Birding close to home

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

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