcam:
http://www.cs.csubak.edu/owlcam/camera.php

And the old standby is the local falcon cam:

http://ohiodnr.com/wildlife/dow/falcons/live_ledge_video.aspx

Cornell Lab feeder cam:
http://www.wbu.com/feedercam%5Fhome.htm

20 inches of snow=no birding for me

2008-03-11T13:31:00.002-05:00

The weekend blizzard meant I was camped inside all weekend. I had to satisfy myself with vicarious birding through people's feeder reports to Ohio birds.

Reports of Rusty Blackbirds and Fox Sparrows at Blendon Woods has me itching to get out, but my wife has had the car the last two days. Maybe tomorrow while the snow is still around and driving birds into feeders...

On another note, I have decided to start tallying the birds I see in our neighborhood, using two ravines as my north and south boundaries and a couple major streets as east -west boundaries. The best bird so far is Common Nighthawk, but I'm betting this spring I can add neotropical migrants in the ravines.

Red knot action

2008-03-05T14:33:00.001-05:00

I'm going to be calling up some New Jersey senators and urging them to take action to extend the moratorium on horseshoe crab harvests. You should, too:

New Jersey Audubon offers legislature contacts here:
http://www.njaudubon.org/Conservation/HSCrabAlert.html#updates

Birding here and there

2008-03-04T09:47:00.002-05:00

So, originally for the past weekend, I had planned to hit the Wilds for Golden Eagle. However, I got invited to go birding with a couple of pals, and birding with friends always takes priority over birding alone. We ended up hitting three southern reservoirs because of the amount of ice on central and northern reservoirs and lakes has concentrated the better birds to the south. Plus, there was a chance we could get Jeff's 300th Ohio bird on the trip.

We hit Caesar Creek Lake, Cowan Lake and Deer Creek Lake. It was a pretty productive trip. I added 12 year birds, including a couple of the more difficult birds to see in Ohio: Purple Finch and White-winged Scoter. The scoter turned out to be Jeff's 298th Ohio bird, as close as he would get to 300 that day. I also added Common Merganser to my Ohio year list (I had seen them in Michigan in January), as well as Killdeer, Belted Kingfisher, Red-winged Blackbird, Red-shouldered Hawk, Horned Grebe, Northern Shoveler (for Ohio, had it in New Mexico in January), Barred Owl, Northern Pintail and White-throated Sparrow. We dipped on birds others reported at the same locations that day, such as Cackling Goose and Greater White-fronted Goose, but I may be able to swing by a good spot on my way back from checking out a project area for work and pick up the Greater White-fronted Goose tomorrow.

Yesterday was the first nice day of the spring (didn't last), so I took advantage of the weather and hit Greenlawn Cemetery at lunch. I missed the Merlin yet again, but did pick up Pine Siskin for the year list. I also had Pine Warbler, which made me think that if only a Pine Grosbeak would show up, I'd have a fine pine trifecta. Alas, it was not to be.

The Next 14

2008-02-26T08:56:00.004-05:00

So, yesterday I noted that I had 14 birds left to see before hitting 300 for Ohio. Before Saturday, I had composed a list of the 15 birds I thought I had the best chance of seeing in Ohio to make the magic number. These birds included:

Least Flycatcher
Marsh Wren
Cattle Egret
Franklin's Gull
Eurasian Collared Dove
Golden Eagle
Little Gull
Connecticut Warbler
Clay Colored Sparrow
Least Bittern
Chuck-wills-widow
Marbled Godwit
Golden-winged Warbler
Pomarine Jaegar
Upland Sandpiper

Now, obviously Hoary Redpoll wasn't on that list, because it's a very rare bird for Ohio. In fact, none of the original 15 are review list birds, as Hoary Redpoll is. But it just goes to show that you never know what bird is going to be your next state bird. Before last year, I wouldn't have dreamed of seeing a Mississippi Kite in Ohio, but I did.

My new list of the most likely 14 is now:

Least Flycatcher
Marsh Wren
Cattle Egret
Franklin's Gull
Eurasian Collared Dove
Golden Eagle
Little Gull
Connecticut Warbler
Clay Colored Sparrow
Least Bittern
Chuck-wills-widow
Marbled Godwit
Golden-winged Warbler
Pomarine Jaegar

I don't think I will see all these birds this year, but I think I have a shot at 7 or 8 of them. I'm trying for Golden Eagle next weekend at the Wilds. I've dipped on that bird numerous times, but I'm feeling lucky!

Hoary Redpoll -Yes!

2008-02-25T14:50:00.004-05:00

Birding on Saturday was a success. As I mentioned in my last post, the trip on the 23rd was to Amish country, chasing a couple rarities and see what else we could kick up. We basically spent most of our time in Holmes County with some time in Coshocton and Ashland counties as well.

The highlight of the trip for me was the Hoary Redpoll. This bird has been hanging out with a small flock of Common Redpolls at an Amish farmer's feeders. On Saturday, there was a group of about 35 birders standing in and around a barn with scopes and binoculars trained on these feeders. I would say a good 2/3 of the birders were Amish themselves. We didn't have to wait at all to see the bird, which was feeding as we arrived, although it took off soon afterwards. We waited around to see if it would come back and it did, allowing for excellent looks through the scope and for me to take some adequate photos as well. The bird in question was an adult female, identifiable through the lack of streaking on the breast and rump, slightly larger appearance, frosty edges on the feathers on the back and a stubby little bill.

Hoary Redpoll, on left side of feeder.

You can really see the size difference here, as well as the difference in color.

An added bonus to this location was the general diversity of other birds. I added a number of birds to my year list for Ohio besides the redpolls, including Pileated Woodpecker, Eastern Bluebird, and Chipping Sparrow. After everyone in the group had satisfactory views of the Hoary Redpoll, we started traveling towards Farmerstown to see a pair of Barn Owls at another Amish farmer's barn. The great thing about a lot of Amish folks is how welcoming they are - they enjoy having birders come visit and see "their" birds. In fact, some of the top birders in the state are Amish, and the best optics store in the state is in Millersburg, Time and Optics, owned by Robert Hershberger (It seems like there are only four surnames among Ohio Amish - Hershberger, Yoder, Miller, and Schlabach). But I digress.

The feeders, full of bluebirds and redpolls

On the way to the barn owls, we stopped along the side of the road where a farmer had recently spread manure over the fields. Here, we had a huge flock of Horned Larks, with a few Snow Buntings and Lapland Longspurs mixed in for good measure. The owls were splendid, with a nest full of young elsewhere in the barn. We unfortunately spooked one owl into flight, which is not something we like to do, but it did result in seeing the bird in flight in the daylight, a rare sight indeed.

Barn Owls

After the owls, we headed down to Coshocton County to try for a Harris's Sparrow that had been seen at another farm. We ended up hanging around for nearly an hour before a couple other birders went bushwhacking and flushed it out of a ravine to a tree where it tee'd up nicely for good views. The bird was a juvenile, with a small amount of black on the breast but none yet on the head. We also saw a Bald Eagle and Sharp-shinned Hawk flying overhead.

We next drove through Killbuck Marsh on our way to Mohican State Park, where Evening Grosbeaks had been reported. The marshes were mostly frozen and there wasn't much in the way of waterfowl about. At the grosbeak location, we waited in vain for the birds to show up. However, I managed to add two more birds to my year list - Yellow-bellied Sapsucker and Pine Warbler.

All in all, a very good day. Hoary Redpoll is my 381st life bird, and number 339 for the ABA area. It's also my 286th Ohio bird - I have 14 to go before I hit the big 300 (A future post will discuss what I think those 14 birds might end up being).

Birding in Amish country tomorrow

2008-02-22T13:50:00.004-05:00

Tomorrow I'm going out to Coshocton County with my regular birding group. Normally, Amish country is a destination in the fall for migrating grassland sparrows like LeConte's and Nelson's Sharp-tailed sparrows, but tomorrow our target birds are winter irruptives and rarities, in particular Hoary Redpoll and Harris's Sparrow. I've seen Harris's Sparrow once before (also in Amish country) but Hoary Redpoll would be a life bird for me. The birds have been seen at separate feeders but are fairly close together. The trip tomorrow will also be a good opportunity to work on my state year list as well.

I'll put up a report Sunday or Monday on how the trip turns out.

The Nature Blog Network/E-bird review beef

2008-02-20T14:06:00.004-05:00

I just signed up to join the Nature Blog network. Even though my blog hasn't really to date been a forum for discussion, more like a public journal of my birding experiences, that may change in the near future. Being part of a blog network is an incentive to blog more and to perhaps post more thought-provoking material. Right now, I don't know how many people actually read this blog, since I don't go out of my way to advertise it. It's not something I'm really concerned with. But it will be interesting to see how low I'm ranked on the blog network!

I am a user of eBird, Cornell's web-based listing program. This is a very handy organizational tool for birders who tend to be otherwise somewhat disorganized. I do have one problem with it, and that's the iGoogle eBird gadget, which is in general a very useful tool for see what rare birds are being reported around the country. My problem is with the review process, which does not seem to include a follow-up when a sighting is not accepted by the regional reviewer. In my case, I saw and reported 2 Black Vultures just north of Columbus on Sunday. Now, normally you don't get this bird this far north in February, but I observed these birds closely through a scope and had a regular ol' Turkey Vulture for comparison to boot. I submitted notes on my observation in the eBird comment field that I think very clearly demonstrated these were Black Vultures and not immature Turkey Vultures. But, the reviewer did not accept the sighting, and I don't know why. They're still on my eBird list for the year, but it still ticks me off that what I believe was a well-documented sighting was not accepted. It makes you look like you were mistaken or didn't give enough information when a sighting of yours gets pulled from the iGoogle gadget, so it's sort of a point of pride.

Ok, rant off for now. I'm going birding with the Avids this saturday - don't know where, the trip is contingent on where the best birds are being seen, and right now there doesn't seem to be any one spot that is superior to any other spots. So I guess it will be a surprise!

A twitch and a miss

2008-02-04T16:43:00.000-05:00

On Saturday, I went with a group of birding friends to twitch the Ross's Gull that was hanging out at Niagara Falls. We left at 2AM in the morning in order to be there at first light. We spent the whole morning looking at the falls, but no bird. We ended up birding the Niagara River down to Fort Niagara and missed the bird, and returned home . Apparently it ended its run on Friday.

The day wasn't a complete bust for me, as I finally saw a Little Gull. This gull species has been eluding me for the last couple of years, so it feels good to put the checkmark on my ABA list.

A successful trip to the UP, even without the "good" birds

2008-01-29T16:26:00.001-05:00

Snow Buntings and Lapland Longspur, Chippewa County, Michigan

Although reports from the Upper Peninsula through the early winter of 2007-2008 indicated a relatively birdless season, my scheduled trip to the Sault Ste. Marie area (known as the Soo) went forth as planned. Normally a hot spot for winter specialties such as Snowy Owl, Great Grey Owl, Northern Hawk-Owl, Red and White-winged Crossbills, Common and Hoary Redpolls, and Bohemian Waxwings, this winter was anomalous in birding history for the Soo, with the winter finch irruption perhaps a reason for reports of unvisited feeders, while the missing winter raptors and owls still remains somewhat of a mystery.

Still, the promise of UP regulars such as Gray Jay, Boreal Chickadee and Sharp-tailed Grouse was too strong a temptation for our group, and thus nine of us set out for two full days of birding the eastern end of the Upper Peninsula. Our group consisted of Dan Sanders, Ben Warner, Lori Patterson, Linda Benner, Beth Mitchell, Michael Dietrich, Dave Ressler (from Pennsylvania) and my dadl, with yours truly serving as trip leader.

Our first birding stop was at a residence in Midland, Michigan, that had been hosting a Varied Thrush. The bird was not to be found, apparently having vacated the location the day before. A stop at the nearby Chippewa Nature Center allowed for a nice lunch break and for our West Virginia/Pennsylvania contingent to meet up with the Columbus crew. The Chippewa Nature Center features an excellent set of feeders, allowing for great viewing of chickadees, titmice, tree sparrows, downy and hairy woodpeckers, both nuthatches, and just before we left, a great view of a Cooper’s hawk. The group of juncos present at the feeders including one Oregon Junco as well. Light was fading when we hit the Mackinac Bridge, and a stop to scan distant open water in the Straights of Mackinac revealed no birds, so we pressed on to the Soo and our lovely accommodations at the Plaza Motor Motel and a good meal at Ang-Gio’s Italian Restaurant, where the manager identified us as birders at a glance and gave us a warm welcome.

We assembled on Saturday at 8 AM and headed off for our first stop, the power plant of Gyrfalcon fame. Unfortunately, the Soo gyr has not been seen in recent years, and this year has been no exception. We still were treated to fine looks at Common Goldeneye, Common Merganser and a female Red-breasted Merganser with a bill deformity, as well as Bald Eagles, both an adult and a juvenile. Our exploration of the back roads south of the Soo resulted in great looks at Sharp-tailed Grouse, Snow Buntings, Common Ravens, and Rough-legged Hawks, as well as a pair of red foxes. A trip to the Dafter Dump added Glaucous and Herring Gull to our list, as well as one of the highest concentrations of ravens in one place most of us had ever seen. Oh, and yet another Bald Eagle – we would end up seeing Bald Eagles every day of the trip. A house near the dump featured good feeders, and an opportunity to have excellent views of Pine Grosbeaks. Later in the afternoon, another house with a good feeder added an experience no trip to the UP is complete without – getting stuck in the snow on the side of the road! Fortunately, the homeowner was able to haul out the unlucky vehicle with his truck. His feeders also gave us the first Common Redpolls of the trip, and a dark morph Rough-legged Hawk was observed in the distance.

Sharp-tailed Grouse

Much of the day was spent observing mainly empty feeders, a testament to the lack of birds in the Soo this winter. Even the famed feeders at the Dunbar Forest Research Center, known for concentrations of redpolls, grosbeaks and other winter finches, only attracted a handful of Black-capped Chickadees, a Red-breasted Nuthatch and a Hairy Woodpecker. No owls or even Northern Shrikes were present. The only sparrows observed in the UP were the Snow Buntings, although one flock did contain a probable Lapland Longspur. Still, the flocks of hundreds of Snow Buntings was a crowd-pleaser, especially when they perched on telephone wires for excellent viewing.

Juvenile Golden Eagle

The main destination on Sunday was Hulbert Bog for boreal birds, with the rest of the day up for grabs. On the way to Hulbert, we happened across a juvenile Golden Eagle, which is a winter rarity for the UP. At Hulbert, we stopped at one house with good feeders to examine a large flock of redpolls, hoping for the Hoary Redpolls that had been reported at Hulbert Bog on eBird. Our study of the redpolls was cut short when the irate homeowner decided to hurry us along by firing off warning shots from a rifle. We prudently decided that since the birds had all scattered from the rifle shots, we’d best be moving along ourselves. This may mark a first for the Avids in terms of being asked to move along.

Potential gunshot wounds were quickly forgotten as we stopped along the road in the bog where we observed a group of ravens and crows foraging on the snow banks (along with another Bald Eagle perched nearby). Hearing chickadees calling, we got out and attracted a flock to our location by spreading some seed along the banks. Soon, several Black-capped Chickadees had swarmed to our location. Two Gray Jays flew by, but did not hang around at first. We played the call of a Boreal Chickadee, and soon after, a single Boreal Chickadee came by to check us out, and everyone had great views of this handsome little bird. We then played Gray Jay calls, and attracted the pair we had seen earlier back to our location. Although we tried to tempt them in close with unsalted peanuts, they did not seem to trust us and stayed at the tops of trees. Still, we had good looks at these birds.

Boreal Chickadee, Hulbert Bog

Gray Jay, Hulbert Bog

Although the birding wasn’t up to the standards of a normal Soo winter, the trip was still a success, with nearly everyone adding at least one life bird to their lists. Boreal Chickadee, Gray Jay, Pine Grosbeak, Snow Bunting, Rough-legged Hawk, Glaucous Gull, and Sharp-tailed Grouse were all life birds for members of our group. (Gray Jay, Boreal Chickadee and Sharp-tailed Grouse were my lifers, while I also added several birds to my year list and Michigan life list) A total of 28 species for the UP, and 40 for Michigan as a whole for the trip, is a good number for a supposedly birdless year.

Heading to the UP tomorrow

2008-01-24T15:54:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow I am headed up to Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. I am leading a group composed of folks from the Columbus Avid birders on a quest to see what good birds we can wring out of the landscape of the Soo.

Now, in a normal winter, you wouldn't use a phrase like "wring out" when referring to birding the Soo, but this winter has been one of the least birdiest in a while. Still, we're going. We don't expect any owls or good raptors, but I think we have a good chance for Hoary Redpoll, Bohemian Waxwing, Sharp-tailed Grouse, Gray Jaw, and Boreal Chickadee, our main target birds. And the thing about birding the UP is that you never know what you're going to find.

As a consolation prize for no owls, we're stopping in Midland, Michigan, on the way up to see a Varied Thrush that's at some feeders now.

I'll post a trip report when I get back on Tuesday.

Some New Mexico birds

2008-01-17T17:59:00.000-05:00

As I noted in my last post, I got some decent photos of some of the notable birds from my trip to New Mexico last week. Here they are:

Mountain Chickadee

Gray-crowned Rosy-finch

Black Rosy-finch

Canyon Towhee

White-crowned Sparrow (Z. leucophrys oriantha)

Back in town- New Mexico pics up soon

2008-01-16T16:54:00.000-05:00

Not much time to post due to work, but I had a decent birding experience in Albuquerque, with 10 life birds and a new ABA-area bird as well. Details to come presently...

Gulls and more gulls

2008-01-07T15:52:00.000-05:00

Ring-billed, Herring, Great Black-backed and Glaucous gulls, E. 72nd St.

Our avids trip on Saturday was focused on the Cleveland lake front, where large numbers of gulls are concentrating. Ducks were conspicuous by their relative absence; only 1(!) Red-breasted Merganser for the day, when normally tens of thousands are present. A strong south wind may have had some effect on waterfowl numbers.

But gulls were good. The hot spots were E. 55th Street Marina and the hot waters at the E. 72nd street power plant. We saw seven species of gulls, including at least four Iceland Gulls and at least 7 Glaucous Gulls. Additionally, we probably had at least 300 Great Black-backed Gulls for the day. Herring and Ring-billed Gulls numbered in the thousands, and we had a couple Lesser Black-backed gulls and a handful of Bonaparte's Gulls as well.

Iceland Gull, E. 55th St.

Glaucous Gull, E. 72 St.

First bird of 2008/ Kingston CBC

2008-01-04T12:38:00.000-05:00

My first bird of the year was a lingering Savannah Sparrow on the Kingston, Ohio CBC, seen January 1st. My friend Paul and I were responsible for the upper portion of the circle (if the circle were a clock, the portion would have been a wedge between 11 and 1 o'clock, with the southern boundary being a line drawn between 10 and 2 o'clock). This area was mostly barren farm fields and ratty-looking developments, but there was some bottomlands and CRP lands that held some birds. Not helping any was the strong gusty winds all day.

Still, we counted 33 species of birds for our portion, including both accipters common to Ohio, Northern Harriers, Red-tailed Hawks and American Kestrels; thousands of Common Grackles and Starlings, and the rest of the common birds.

I only missed one bird that Paul saw, a red-winged blackbird.

After the count, we headed back to Columbus and saw the Black-crowned Night Herons in their winter roost at Drake Union at the OSU campus and looked for the Merlin at the OSU wetlands facility, with no luck.

Tomorrow is my first Avids trip of the year - we're headed to Lake Erie for gulls, waterfowl, and who knows what else.

Next week will be exciting for me- my first trip to the southwest (at least as a birder)! I have a conference I will be attending in Albuquerque, and I have two opportunities to bird: A tour to Chaco Culture National Park, which is cool in and of itself, but should also give me some arid-habitat birds; and a day focusing on Sandia Crest for winter montane birds. If time allows, I may head down to Bosque del Apache for the snow and Ross's geese and other birds.

Heading home for the Holidays

2007-12-20T17:06:00.000-05:00

Saturday I make the approximately 15-hour road trip up north to see my family for the holidays. My hometown is Hancock, Michigan, which is here:

View Larger Map

One of the good things about living way up north are the way up north birds. Last time I was up for the holidays, I picked up Spotted Towhee and Pine Grosbeak for my life list. This time around, the target bird is a really cool one: Gyrfalcon!

A Gyrfalcon seems to be settling in for the winter in the lower harbor in Marquette, Michigan, a measly hour and a half drive from Hancock. It's also where the wife and I are going on the 28th to visit friends, so I believe that a stop to see a Gyrfalcon will be tolerated.

I was also going to try and see Black-backed Woodpecker, but the burn area where they've been reported is now only accessible through snowshoes or skis, so that's pretty much out of the question. I probably will still go birding with my dad, hopefully there will be a good report of something chaseable while I'm up.

I don't know that I will update this blog over the next week or so. Happy holidays to any readers I may have, and good birding!

My best year yet for Ohio

2007-12-17T16:36:00.000-05:00

As I mentioned in my last CBC post, I probably won't be adding anything to my Ohio year list before we leave for the UP on Saturday. So, I figured I would post a recap of the year.

I ended up with 254 species on my year list, 28 more species than last year. I've seen all but nine of the 205 birds categorized as "easy to see birds" on the new Ohio checklist with codes. The species I missed were Sanderling, Least Flycatcher, Marsh Wren, Summer Tanager, Vesper Sparrow, Lapland Longspur, Snow Bunting, Dickcissel, and Bobolink. I also saw 9 review-list species, which may be a personal best for me. Of the Ohio birds I saw, 17 species were life birds for me: Thayer's Gull (Feb. 24), Long-eared Owls (March 3), Harris' Sparrow (March 10), Black-necked Stilt (April 21), Tri-colored Heron (April 21), Yellow-throated Vireo (April 28), Bell's Vireo (May 11), Mourning Warbler (May 12), Glossy Ibis (May 12), Sedge Wren (May 12), Alder Flycatcher (May 26), Yellow-bellied Flycatcher (May 26), Mississippi Kite (June 21), Lark Sparrow (July 26), Red Phalarope (Sept. 3), Orange-crowned Warbler (Oct. 6), and Black-legged Kittiwake (Dec. 8).

I also added the following birds to my state life list: Long-tailed Duck (Feb. 24), American Bittern (April 28), Yellow-headed Blackbird (May 12), Olive-sided Flycatcher (May 22), Evening Grosbeak (Nov. 10), Pine Siskin (Nov. 10), Red Crossbill (Nov. 18), Pine Grosbeak (Dec. 1), and Common Redpoll (Dec. 8). I have a total of 285 birds on my Ohio life list, which is pretty good considering there are 291 non-review species for the state (I have 22 birds to go to see every non-review list species).

All in all, a good Ohio year!

Winter storm = less than ideal CBC conditions

2007-12-17T16:22:00.000-05:00

So, I was going to do two CBCs this last weekend - the Hoover Reservoir count and the Columbus count. However, a little winter weather had other ideas.

The Hoover Reservoir count was not postponed, but the winter weather that swooped in had an effect of forcing birds into cover, so they weren't very active in the woods. Feeders were pretty good though. I worked the east side which I've done for the last three years. Not a whole lot of birds, but we did get a Barred Owl, which was exciting.

The Columbus count was postponed until the 30th, so I won't be on that one since I will be traveling back from the UP on that day.

I guess this means my Ohio year list is effectively done, which calls for another post.

Time to count some birds

2007-12-14T13:14:00.001-05:00

It's Christmas Bird Count (CBC) time again. The last three years, I've been going on the Hoover Reservoir CBC here in Columbus, but haven't taken part in any others. This season, thanks to the good graces of my lovely and patient wife, I am taking part in three counts - the Hoover count tomorrow, the Columbus count Sunday, and the Kingston count on January 1st.

The weather is not supposed to be good - we have a winter storm warning and are supposed to get snow and icy rain tomorrow (I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it won't get warm enough to rain). This may work to our advantage, as it should keep traffic low and bring birds into feeders for easier counting.

My greatest CBC of all time was the backwoods portion of a Houghton County, Michigan, CBC, back in the 1990s, when I had my life Great Grey Owl, Northern Goshawk, and Ruffed Grouse.

Also a past highlight was my life Northern Shrike during an in-town portion of the same CBC circle in the 80s.

Not to say the Hoover CBC has been small potatoes for me, as it gave me my life Barred Owl.

But the whole point is to participate in a ritual with other birders, that spans 108 years of birding in America. It's one of the highlights of every birder's year.

Black-legged Kittiwake and lists

2007-12-10T13:15:00.000-05:00

First off, I added Black-legged Kittiwake to my life list on Saturday. Here's a photo:

What makes it stick out from the Bonaparte's Gulls in the background is primarily it's black collar, but also the larger size and more elongated structure.

The bird made number 366 on my collective life list (I had 366 previously, but since learning that the Trumpeter Swans I've seen in Ohio are not countable, I took them off). The bird is number 323 on my ABA list, number 285 on my Ohio list, number 272 on my year list and 253 for my Ohio year list.

My year lists are at 273 for the ABA area and 254 for the state. Besides the kittiwake, I added Common Redpoll to the state list and Short-eared Owl and Greater White-fronted Goose for both.

Speaking of lists: We have a new Ohio Birding Checklist with ABA-style difficulty codes. The species are divided into 3 groups among the 6 difficulty codes: Easier to See Birds (codes 1 and 2: 205 birds)), Harder to See Birds (codes 3 and 4: 86 birds), and Review List Birds (codes 5 and 6:123). There are 414 bird species in total on the Ohio list. I'm really happy with this new checklist. It's a good way to measure how good of a year I'm having. For example, here's how my year breaks down by each code so far:

Code 1: 135 out of 136 (same for my life state list)
Code 2: 60 out of 69 (68 out of 69: life list)
Code 3: 24 out of 30 (29 out of 30: life list)
Code 4: 24 out of 56 (36 out of 56: life list)
Code 5: 7 out of 20 (11 out of 20: life list)
Code 6: 2 out of 103 (4 out of 103: life list)

One of our members in the Columbus Avids, Dan Sanders, has issued a challenge of sorts for us to try and see every one of the 205 commonly occurring birds in Ohio for 2008. Doesn't sound too hard, but could still be a challenge, as for 2007, I am missing 9 of the 205 common birds.

Another thing that is good about the list is it gives me some birds to concentrate on adding to the state list for next year, such as my two remaining "Easier to See Birds": Marsh Wren and Least Flycatcher. Other birds I don't have but should be able to add from the Harder to See Birds include Ruffed Grouse, Franklin's Gull, Golden Eagle and Cattle Egret. Everything else I am missing will probably have to be as opportunity allows.

My new binoculars have arrived!

2007-12-06T13:41:00.001-05:00

I haven't tried them out in birding conditions, but a brief comparison with my old pair does reveal sharper colors and better resolution. They are definitely a little heavier than my Nikon Actions, but I can hold them easily with one hand.

The optics4birding review was dead on about the poor fit for the rainguards - if you prefer a shoulder harness to a neck strap (as I do), you're going to have to be careful not to lose the guards while walking. I may try to attach them with a short chain or something, since I want to keep my lenses protected.

I'll post my birding experiences with them on Monday, as I will be birding all day on Saturday with them.

Ordered the Broadwings

2007-12-05T08:47:00.000-05:00

Well, when I make up my mind, I make up my mind. I ordered the 8x42 Stokes Broadwings from Optics4Birding.com. Not only that, but because I am turning into a major bird geek, I ordered them next day air so I would have them for the Columbus Avids trip this saturday...

I'll post a review of how I like them next week.

Binocular upgrade time

2007-12-04T15:13:00.000-05:00

I've been seriously birding for the last four years or so. During that time, I've been using a pair of Nikon Action 8X40 binoculars (or bins, as some folks refer to them). For a pair of bins I acquired for about $85 (on sale), they've been pretty good starter bins. However, they've taken a few hits over the years, and the right side has sprung its seal, so that the eye piece fogs on me. Also, I've grown more unsatisfied with the brightness of the bins and the constant readjustment of the diopter is annoying (it tends to move all the way to the left as I walk).

So, now I am in the market for the next step up in binoculars. I have narrowed it to three contenders (all 8x42 bins): The Nikon Monarch ATB, The Stokes Talon, and the Stokes Broadwing.

The Nikon Monarch has been in production much longer than the Stokes series (produced by Vortex), and has a reputation of providing optics near the quality of bins 3x the price. It has a pretty good reputation and is very affordable at $290. It does have some drawbacks, as apparently the focus gets fuzzy at the edges of teh field of view and there's a tendency for prismatic effects when viewing high-contrast objects in bright light. Like my current Nikons, it has a rubber rain guard that you can attach to the strap, and hard plastic objective lens caps that you can easily lose (I think I lost my Nikon Action lens caps within two months of buying them).

The Stokes Talon is billed as a great entry-level set of bins, and are the cheapest in price of the three at $200. They have a good reputation as well, but from what I've read, may not perform as well as the Nikons in terms of brightness and flat field. Like the Nikon Monarchs, there is some prismatic effects, and there's some distortion at the edges of the field of view. The rain cap and lens caps are better than the Nikons, in that the lens caps are attached to the bins so you don't lose them immediately.

Now, from my limited research (only internet searches and no actual testing myself), it seems like the Stokes Broadwing offers a pretty attractive set of bins for not a whole lot more than the Nikons, at $350. What I really like about these is that the optics quality seems pretty good for what is still in the lower mid range for decent bins. Optics4birding.com notes that the focus stays sharp pretty much all the way across the field, with minimal distortion of straight lines right at the edges. Also, there is no prismatic effect when viewing high contrast objects in bright light. The eyecup and objective lens covers are similar to the Talon's, although Optics4birding noted that the rain guard cover seemed too loose. Otherwise, they thought the bins offered mid-price range quality at the high end of the low-price range.

I'm leaning pretty heavily to the Broadwing, but as I have said, I have not tried any of these bins out, and I'm not sure I will be able to compare them before I make a purchase.

If anyone reads this blog and has an opinion, feel free to comment.

and definitely check out optics4birding.com!

250, 251! No, wait a minute. It's 250.

2007-12-03T16:56:00.000-05:00

What am I referring to with that title? Well, as I have posted here recently, I was on a quest to hit 250 Ohio species observed this year. Up until Saturday, I was (or thought I was) at 249.

Saturday, I went with my friends Brad, Paul and Jeff up to Oak Openings Metropark near Toledo to see the Pine Grosbeaks that have been hanging out there. Paul and I got good looks, Brad got crappy looks and groused about it all day. But I thought there's bird number 250!

But then as we talked about listing through out the day, I realized that I had been basing my count on my eBird totals, which counted the Trumpeter Swans I've seen this year. Now, in Ohio, Trumpeter Swans are not generally accepted by the records committee, since they are an introduced species (Some say reintroduced, but I gather that there is no good data supporting Ohio as part of their former breeding range, but I digress). So really, when I saw the grosbeak (an Ohio life bird, by the way), it was really only bird 249 for the year. Back to where I started on the day!

But I lucked out and hit 250 anyway at the end of the day, when Brad managed to find the Northern Shrike that he'd seen last week at Maumee Bay State Park.

Unfortunately, I wasn't in a position to get any type of good photo of either bird. I did get a couple good photos of Pine Siskins when we were at Oak Openings, though, so here they are:

Well, I did it.

2007-11-28T13:05:00.000-05:00

I went and joined the ABA, despite my misgivings about the ABA area. Mainly, I joined because I've been reading some of Pete Dunne's essays and I just felt that it was time; but also because it seemed appropriate in light of what could be a really great year in 2008 for birding for me, what with trips to the UP of Michigan and New Mexico in January, a possible weeklong birding trip to Florida in May, a couple days in the Rockies in Colorado in July, and Massachusetts again in August and December. With all the possible life birds I'll be checking off, it seemed to be time.

So, here I am, new ABA member (with an ABA list of 323)!

#366: Ash-Throated Flycatcher

2007-11-26T17:05:00.000-05:00

The day after thanksgiving, I headed out to do some Massachusetts birding. First stop was in Carlisle, 15 miles from my in-laws' place. That's where an Ash-Throated Flycatcher was hanging out, apparently unconcerned that instead of being somewhere in Central America right now, it had headed northeast instead of south. The bird wasn't there when I showed up, but after a half hour it appeared and obligingly posed for some pictures. A great thing to be thankful for, a new life bird! The flycatcher also happened to be year bird number number 266.

Ash-throated Flycatcher, pretty as can be on November day in northern Massachusetts

The bird seemed to want to show off how well its plumage matched that of the magnolia tree it was using as home base.

Next I headed off to Parker River National Wildlife Refuge outside of Newburyport (with a stop along the way at the Joppa Flats Mass Audubon Center to pick up a new harness for my binoculars and to halfway consider buying a new pair of binoculars as well). My target birds were Snow Buntings, Common Redpolls and a Cattle Egret that had been seen regularly at the North Pool Overlook.

Common Redpolls

I dipped on the egret, but did get to see the redpolls (year bird number 267). I also added Red-throated Loons (#268) and Snow Buntings (#269) to the year list. I had also thought that the flock of 90 Sanderlings would make the list, but I had forgotten the pair I had seen in Norfolk, VA, earlier this year (missed them in Ohio - rats!). In with the Sanderlings was one different peep - can you identify it in the picture below (for a larger version, go here: http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=2065972173&size=o)

Sanderlings on the beach

Hitting Massachusetts for Turkey

2007-11-21T12:55:00.000-05:00

Not to see it, but to eat it. I'm flying out tonight to have Thanksgiving with my in-laws in Lowell, MA. But birding will be involved - Looking over the Massbirds mailing list on birdingonthe.net, there has just been reported an Ash-throated Flycatcher just 14 miles from my in-laws house!

My original plan was to go birding at Parker River NWR (aka Plum Island), but I'm going to hit the flycatcher location first, then head out to Parker River on either Friday or Saturday morning.

I hope to add Cattle Egret and Common Redpoll to my year list there, both species are being seen on the reserve. I might luck into some other birds I need for the year, but otherwise the goal is just to enjoy birding in one of my favorite locations (it's where I proposed to my wife).

So, it could be I will be giving thanks for a new life bird!

One to go

2007-11-19T14:29:00.000-05:00

A couple friends and I went exploring the NW part of the state yesterday, with some pretty good finds. Our first stop was the recently decommissioned gravel pit operation outside of New Hampshire along US 33 in Auglaize County, where someone reported Cackling and Ross’s Geese in with Canada and Snow Geese. We found the flock on one of the ponds, but it got up before we could sort through them and landed in a nearby field. Fortunately, this probably afforded us even better looks at the birds. We weren’t able to pick out any Cackling Geese from the Canadas, but amongst 25 Snow Geese (both blue and white phases) were three white phase ROSS’S GEESE. The Canada Geese included some darker and smaller than usual individuals that people better versed with the subspecies of Canada Goose might want to look at. A Northern Harrier flew over the pond, but didn’t seem to faze any of the Mallards and Green-winged Teals still there.

Our next stop were the Lima Reservoirs, which featured Ruddy Ducks as the main bird. Also present were some Bufflehead and Hooded Mergansers. We looked for Snow Buntings along the dikes but did not see any. Curiously, we saw another Northern Harrier flying quickly over the reservoirs.

On our way to the Oak Openings, we stopped at Bluffton to see the Rufuous Hummingbird (number 246), which was on the feeder as we rolled up, then flew off. We then observed a kettle of about 8 Red-tailed Hawks and a single Turkey Vulture at the Monclovia exit off 475.

Our stop at Oak Openings was great. It was the first visit to this metropark for me, and Dan Sanders pointed out all the spots where good birds had been observed in the past. Our goal was the nature center feeders, where we spent about 45 minutes. The feeders were very lively, with a male and female Purple Finch (number 247), numerous American Goldfinches, several White-breasted Nuthatches, at least 3 Red-breasted Nuthatches, a Blue Jay, Red-bellied and Downy Woodpeckers, Black-capped Chickadees, Tufted Titmouses (Titmice?), and Dark-eyed Junco. After about 45 minutes, we had decided we’d seen all that we’d likely see there and headed out of the nature center back to the car. About halfway there, Dan Barda came rushing out of the center yelling “CROSSBILL!!!” We looked at each other and sprinted back into the center, where a male RED CROSSBILL was drinking from the water station (number 248, and a state bird for me). I’m not certain about this, but it seemed like the bird was completing a molt from juvenile to adult plumage – I don’t know anything about molt timing in crossbills, so maybe it was just the fact that this was the closest look I’ve ever had at a Red Crossbill! A photo of the bird is up at the rarebirds.org website - http://www.rarebird.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=2447 .

After that bit of excitement, we hit Pearson Park’s nature center, which was House Finch central, along with goldfinches and a Red-breasted Nuthatch. No irruptive finches were seen here, but it looks like a good spot for them to show up.

We finished the day at Maumee Bay State Park, where we tramped around looking for Common Redpolls and Snow Buntings, which we were unable to find. A great consolation prize was a single CACKLING GOOSE (number 249) in with a flock of Canada Geese and a single white-phase Snow Goose. The geese were on the sheltered beach near the pavilion, and we had very good looks at the bird, which was about a third the size of the Canadas it was with, and had a stubby bill and short neck.

So, 250 looks to be a lock, but I'm not going to count any birds before I see them!

Three birds down, five to go

2007-11-12T14:40:00.000-05:00

Well, saturday was a hit and miss kind of birding day. I got three of my target birds and just missed a fourth.

The weather and light quality was crappy all day. We started out in Geauga County at a home where Evening Grosbeaks have been visiting, and sure enough, a group of four females dropped in for our enjoyment (and for their place on my Ohio life list).

Evening Grosbeaks

Next we hit West Woods park nearby, where I added Pine Siskin to the year list and my Ohio life list. Two state birds in one day, not bad!

Crappy photograph of a Pine Siskin

We then trekked up to the lake, where we were confronted by a mysterious lack of Red-breasted Mergansers. I doubt we saw more than a couple hundred maximum, and that's being generous. Normally we see thousands of mergs on Lake Erie in late November, but not today.

A stop at Simms Park in Euclid nabbed us a pair of Black Scoters, which were the last year birds I had for that day. I just missed Snow Bunting at Headlands Beach SP, which would have been number four.

So, I now stand at 245 species for the year in Ohio. Will I make 250? Stay tuned and find out!

Update to the last post

2007-11-08T12:46:00.001-05:00

I just found out that our Avids trip will make Evening Grosbeaks being sighted in Geauga County one of our target birds on Saturday, followed by lakefront birding, so I will update my "Most Likely" list from the last post:

Evening Grosbeak
Snow Bunting
Pine Siskin
Purple Finch
Brant (29 seen on the lake today)
Black Scoter
Short-eared Owl
Northern Shrike

That's eight. If all goes right on Saturday, I could pick up 6 of those birds.

Eight birds away

2007-11-07T12:49:00.001-05:00

In my last blog post, I mentioned that I was only eight bird species away from hitting 250 Ohio species for the year.

I thought I might expand on that and list some of the birds that I still need for my year list AND still have a halfway decent chance of adding, ahead of my Columbus Avids trip this Saturday.

The list includes, in no particular order:

Purple Finch
Pine Siskin
Greater White-fronted Goose
Cackling Goose
Northern Shrike
Black Scoter
Merlin
Iceland Gull
Short-eared Owl
Snow Bunting
Lapland Longspur
Snowy Owl

Of the above, Pine Siskin would be an addition to my Ohio life list.

There are also some less likely birds I could get, which include:
Brant
Harlequin Duck
Northern Saw-whet Owl
Red Crossbill
Common Redpoll
Little Gull
Pomarine Jaegar
Parasitic Jaegar
Golden Eagle
Black-legged Kittiwake
Purple Sandpiper
Sanderling (maybe some late birds???)

Of these birds, Harlequin Duck, Little Gull, Pomarine Jaegar and Black-legged Kittiwake would be life birds, and Red Crossbill, Common Redpoll and Golden Eagle would be Ohio lifers.

Of the above lists, the species I think I have the best chances of adding are:

Short-eared Owl
Purple Finch
Snow Bunting
Northern Shrike
Pine Siskin
Greater White-Fronted Goose
Black Scoter

That's seven. So basically, I need to get LUCKY!

Finch finding fails

2007-11-05T15:32:00.000-05:00

Well, I dipped on Purple Finch and Pine Siskin yesterday. I visited three good spots with feeders in Columbus: Greenlawn Cemetery, Blacklick Creek metropark, and Blendon Woods metropark. Bird activity was somewhat low, with few birds at feeders (perhaps no more than 15 at a time at any of the three spots). These House Finches at Blacklick Creek were the closest I got to Purple Finches:

To add insult to injury, reports from Blendon Woods today included a Merlin and Pine Siskins, both of which would make great additions to my year list, especially for Ohio (I am EIGHT birds away from 250 species in Ohio for the year- my best year yet for the state).

However, not all was bad - I did get some nice photographs, especially of a male Northern Cardinal, along with some others.

Northern Cardinal, Blendon Woods

Pied-billed Grebe, Blendon Woods

Red-breasted Nuthatch, Blacklick Creek

Pair of American Widgeon, Blendon Woods

Gonna try for Purple Finch and Pine Siskin this weekend

2007-11-02T12:06:00.000-05:00

I'm going to hit a couple parks with good feeders on sunday, see if I can't see a couple of these birds. There's a winter finch invasion in the works, and I want in!

LeConte's Sparrows

2007-10-15T13:35:00.000-05:00

Saturday I went out with some friends to look for LeConte's and Nelson's Sharp-tailed Sparrows at Funk Bottoms Wildlife Area. Although we dipped on the Nelson's, we had great, no, SPECTACULAR views of LeConte's. A few photos below. We saw five individual sparrows in 2 groups. Another highlight was a flock of 20 Sandhill Cranes.

Later, we went to Big Island WA for sparrows, but struck out. Had some great views of Northern Harriers and Bald Eagle, though.

Female Northern Harrier, Big Island

Second year Bald Eagle, Big Island

Tobacco Hornworm at Big Island