Today the intrepid four, Al La Sala, Darlene Sillick,Louise Sours and I, got loose for a day of birding. For various reasonsincluding my car being attacked by a Honda Civic, left me without a car so as achange Darlene was drafted to be our designated driver. We kicked the day offvisiting Matt in Westerville and enjoying the visiting Rufous/Anna Hummingbird.We’ll make the final call on this when Allen Chartier determines what thecorrect call is. Matt’s dog Bentley took to me as I was wearing my old collegesweatshirt that reads Bentley College. 
We next checked the activity at the Delaware WildlifeArea which proved to be a bust as we saw more hunters than birds. We did have ahot spot, a feeder at a house on Panhandler Road where we observed most of theusual feeder birds along with a Red-breasted Nuthatch. Not to give up thateasily we continued north to the Upper Sandusky Reservoir.  Although numbers were low there was aninteresting variety of waterfowl including Ruddy Ducks, Bufflehead, HoodedMerganser, Gadwall and Pied-billed Grebe. Our next stop was Oak Hill Cemetery to look for crossbills. No luckthere. 
A quick lunch on the run and off to Killdeer Plains. Herethings began to pick up and get interesting. Right off we found some TundraSwans in the fields. We continued to the “traditional” pine grove where Ipulled our first rabbit out of the hat. I got Al and Leslie a lifer when Ilocated a Saw-whet Owl. This is the first one I’ve located at Killdeer Plains inthe last several years and it was very cooperative, sitting close to the trunkof a fir tree watching us watch it. After a short while it decided we weren’tall that interesting and it closed its eyes and went into sleep mode. Later Ifound a Short-eared Owl perch in a tree off T-108, and on the opposite side twoadult Bald Eagles.  Then the SandhillCranes show opened the next act. Our count was 155 Sandhill Cranes. The TundraSwans topped that with our tally at about 400. We did not locate the scoters atthe Upland Reservoir but instead located a couple of Common Loons, Lesser Scaup,Ruddy Ducks and Bonaparte’s Gulls.  Pond27 had 500+ Gadwall and a lesser number of Northern Shovelers to go along withthe Tundra Swans. Cruising the roads we located a multitude of Horned Larks and30-40 Lapland Longspurs, a few Rough-legged Hawks, Killdeer and lots ofAmerican tree Sparrows.
Our overall list for the day:
Common Loon
Pied-billed Grebe
Great Blue Heron
Canada Goose
Tundra Swan
Gadwall
American Black Duck
Mallard
Northern Shoveler
Lesser Scaup
Bufflehead
Hooded Merganser
Ruddy Duck
Bald Eagle
Northern Harrier
Red-tailed Hawk
Rough-leggedHawk
American Kestrel
SandhillCrane
Killdeer
Bonaparte's Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Short-earedOwl
NorthernSaw-whet Owl
Rufus/AnnaHummingbird
Belted Kingfisher
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Blue Jay
American Crow
Horned Lark
Carolina Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
Red-breastedNuthatch
White-breasted Nuthatch
American Robin
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
American Tree Sparrow
Song Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
LaplandLongspur
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
House Finch
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow
 
Charlie Bombaci, for Al, Darlene, Louise and myself

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