Temporary bachelorhood, a day off work and a beautiful
forecast---naturally, I found myself in CVNP.

My favorite sighting of the day was just after sun-up and not of the avian
variety---I finally got to see a Coyote mousing the Chippewa field.  (This
is near the area where last year's Screech Owls were---I did look around
for owls but saw none.)  I always see Coyotes along the freeway or in
developed settings.  Getting to watch this one---a beautiful charcoal gray
specimen, at that---hopping around in a completely natural environment was
a lot of fun, and transported me back to my favorite place, Yellowstone
(where such sightings are an almost hourly occurrence).  Even with 400mm on
a crop body, I wasn't able to get enough reach to see whether or not the
Coyote was successful in its hunt, but it was a fun 20 minutes anyway.

I hit all my favorite spots in the park over the next several hours and
didn't see anything unusual, but much that was beautiful, especially with
the fall colors in full effect.  The Chippewa area is always reliable for
the Red Shouldered Hawks that hunt the fields there.  (I assume there is a
nest in the area.)  The Beaver Marsh gave me some outstanding close looks
at a very busy Belted Kingfisher that seemed so fixated on fishing that it
barely noticed how close it was getting to me---at one point it was perched
two arm-lengths away).  Herons everywhere along the river.  All the usual
suspects in all the usual places.

I wouldn't bother posting about such ordinary sightings, but I think my
fellow Owl-ies will be interested to know that the pine grove on the Tree
Farm Trail at Horseshoe Pond (
http://www.neonaturalist.com/trails/cvnp_tree_farm_trail.html) is still
very very good for Barreds.  (I've made many visits and only once did I not
see or hear them there---with apologies to the friend who was with me that
day!---I hear them there more often than I see them.)  Yesterday around
10:30am, I had one calling from (what seemed like) a couple hundred feet
from where I was standing.  This went on for a minute or so and I remained
still and silent in the pines.  Then, all of a sudden, another one called
back---and this one was a mere 15 feet to my left.  It was so startling and
so very very LOUD that I instinctively turned toward the sound and my
abrupt movement must have scared the owl---I got a very quick glimpse of it
as it lit from a branch about 10 feet from the ground and flew off into
thicker cover.  For the next 15 minutes I enjoyed the owls' intermittent
conversation.  Punctuated, of course, by the chorus of angry jays, crows,
chickadees, etc.  Half an hour later I was taking some pictures of the fall
colors above the pond and I got to hear---all in turn---the sounds of the
owls, a Red Shouldered Hawk way far off, a Red Tailed Hawk screeching high
overhead of me, and (beneath it all) the mobbing songbirds.  All of this
while breathing in crisp autumn air and enjoying the gorgeous light on the
pond (so what if it is manmade?), which I had all to myself.  Doesn't get
much better than that in the buckeye state.

I've posted just a couple pictures on my Flickr site:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/noahcomet/  (The six most recent pics are
CVNP.)

Noah

______________________________________________________________________

Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society.
Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list.
Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/.

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