Your Week In Review

For the week of December 25th, through December 31st, this is your week in review.

Let’s start this review with a re-cap of Cincinnati’s Christmas Bird Count. Jay Stenger posted the results just the other day and with 106 field participants they were able to come away with 89 species. I’m not sure if this is a record but a solid effort for all involved with the count. For a detailed listing of all the birds seen during the count, go to Cincinnati Bird Club web sight and click the “sightings” link on the side tool bar.

It was a pretty busy week for folks, with the holidays and everything else going on, we came away with an impressive list of birds. I’m sure having the CBC going on this week helped with the overall species count, but none the less it sure does fill up some blank spots we’ve had for the past couple of weeks.

Area parks that were visited this week include: Fernald Preserve, Armleder Park, Brookville Lake, Miami Whitewater Park, The Oxbow, Winton Woods Park, White Water State Park, and Gilmore Ponds. Neighborhoods reporting in include: Dayton KY., Sharonville, United American Cemetery, and Lost Bridge.

Notable birds for the week include:

Accipitriformes

1. Cooper’s Hawk
2. Sharp-shinned Hawk
3. Red-tailed Hawk
4. Red-shouldered Hawk
5. Northern Harrier

Falconiformes

1. Merlin
2. Peregrine Falcon
3. American Kestrel

Charadriiformes

1. Bonaparte’s Gull
2. Wilson’s Snipe

Strigiformes

1. Short-eared Owl

Podicipediformes

1. Pied-billed Grebe
2. Horned Grebe

Anseriformes

1. Canada Goose
2. Cackling Goose
3. Snow Goose
4. Mallard
5. American Wigeon
6. Gadwall
7. Northern Shoveler
8. Northern Pintail
9. Green-winged Teal
10. Canvasback
11. Ring-necked Duck
12. American Black Duck
13. Lesser Scaup
14. Greater Scaup
15. Hooded Merganser
16. Long-tailed Duck
17. Bufflehead
18. Ruddy Duck

Piciformes

1. Northern Flicker
2. Downy Woodpecker
3. Hairy Woodpecker
4. Pileated Woodpecker
5. Red-headed Woodpecker
6. Red-bellied Woodpecker
7. Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

Gruiformes

1. Sandhill Crane

Galliformes

1. Wild Turkey

Passeriformes

1. Chipping Sparrow
2. Savannah Sparrow
3. American Tree Sparrow
4. Fox Sparrow
5. White-throated Sparrow
6. White-crowned Sparrow
7. Swamp Sparrow
8. Song Sparrow
9. Eastern Towhee
10. Pine Siskin
11. Red-breasted Nuthatch
12. Brown Thrasher
13. Winter Wren
14. Golden-crowned Kinglet
15. Horned Lark
16. Purple Finch
17. Common Yellowthroat
18. Pine Warbler
19. Yellow-rumped Warbler
20. Hermit Thrush
21. Rusty Blackbird
22. Brewer’s Blackbird

For a detailed listing of the weeks postings, please go to www.cincinnatibirds.com

So as we end this week in review, keep on birding, and don’t forget to post your sightings.

New Camera

Canon Powershot ELPH 100 HS

I must have been an extra good boy this year because Santa brought me a new camera for digiscoping. He must have known how much homework was put into this particular camera, and with all the features that any digiscoping birder would be proud to own. Now I can give Kathy back her Nikon, which was hers in the first place.

Granted, I would have loved to have had Santa bring me a DSLR with a fixed 50mm lens, however they are a bit price prohibitive and if I had the money for one I would probably spend it on a new pair of binoculars.

I’ve yet to take my new camera out into the field, however tomorrow David and myself are off for a morning of birding over at Winton Woods and maybe to the settling pond if time permits. So with Christmas over, it’s time to take the toys outside to play with.

New Book

Just a few days ago Kathy and myself were finishing up some gift purchasing for my nephews 2 little girls when we found ourselves at our local Half Price Book Store again. This store for me is like offering a drink to a alcoholic, a bad idea. So to resist temptation I tried to stay in the front of the store and check out their music CD’s, but to no avail, I was drawn to the “Nature Section” like the “One Ring” to Sauron.

I caved! But for only $5.98 I think I did pretty well on this book. Plus it’s a hard bound book.

I’ve not yet delved too deeply into this book, but it’s a subject that I need to have a better understanding of if I’m to improve as a birder. Plus how could I pass up a great deal like this.

The True Meaning Of Christmas

Merry Christmas from all of us at A Birder’s Notebook

Your Week In Review

For the week of December 18th, through December 24th, this is your week in review. I also realize that I’m a day early in getting this posted but tomorrow I’m going to be a little busy.

First things first as we begin draw closer to Christmas. MERRY CHRISTMAS to all my reader of A Birder’s Notebook. May the spirit of Christmas fill your heart during this wonderful time of year.

It’s Christmas Bird Count time in our neck of the woods and most of our local birders are participating in these events. Which leaves our normal sightings a little low since most birders are busy with CBC’s. And with duck hunting season just starting up again we’re not hearing too much from our larger lakes. But despite all this we were able to have some pretty good birds reported this week. Area parks where our birders visited include: Caesar Creek S.P., Fernald Preserve, Miami Whitewater Forest, Armleder Park, and Shawnee Lookout Park. Neighborhoods reporting in include: Campbell County river front, West chester, Highland County, Hamilton, and Fairfield.

Notable birds for the week include:

Accipitriformes

1. Bald Eagle
2. Northern Harrier
3. Osprey
4. Black Vulture
5. Turkey Vulture
6. Rough-legged Hawk
7. Red-tailed Hawk

Falconiformes

1. American Kestrel

Charadriiformes

1. Wilson’s Snipe

Gaviiformes

1. Red-throated Loon

Strigiformes

1. Short-eared Owl

Podicipediformes

1. Horned Grebes
2. Pied-billed Grebes

Anseriformes

1. Snow Goose
2. Cackling Goose
3. Bufflehead
4. Ring-necked Duck
5. Canvasback

Piciformes

1. Yellow-bellied sapsucker
2. Downy Woodpecker
3. Red-bellied Woodpecker
4. Pileated Woodpecker

Passeriformes

1. White-breasted Nuthatch
2. Red-breasted Nuthatch
3. Rusty Blackbird
4. Ruby-crowned Kinglet
5. Winter Wren
6. Marsh Wren
7. Fox Sparrow
8. Brown Creeper
9. Purple Finch

For a detailed listing of the weeks postings, please go to www.cincinnatibirds.com

So as we end this week in review, keep on birding, and don’t forget to post your sightings.

Notes From The Field

Caesar Creek State Park

It came as quite a shock when the rains finally ended and the sun shone brightly yesterday afternoon. With no chances to go birding for the next several days, yesterday was going to be my last chance to get in a little exploring and birding till after Christmas.

That’s right, you heard correctly, exploring. My oldest son David joined me as we set off for Caesar Creek again for a late afternoon of exploration, with a little birding on the side. Let me explain a little further what I mean. Just the other day I downloaded Google Earth to my desk top computer. I’m going to use this handy tool to assist me in mapping the best locations to view birds around the lake, and with over 40 miles of shoreline there will be a lot of ground to cover.

According to Murphy’s Law for birding, the best birds are always on the opposite side of the lake from you. So to level the playing field a little, I figured if I knew of a place that I can get to on the other side of the lake, then I should have an increased chance of getting better views of the bird I’m chasing. And these locations I’m highlighting on Google earth can be saved to my computer so I can share these hot spots with my readers.

So yesterday I added 2 more hot spots that provide excellent views of the lake. One in particular was quite awesome. Most of these viewing hot spots can be easily driven to, however there are a couple that requires some physical effort to reach. But sometimes the rewards are worth it.

So yesterday David and myself went to the Furnas Shores area of the park. This area is on the western side of the lake and has to imposing features. 2 really large dams. Before the lake was built this area was probably in a low lying location to begin with. So if the lake were to rise because of excess water from spring rains for instance, these neighborhoods wouldn’t get washed away. And they’re highly visible from all over the lake because of their height.

As the sun sets casting our long shadows over the dam, David and I stop so I can take a picture of this imposing man-made structure. We’re looking back towards the bird-mobile which is about a 1/2 mile away back along the top of the dam. Or maybe I should call it a flood wall. It basically serves the same purpose as the flood walls that border the Ohio River in both Newport and Covington.

This is the spectacular view from the top of the flood wall. This is also where we climbed down to the lake. It wasn’t very difficult, you just had to watch your footing as you walked upon stones about the size of baseballs and softballs.

Now comes the cool part. By using Google Earth and zooming into this part of the lake, I was able to save that image and with the added feature of a yellow pin you can place to show where we were down by the lake.

Notable birds for the day include:

1. Northern Cardinal
2. Carolina Chickadee
3. American Crow
4. Blue Jay
5. Mourning Dove
6. Ring-billed Gull
7. American Coot
8. Greater Scaup
9. Northern Pintail
10. Mallard
11. American black Duck
12. Canada Goose