With just 10 days till the end of January crunch time is now upon me. So yesterday I made a full morning of trying to cover as much ground and cover as much different habitat to reel in the remaining birds.
My first stop was Hidden Valley Lake just into Indiana off of Route 50. For the past week or so a Red-necked Grebe has been hangin’ out there, and I was pretty optimistic I could re-locate it. I’ve never been to Hidden Valley Lake before but it wasn’t far from the small RV park lake that had the Surf Scoter earlier in the month. It was your typical lake community with a sizable body of water and homes scattered about. Once again it was another windy day and the lake had a good chop on it as I scanned the lake above the dam from behind a sports bar & grill that’s on the property. I was able to locate the Red-necked Grebe fairly easily, however I really wanted to get a photo of it.
As is typical with most photogenic subjects they tend to move away from you as you yourself move to get closer for a better picture. Since I didn’t have all day to mess with bird I moved onto the Oxbow.
The Oxbow was completely under water, if you entered from the Shell gas Station entrance, however from the casino entrance I had better luck as I was at least able to get onto the property and scope out Jackpot Pond and the surrounding fields. I was able to pick up a couple Rusty Blackbirds and this beautiful Bald Eagle.
Now it was off to Fernald Preserve to pick up the Snow Goose that was reported the day before. No Snow Goose, but I did meet up with Linda and Sue Osterhage who put me onto a good Red-headed Woodpecker location. But before I left Fernald I tried to get a picture of at least one of the dozen Eastern Bluebirds that were feeding real close to us. Which proved difficult. That was until one landed close to the observation platform on the ground.
All in all a pretty good day with 3 more birds for the January list.
- #91-Red-necked Grebe
- #92-Rusty Blackbird
- #93-Red-headed Woodpecker
A Birder's Notebook 