Yesterday a group of us had an awesome day of birding at the Wilds in Muskingum County.  For those who are not aware of The Wilds or its purpose, location,and birding opportunities, learn more at www.thewilds.org.

  Anyhow, in the early cold morning of Sunday, December 3 amongst a heavily frosted grassland landscape and calling Meadowlarks -  I located the Northern Shrike off of Prouty Road busily feeding and very active.  We tried to relocate it later in the day and had no luck, but a third and last try before calling it quits for the day revealed the bird once again and everyone in the group was able to observe the bird at this time.

  Other highlights were a Golden Eagle and second year Bald Eagle sharing the same field of view through the spotting scope and often going talon to talon and performing aerial splendor.  Our whole group was on State Route 340 near the large body of water that usually attracts decent numbers of diving ducks when I saw two massive raptors become visible over the Wilds visitors center and I said, "we should be over there."  So we all quickly made our way over to International Road and sure enough it was a Bald Eagle and Golden Eagle soaring together, almost sizing each other up as they would fly very close to each other.  On several different occasions the Bald Eagle would be the aggressor (if my memory serves me correctly) and drop its talons and attempt to dive towards the Golden at which time they would do a couple loops and then continue to soar around.  We observed this behavior for about 5 minutes at close range.  This was a great and unique opportunity to observe the
 differences between these species, often in the same field of view through the scope.

  Observers were Cathy Gielty, Greg & Jill Park, Scott Albaugh, myself, and several others whose names are escaping me right now (sorry!).

  Glen Crippen
  Burr Oak Lake


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