Notes From The Field

Shawnee Lookout Forest and the Oxbow

There were frost warnings out for the Tri-state area as I made my way over to pick up Jon for some very early migrant birding. Both Shawnee Lookout and the Oxbow can be particularly good, so with the rising sun low on the horizon we set off in a westerly direction.

Shawnee Lookout was practically empty as we set off on a couple of trails, always listening and watching. As we walked we chatted about which early migrant might make an appearance today. One at the top of the list was the Hermit Thrush. The reclusive skulker of the undergrowth is usually heard before it’s seen.

So it came as no surprise that one of the birds we stumbled across, right next to the trail was a Hermit Thrush eating a worm.

If you look real close you can see the worm on the ground.

Yellow-rumped warblers were the dominate, and only warbler species seen at Shawnee Lookout. In a couple of weeks this place will be crawling with migrating warblers, but this day wasn’t meant to be. However the male Butter-butts were all dressed in their best breeding plumage, and really it’s only a matter of time before more show up.

So as we were leaving Shawnee Lookout a question arises. We all know what happens when the chicken crosses the road, but what about the Wild Turkey?

After a short stop at Lost Bridge to count the Pectoral Sandpipers and a couple American Pipits, we arrived at the Oxbow. And quite honestly I don’t know what impressed us the most, the sheer number of Double-creasted Cormorants (we estimated about 250) or the Bald Eagles, ( which we counted 18 of them).

This immature Bald Eagle landed real close to Jon and me with a fish, and proceeded to eat it. I tried to sneak up it and get a better photo, but he didn’t that too much and promptly left.

Nothing quite as pretty as a Bald Eagle against a blue sky.

At one time as we approached a line of trees that separates two fields we counted 12 individual Bald Eagles. It was quite a sight, but considering the distance a photo wouldn’t have done justice. However the bird of the day was yet to come.

As we continued driving along the dirt road that cuts through the Oxbow we notice small brown birds foraging along the edge. And one had white edges on the tail. I quickly pull over as we get our bins on the bird. Vesper Sparrow. Very good bird, especially for this part of Ohio.

Now you might be saying to yourself that this is a pretty common bird where I live, but in southern Ohio we have maybe a 2 week window where Vesper Sparrows can be seen before they move North. And this one cooperated.

That’s the thing with Jon and me, we love Sparrows, and for us this was a great bird.

We made one more stop in Lawrenceburg Indiana where we walked a bike trail hoping to pick up the same birds we saw there during the Christmas Bird Count.

It was a good day. Notable birds for the day include:

1. Black Vulture
2. Turkey Vulture
3. Bald Eagle
4. Red-tailed Hawk
5. American Kestrel
6. Wood Duck
7. Mallard
8. Northern Shoveler
9. Blue-winged Teal
10. American Coot
11. Pied-billed Grebe
12. Hooded Merganser
13. Great Blue Heron
14. Great Egret
15. Double-creasted Cormorant
16. Wild Turkey
17. Mourning Dove
18. Pileated Woodpecker
19. Red-bellied Woodpecker
20. Hairy Woodpecker
21. Downy Woodpecker
22. Northern Flicker
23. Blue Jay
24. Eastern Phoebe
25. American Crow
26. Tufted Titmouse
27. Northern Cardinal
28. Carolina Chickadee
29. Carolina Wren
30. Yellow-rumped Warbler
31. Yellow-throated Warbler
32. Ruby-crowned Kinglet
33. Golden-crowned Kinglet
34. White-breasted Nuthatch
35. Hermit Thrush
36. American Robin
37. Brown-headed Cowbird
38. European Starling
39. Common Grackle
40. Red-winged Blackbird
41. Eastern Towhee
42. White-crowned Sparrow
43. White-throated Sparrow
44. Song Sparrow
45. Vesper Sparow
46. Field Sparrow
47. Chipping Sparrow
48. House Finch
49. American Goldfinch
50. Canada Goose
51. American Pipit
52. Pectoral Sandpiper
53. Killdeer
54. Ring-billed Gull
55. Bonaparte’s Gull
56. Northern Rough-winged Swallow
57. Tree Swallow

Rare Bird Alert

Brian Wulker reported a lone Buff-breasted Sandpiper at the rear pond prior to Lost Bridge. Wilderness Road in Stark has been host to loads of these birds the past several days and it seems it’s our turn for a few of these beautiful birds here in the southwest corner of the state.

Notes From The Field

I’ve neglected my blog lately…and I’m blaming work. Have you ever had one of those weeks where you come home after a super busy day at work and feel like just vegging out for the evening and go to bed early. That was me this week. And despite having a wonderful day birding with Jon last Saturday, I just couldn’t find the energy to sit down and write a blog post. Sorry everyone.

Like I said last Saturday Jon and myself hit the woods hard looking for migrants at some of our local hot spots. Shawnee Lookout Park, Lost Bridge, The Oxbow, Smith Tract, and Armleder Park.  It was a beautiful day and the birds on a whole were plentiful in some areas, however in others it wasn’t. Trying to find where the wading birds are can be a challenge, and last Saturday was no different as we tried several spots where we’ve seen them before, only to strike out every time.

Warblers were plentiful and as always another challenge for myself trying to get any kind of serviceable photograph. Our day list was pretty good, so instead of boring you with week old birding news I’ll just skip to the list of birds intermixed with some photos. You see I need to keep this blog post short because I still have to get ready for when I go to my favorite birding hotspot tomorrow, Boone County Cliffs.

Notable birds for the day include:

1. Bald Eagle
2. Ring-billed Gull
3. Double-creasted Cormorant
4. Bonaparte’s Gull
5. Cooper’s Hawk
6. Red-shouldered Hawk
7. Red-tailed Hawk
8. American Kestrel
9. Killdeer
10. Blue-winged Teal
11. Mallard
12. Northern Mockingbird
13. American Robin
14. Gray Catbird
15. Mourning Dove
16. Canada Geese
17. Tree Swallow
18. Chimney Swift
19. Barn Swallow
20. Northern Rough-winged Swallow
21. Northern Cardinal
22. Ruby-throated Hummingbird
23. Tufted Titmouose
24. Carolina Chickadee
25. Carolina Wren
26. House Wren
27. Wild Turkey
28. Wood Thrush
29. Northern Parula
30. Eastern Towhee
31. Eastern Goldfinch
32. Red-bellied Woodpecker
33. Pileated Woodpecker
34. Hairy Woodpecker
35. Northern Flicker
36. Prothonotary Warbler
37. Green Heron
38. Great Blue Heron
39. Song Sparrow
40. White-throated Sparrow
41. Wood Duck
42. Yellow-throated Warbler
43. Chipping Sparrow
44. Yellow-rumped Warbler
45. Eastern Phoebe
46. Blue-winged Warbler
47. White-eyed Vireo
48. Warbling Vireo
49. Red-eyed Vireo
50. Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
51. Brown-headed Cowbird
52. European Starling
53. Red-winged Blackbird
54. American Crow
55. Yellow-throated Vireo
56. Rose-breasted Grosbeak
57. White-breasted Nuthatch
58. Black-throated Green Warbler
59. Field Sparrow
60. Orchard Oriole
61. Baltimore Oriole
62. Common Yellowthroat
63. Indigo Bunting
64. Ruby-crowned Kinglet
65. Turkey Vulture
66. Black Vulture
67. Common Grackle
68. Cerulean Warbler
69. Blue Jay
70. Louisiana Waterthrush
71. Prairie Warbler
72. American Redstart
73. Osprey
74. Hermit Thrush
75. Northern Shoveler
76. American Coot
77. Eastern Meadowlark
78. Wilson’s Snipe
79. Yellow Warbler
80. Eastern Kingbird

July 100 Species Challenge/ The End

Tomorrow is the 31st of July and unless there is some divine intervention, my final count will stand at 106 bird species. And what’s kind of frustrating is first my late start for this whole July challenge, and secondly is that are so many birds that I could have sighted that I didn’t.

Let’s take this last Sunday. Despite the forecast of rain on and off for the whole day I still felt the need to drive to some of my favorite hot spots so I could tick off a few more birds. So it was back out onto the highway to the west side of town., particularly Lost Bridge, and Shawnee Lookout Park. Lost Bridge for early migrating shore birds and Cliff Swallows, and Shawnee Lookout for a few more warbler species that summer over in this park. Such as Cerulean, Kentucky, Redstart, Prairie, Blue-winged, and Ovenbird.

Other than picking up Cliff Swallow at Lost Bridge it was a total bust, especially with the rain picking up. You see I neglected to grab my rain jacket when I left so I really didn’t want to be soaked this early in the day with Shawnee Lookout still ahead.

Shawnee wasn’t much better. There were plenty of birds, just not some of the ones I was really depending on. I was wanting to get an early start to the day when my chances were a bit better, but hitting it in the afternoon they weren’t singing as much as I would have liked.

One of the few cooperative birds was this male Eastern Towhee

Female American Redstart

So now after completing 2 different month long challenges so far this year I have to admit that this one was the easiest. The opportunities to pick up so many more bird species may seem smaller than in the spring, however I really could have added 10 to 12 more with an earlier start in the month. January is by far the most difficult after you count up all the duck species that is found around here. After that you don’t have to many birds that you can count on being there. Plus the weather can keep the most intrepid birder at home. I’ll never forget my trip to Dayton to tick off the Glaucous Gull when the wind chill was well below zero. The wind chill in July is measured by the AC hitting you in the face when you walk into the neighborhood mini-mart for something to cold drink.

Bird watching challenges like this keep the hobby fun and exciting. Instead of just going out into the field, you have to re-focus on what species you’re searching for and the habitat where you’ll find them. It sharpens your skill even if you’ve seen the bird hundreds of times before. And with January just 6 short months away it helps you prepare for the cold weather challenge.

So the end is now and with the addition of:

• Cliff Swallow
• Kentucky Warbler
• American Redstart

my total is 106. So remember to challenge yourself every now and then. It does make you feel better about yourself no matter what you attempt.

 

 

Notes From The Field

Aurora Indiana, Oxbow, Lost Bridge

Following up on my own “Rare Bird Alert” concerning the Swallow-tailed Kite that has been seen almost every day since it was first reported was my objective today. From all reports the bird will perch and preen in the morning, and then take to the wing and go about  hunting for food. However time was of the essence as my youngest son turns 21 today and my daughter is in town for the weekend. So I picked up Jon at 6:30 am for the long drive. Which didn’t turn out a bad as I had originally thought. After you get to Lawrenceburg Indiana it’s just a few more miles on the other side. And since it seems like I live in this part of Ohio/Indiana for most of my birding days it was actually a nice drive.

From all the reports we’ve heard about the bird is that the morning is best to catch it while it perches in this dead tree, or catch it as it flies around this quiet, hilltop neighborhood. Some of the views of the surrounding countryside with it’s close proximity to the river and the valley below explains why the kite would love it here. Plenty of food and thermals to ride as they flowed up the sides of the surrounding hills that border the river.

Being a residential neighborhood we had to drive real slow along all the various roads that crisscrossed the area of a few hundred homes. We were both scanning the sky, but paying more attention to the trees for the sign of a semi-large bird. We passed the large dead tree that I thought was the one it’s been seen before perched, but no bird. We soldered on. The road forked and dead ended. Another road came in from a different direction that we took, that eventually brought us back to our original location. As we passed the dead tree again, but now from the opposite direction, I saw it.

Slowing the car down to a dead stop, Jon and myself craned our necks with our bins to our eyes to confirm the bird. We were real close to the bird. The tree was no more than 20 feet for the side of the road and we didn’t want to spook the bird as we got out of the car. So I inched forward so Jon could get out slowly, and I turned the car around and drove it down the road to pull off the side, so not spook the bird as I opened the hatch to retrieve my scope and camera.

The other 2 occasi0ons I’ve seen these birds they were in flight and it can be rather difficult to digiscope a bird in flight. So to catch one perched is a real treat. Enjoy!

As the sun was rising this was the best side to capture the bird with the sun in the best position. However as you can see this branch was covering part of it’s head. I couldn’t move to another location since it was on someones property and also we would have to get closer, which would have made the bird spook. So I stayed put and tried for some better shots as the Kite moved.

In this picture you can see how it’s been preening it’s breast feathers. He’s all fluffed up like a down pillow.

You have to admit that it is one beautiful bird. The kind of bird you’d want to come back reincarnated as.

As you can imagine I took quite a few pictures. And as much as I would like to bring them to you I feel these are the best. As the time wore on Jon and myself decided to leave. And since we were going to drive past the Oxbow, why not drive through for a quick look.

The Oxbow was full of the regular birds, and Oxbow Lake’s mudflat at the far end proved rather difficult to bush whack through the weeds and poison ivy to get to.

We faired better at Lost Bridge as small flocks of “Peeps” kept us busy for an hour or so. If I didn’t have other things to do today we would have stayed longer as hopes of more shorebirds coming in to feed was a good possibility. We left around lunch time.

Notable birds for the day include:

1. Orchard Oriole
2. Indigo Bunting
3. Song Sparrow
4. Turkey Vulture
5. Double-creasted Cormorant
6. Great Egret
7. Great Blue Heron
8. Wood Duck
9. Green Heron
10. Semipalmated sandpiper
11. Least Sandpiper
12. Spotted Sandpipper
13. Lesser Yellowleg
14. Pectoral Sandpiper
15. Osprey
16. Red-tailed hawk
17. Belted Kingfisher
18. Northern Flicker
19. Red-bellied Woodpecker
20. Northern Cardinal
21. SWALLOW-TAILED KITE
22. Horned Larks
23. Cliff Swallow
24. American Crow

 

Notes From The Field

Brookville Lake, Lost Bridge, Fernald Preserve, Smith Tract Park, & Liberty Indiana

For some reason I’m not finding the time to keep the old blog updated, and for that I apologize. Life outside of birding has been a little hectic for myself and my family so please be patient with me as I’ll try to do a better job.

This last Saturday found my good friend Gene and myself on the road for a full morning and afternoon of some long distance birding. Still wanting to hit the jackpot with shorebirds has been kind of dismal down in this part of Ohio, so we were hoping for a turn of the coin in terms of find some good shorebirds. My plan for the morning was to hit the mud flats at Brookville Lake, however Gene had been at Lost bridge the evening before  and reported some good shorebirds, including a pair of Baird’s Sandpipers.

Anyway you slice it, it’s a 45 minute drive at the least to Lost Bridge from my house, and with the lighter than average traffic it still took 45 minutes. It was still early when we arrived and upon checking out the large dirt field next to Lost Bridge for shorebirds, we were disappointed with the lack of standing water and total lack of birds. And the same could be said about Lost Bridge. Even though there was plenty of exposed sand and mug under, and extending up river and down from the bridge, there was hardly any birds.

Knowing we had a long drive to Brookville Lake we decided to leave and get a head start to the lake. The far northern end of the lake is the best spot for any shorebirds. The water is very shallow, and in years past it has been a hotspot for some great birds, except today.

While driving down to the lake we would stop and do some roadside birding and had some good luck doing that. That’s until we made our way to the lake. The water level was still too high for the smaller wading birds, so we were left with the usual Great Egrets, and Great Blue Herons.

However upon doing some scanning of the Ring-billed Gulls that were congregating I noticed a Caspian Tern had joined the gulls. A nice bird for the day count.

We searched for many a minute for anything that would excite us, but to no avail. We needed a spark to the day so we made our way to Liberty Indiana to see if we could re-locate the Eurasian-collared Doves that have been known to hang out at these grain silos in the middle of town. ECDO are becoming more and more prevalent in this part of the country, even though eBird still considers them a rarity in Ohio, but in Indiana just over the border they aren’t. Anyway it was Gene who noticed 2 doves perched on a wire next to the grain silos. getting my bins on them I noticed the squared off tail and white undertail coverts, plumber in size in relation to the Mourning Dove sitting next to it. Even though I couldn’t see the black collar, the other field marks was dead on.

After having success with finding the ECDO, we started to make our slow drive back. With frequent stops at Fernald Preserve, Smith Tract Park we had a pretty good day count for the middle of August. Some of the sparrow species that were present just weeks earlier are now gone like Henslow’s and Grasshopper Sparrows, or they’re just not showing themselves. We did have a great look at both male and female Blue Grosbeaks, which I’ve seen almost every time I’ve been out this Summer.

Saturday was a great example of being able to spot quality birds in good numbers. Granted our objective was to find shorebirds, and we did find a few, however we made the best of the situation and came away with a nice number  of birds during these dog days of Summer. They’re out there, you just have to be both diligent and patient, and you’ll see them.

Notable birds for the day include:

1. Bald Eagle
2. American Kestrel
3. Black Vulture
4. Turkey Vulture
5. Red-shouldered Hawk
6. Red-tailed Hawk
7. Osprey
8. Great Blue Heron
9. Great Egret
10. Green Heron
11. Spotted Sandpiper
12. Pectoral Sandpiper
13. Lesser Yellowleg
14. Double-crested Cormorant
15. Mute Swan
16. Eastern Bluebird
17. Eastern Kingbird
18. Northern Mockingbird
19. Tree Swallow
20. Chimney Swift
21. Cliff Swallow
22. Barn Swallow
23. Northern Rough-winged Swallow
24. Purple Martin
25. Northern Flicker
26. Blue Jay
27. House Wren
28. Carolina Wren
29. Carolina Chickadee
30. Indigo Bunting
31. Blue Grosbeak
32. White-eyed Vireo
33. Eastern Towhee
34. Canada Goose
35. Mallard
36. Wood Duck
37. Belted Kingfisher
38. Song Sparrow
39. Field Sparrow
40. Chipping Sparrow
41. House Sparrow
42. Common Yellowthroat
43. Downy Woodpecker
44. Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
45. Eastern Phoebe
46. Northern cardinal
47. American Robin
48. American Crow
49. Mourning Dove
50. Eurasian-collared Dove
51. Caspian Tern
52. Ring-billed Gull
53. Common Grackle
54. Red-winged Black Bird
55. Pigeon
56. American Goldfinch
57. Scarlet tanager
58. Gray Catbird
59. European Starling
60. Killdeer