Today was one of those days where I felt the need to go birding despite the grayness on this Ash Wednesday. Kathy was at school for the rest of the afternoon, so not needing any more excuse than that, I made my way up to the lake after picking up my gear at home.

Caesar Creek has been a bevy of activity since the weekend and I’ve been chomping at the bit to get a piece of the action. The most notable bird has been a Franklin’s Gull, which has been seen with regularity at the beach. So my first stop on this abbreviated trip was the beach. Walking past 2 Canadian Geese honking disapprovingly at my encroachment  on their turf, I made my way towards the waters edge and the large group of gulls. Being several inches smaller than your typical Ring-billed Gull, I was scanning for the familiar black hood amongst all the other gulls. Dipped again. It’s not like I need this bird for my life list, I just wanted a picture for the old photo album. I was able to get a few pictures of some Greater Scaups that were about a hundred feet of the beach.

My next stop was across Route 73 to the Furnas Shores Boat Ramp. I only spent a few minutes here as I scoped out a few more Greater Scaups, a pair of Buffleheads and a Horned Grebe. My final stop before heading home  was my all time favorite spot, Harveysburg Road. Walking down to the edge I noticed 3 darker shapes no more than 1 hundred feet off the end.

And there, right before my eyes were 2 female Surf Scoters and a male Common Goldeneye. There’s been a bit of a buzz about these 2 scoters for a couple of days now, and here they are right in front of me.

Even though this is a crappy picture, you can see the 2 white marks on the head. The female White-winged Scoter has those same kind of facial markings, however the Surf Scoter has a darker top of the head and a darker bill. And no tell tale sign of the small white patch on the wing which would indicate a White-winged Scoter.

Common Goldeneye

With the light fading fast, I bid farewell to Caesar Creek…till Saturday when I work the lake hard for that Franklin’s Gull.

Notable birds for the day include:

1. Northern Harrier
2. Surf Scoter
3. Common Goldeneye
4. Greater Scaup
5. Bufflehead
6. Pied-billed Grebe
7. Horned Grebe
8. Canada Goose
9. Ring-billed Gull

Well it certainly has been a busy couple of days with some unusual sightings, and we have yet another good bird making it’s appearance at Caesar Creek. A mature Franklin’s Gull has been seen all over the lake. The first stop I would make would be the beach.

I received a interesting comment on the blog the other day. It was from Penny Jarrett, a volunteer for Little Miami Inc. She had a great idea where birders would bird a section of the Little Miami River during the “Great Backyard Bird Count”, that was held February 17th, thru the 20th. Since Little Miami Inc. owns over 50 nature preserves along the river and it’s tributaries, in reality we’d be birding in the Little Miami River’s backyard.

Founded in 1967 as a non-profit organization dedicated to restoration and protection of the Little Miami Wild and Scenic River, I thought it was a super idea as I talked to her more about this idea. Now granted it was a little late in getting put together, however there has to be a start someplace.  She even enlisted the help of Kelly Riccetti of “Red and the Peanut” blog to call upon some of her friends to help with a section near the powder plant in Kings. For myself I asked Phil to join me today as we birded Kelly Nature Preserve.

Situated along a bend in the Little Miami River, Kelley Nature Preserve is a beautiful 42 acre preserve left to the Clermont County Park District by Virginia Kelley as a memorial to her husband Walter A. Kelley. Phil and I arrived at 4:30 not knowing what kind of birds we’d find, having never birded here before. And considering the reputation the park has I’d never go there by myself, but Phil was along and everything went fine, except the birds. Being late in the afternoon this doesn’t surprise me, which I told Penny would probably happen.

It’s a nice park with well manicured trails and some good views of the river which at certain points you can walk right down to.

We spent about 75 minutes here with very sporadic bird activity. We didn’t cover every inch of the park, but with the fading light I feel we left at the right time to get home before it got too dark to see any bird.

I was able to digibin this Red-bellied Woodpecker as it clung to this bush eating their small berries. The sun was really low and the picture was darker than it appears here. I had to do some heavy cropping to get it this lightened up.

Notable birds for the day include:

1. Northern cardinal
2. Downy Woodpecker
3. Red-bellied Woodpecker
4. Carolina Wren
5. American crow
6. Turkey Vulture
7. Red-tailed Hawk
8. Tufted Titmouse
9. Carolina Chickadee
10. Mourning Dove
11. Eastern Goldfinch
12. White-throated Sparrow

Family: Laridae

Order: Charadiiformes

Description: 23″- 26″ (58-66 cm)  ADULT SUMMER Has a pale blue-gray back and upper wings, except for white trailing edge and dark wingtips with white “windows”. Plumage is otherwise white. Bill is yellow with orange spot on gonys, and eye has yellow iris and orange eyring. ADULT WINTER  Similar, but head and neck are streaked brown; leg, bill and eyering colors are duller. JUVENILE & 1st WINTER  Have mottled brown plumage, dark tail, and dull pink legs. Initially bill is dark, but becomes dark-tipped pink by first winter. Note pale inner primaries create pale panel on upper wing and otherwise uniformly brown upper wings. Adult plumage acquired through successive milts: becomes more uniform gray on back and upper wings and whiter elsewhere. Retains dark band on tail and some brown feathering on upper wings into third year.

Voice: Utters a distinctive “kyaoo” and a anxious “ga-ka-ka”

Habitat: Widespread and common, nesting on islands in northern lakes and on coasts. Winter range is mainly coastal.

Nesting: 1-3 eggs, light olive, buff, or grennish with darker splotches or speckling. The nest is a hollowed out depression 10-15 inches across and lined with scrapes of vegetation, feathers, plastic, rope or other material.

Range:

FYI’s: They’re the most familiar gulls of the North Atlantic and can be found across much of coastal North America in winter

They prefer drinking fresh water, but they’ll drink saltwater when they must. They have a special gland located above the eyes which allow them to excrete the salt.

Incubation Herring Gulls will pant to cool off.

Resource material provided by:

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology/ www.allaboutbirds.com

www.enature.com

For the week of February 12th, through February 18th, this is your week in review.

This will be the second week in a row that I’m writing my week in review early. This time I’m skipping Friday and Saturday’s sightings because I’m driving to Michigan on Friday to visit my daughter for the weekend. And despite the fact that there’s not too many sightings being posted, they certainly quality birds for us. We’re getting some northern visitors in the form of Surf Scoter, White-winged Crossbill, Lesser Black-backed Gull, and Common Redpoll. This is exciting stuff. And to think I drove all the way to Toledo to locate the last two birds. Hopefully with these great birds in the tri-state this might motivate more birders to get out and bird.

Parks where area birders visited include Lake Isabella Park, Caesar Creek State Park, Hisey Park, Armleder Park, and the Oxbow. Neighborhoods reporting in include White Oak, Middletown, Maderia, and Campbell County KY.

Notable birds for the week include:

Accipitriformes

1. Northern Harrier
2. Red-shouldered Hawk
3. Black Vulture

Falconiformes

1. American Kestrel

Strigiformes

1. Great Horned Owl
2. Long-eared Owl

Charadriiformes

1. Lesser Black-backed Gull

Piciformes

1. Pileated Woodpecker

Anseriformes

1. Surf Scoter
2. Snow Goose
3. Canvasback

Passeriformes

1. White-winged Crossbill
2. Common Redpoll
3. Tree Sparrow
4. Fox Sparrow

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.

So with that said why would “digibinning” be any different. But first what is digibinning? It’s taking your digital point-n-shoot camera and holding it up to one of your ocular eye pieces on your binoculars and take a picture. This method of photography can come in handy in  a lot of circumstances. For myself when I don’t have my spotting scope with the proper attachments to digiscope that elusive bird, I’ll resort to this. Most point-n-shoot cameras can fit right into your pocket and with a little practice you can come away with some half way decent pictures.

Now this female Downy Woodpecker was digibinned while I was indoors, so there is a glass window between myself and the subject. Now I know that my windows can probably do with a little Windex, however this turned out pretty good.

One thing I found helpful when doing this was that my eye cups were turned all the way out so the lens on the camera won’t rest on the ocular lens on your bins. And just like digiscoping, turn your optical zoom all the way out. If you have a camera that goes beyond 4x or 5x, this might not work for you. I was also using the AUTO MODE on my camera. It takes the guess work out of getting the proper setting since I’m only experimenting with this method right now.

For myself this will not replace my spotting scope produced pictures, just another tool for when I leave it at home. In the long run I just want an acceptable quality picture where you can make a good ID on the bird. Is that too much to ask?

A Great Horned Owl has taken over the nesting can at Lake Isabella, and today was the day that I’m going to get it’s picture. Lake Isabella is a Hamilton County Park situated along the Little Miami River. It’s a rather small park at only 77 acres, but it’s claim to fame is it’s 28 acre pay lake. I remember as a boy my brother and I drove out there from Pleasant Ridge and it was an all day adventure. Back then I-275 didn’t exist.

As I pulled up a noticed a women getting back into her car after checking out the Owl, and sure enough it was there.

As you can tell the only part we’re going to be allowed to view is it’s head.

After taking a few pictures I drove over to the lake to see if anything was swimming around. And lo and behold there was a small group of Hooded Mergansers. So for the next half and hour I took some pictures of the Mergansers till it got too dark.

Some of the girlfriends.

It’s small breaks like this after a day at work that pays off in the long run. Getting outdoors and breathing some fresh air and viewing the wilds things.

Notable birds for the day include:

1. Great Horned Owl
2. Pied-billed Grebe
3. Mallard
4. Hooded merganser
5. Belted Kingfisher
6. Canada Goose

A White-winged Crossbill has been sighted at a residential feeder in Middletown today. No directions were given as to the location of their house, nor are they listed in the directory. I’d keep an eye on the message board for any information that might come out of this unusual sighting.