Howdy All,
This is a continuing tale of a January century lister.  I started Saturday
just about sunrise heading to Crooked Run Park in Clermont County along
Route 52.  Along Route 52 on the way, I found a Bald Eagle soaring over
the Ohio hills along the Ohio River for my first new year and January bird
for the day.  Along the entry road to Crooked Run Park in the developed
wetland, I found the GREEN HERON, first reported on December 17, 2006.  I
watched this Green Heron snag an almost comatose bullfrog and swallow it.
I wonder if that bullfrog "woke up" in the warmth of the Green Heron
gullet as it was being swallowed.  That Green Heron certainly had a
"satisfied look" after swallowing that frog, but surely the frog did not
as it was sliding down the heron's throat!  :>)  :>)  In the marsh, there
was also my first Swamp Sparrow for the year.  I also had 6 Mallards and 5
Song Sparrows in the marsh as well as a Pileated Woodpecker, Yellow-rumped
Warbler and Black Vulture in the area, but none of these were new for the
year.  I then worked my way north and east to the vicinity of the
intersection of Spencer Road and SR 180, which is north and east of
Chillicothe and wesst of Hallsville, where 2 Ross's and 4 blue phase Snow
Geese were seen recently as well as on the Kingston Christmas BC.  In SW
Ohio from Crooked Run Park to Chillicothe I had six American Kestrels.  On
the way to Chillicothe along Rt 35, I had my first Northern Harrier for
the year, a beautiful "gray ghost" male that flew across the road.  I
arrived at the pond on Spencer Road north of SR180 to find it empty except
for a few Mallards, so I scouted the area south along Spencer Road and
south of SR 180.  The geese were previously seen flying into the pond from
the south.  Spencer Road south of SR180 comes to a "T" intersection at
Marietta Road.  South of Marietta Road and east to Walnut Creek Road as
well as further west of Spencer Road are very large farm fields and at
least two farms that have very long entry lanes and are quite distant from
Marietta Road.  In the very back of these fields and very far away I found
a feeding flock of mostly Canada Geese with four recognizable blue phase
Snow Geese and two much smaller white geese.  I stayed in the area for
about 40 minutes but only a few Canada Geese flew back to the pond along
Spencer Road north of SR 180.  Considering the time of day, about 12:30
pm, I decided to go to Columbus to Greenlawn Cemetery to try for the
Merlin(s) and then return for a closer look at the two small white geese
in mid-afternoon.  I headed across country by way of rural roads for
better birding to get to Rt 23 to Columbus.  On the way to Greenlawn
Cemetery, a Copper's Hawk flew across the road.  I arrived at Greenlawn
for my very first visit there, and found the male Merlin perched in a
deciduous tree along the last right turn just before the central
mausoleum.  This male bird was beautifully gray on the back and very
heavily streaked as is typical for the prairie race.  I was at Greenlawn
for about 2 minutes before I found him--just lucky!  I returned to the
pond on Spencer Road to find that the flock of Canada Geese, the four blue
phase Snow Geese and the two much smaller white geese had returned.  The
Canada's and Snow Geese were feeding but the two small white geese were
snoozing.  After a short wait, the two small white geese started feeding.
One was clearly a Ross's Goose, with a very small conical gray bill, with
a very straight back edge and no grin mark, with a small rounded head
relatively thick and short neck neck and noticeably smaller than the Snow
Geese, which appeared to be Lesser Snow Geese.  The second small white
goose was similar to the first in size and shape relative to the Snow
Geese, and with a small conical shaped bill with a straight back edge, and
signficantly smaller than the Snow Geese.  However, this second bird had a
very noticeable grin mark, which was quite broad but not as broad as the
grin mark for the Snow Geese, and its head was larger than that of the
definite Ross's Goose, but still quite rounded relative to the head shape
of the Snow Geese. The neck of the second was also thicker than that of
the definite Ross's Goose.  I think that the noticeable grin mark and
larger size of the second bird indicates some hybridization with Snow
Goose.  Some Ross's Geese show some "grin mark", but the grin mark of the
second bird was too wide to allow for a Ross's ID, in my opinion.  I tried
to get some digiscoped documentation photos, but there was not enough
light.  One interesting but not necessarily definitive observation is that
the second goose was "chewing on" some very dark colored vegetation that
looked like a stick.  It is possible that this vegetation deposited some
dark material on the edges of the upper and lower mandible to give the
appearance of a grin mark.  I left the area at about 3:30 pm and headed
north to Columbus and parts north.  In the vicinity of the Spencer Road
area and north to Columbus, I had 12 American Kestrels.  Just at dusk,
along Route 71 north and south of the Bellville exit, a Great Horned Owl
sailed across the highway and up over the trees on the right side of I71.
I started the day at 57 species for January and 2007 and ended the day
with 66 species.  I continued north to stay in the Cleveland area for an
early start on Sunday morning along Lake Erie.
Jay

Jay G. Lehman
Cincinnati, OH
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