I hit the road yesterday (2/22) while the weather was nice.  My destination was Castalia, but found myself in a number of places.
 
-On Rte. 13, just north of downtown Mansfield, was a large flooded agricultural field.  This field seems to hold a lot of promise for waterfowl, and maybe shorebirds later, but was only partially thawed.  While I was there. hundreds of Mallards and Canada Geese were standing on the ice and more Mallards kept streaming in.  Among the Mallards was a single male Northern Pintail.  Likewise, there were several hundred gulls in a back field.  You can access the field from two locations.  The first is a little road that runs down along side the field and takes you back to a ball diamond.  The address for this little road is Ashland Railway, Mansfield Yard Office, 803 N. Main St. 44900.  You can also get a great overlook of the field, especially for scope views, from the rear parking lot of the Volunteers of America building (921 N. Main St.), which is just the next major driveway north on Rte. 13.  (https://goo.gl/maps/3PJ1l)
 
-At the Castalia Pond was a good diversity of dabblers and divers, but maybe only about 200 ducks total.  Species included: Canada Geese, Mallards, Redheads, Canvasbacks, Greater & Lesser Scaup, Ring-necks, Bufflehead (4), Common Goldeneyes.  Of course there were also domestic ducks and geese there as well.
 
-There were 9 Sandhill Cranes at the Erie/Huron County Line along Rte 250 just south of Milan.  They were flying low over the road, and looked like they were getting ready to land in a farm field there. (https://goo.gl/maps/1nDFd).
 
-At the Wayne Co. Airport there was one Snowy Owl, observable with a scope, sitting on a pile of snow at the end of a runway not far from the main airport headquarters building.  To see the snow pile drive through to the end of the main parking lot, and pull into the small drive in front of the last out building.  Set up your scope and look slightly northwest (https://goo.gl/maps/nGnoj).
 
Thanks,
 
Casey Tucker
http://tuckercasey.wix.com/aacri-birds
 
 
 
 
 
                                          
______________________________________________________________________

Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society.
Please consider joining our Society, at www.ohiobirds.org/site/membership.php.
Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list.


You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at:
listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS
Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]