Hello!

On Friday, I decided to make my way to the Marietta area (Washington Co.) for the first time birding.  I reached out to Jon Benedetti and Terry Bronson for some guidance and they both were a great help.  Jon had obligations, so could not meet me, but he provided detailed directions on how to bird areas along the Ohio River up and down river from Marietta.  Fortunately, Terry was available so we met and he guided me for my morning along the Ohio River.

We started off walking a short trail at Kroger Wetlands and picked up 20 common species in this little gem of a marsh area right along Rt.77 behind the Kroger’s grocery store. We then ventured up to Oak Grove Cemetery and picked up 13 species including a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker and Eastern Towhee.  We made a brief stop at Ohio Riverfront Park to pick up Ring-billed Gulls and saw the resident Canada x Graylag Goose hybrid, an interesting looking specimen.  We made a quick stop at the flooded area of the Marietta Country Club and picked up a few more species, including a rather vocal Red-shouldered Hawk, and a Ring-necked Duck and a Lesser Scaup.

From there, we began heading up river.  We stopped at the former Shelly Gravel Pit on Rt. 7 and picked up Hooded and RB Mergs, as well as a Horned Grebe, Bald Eagles, and American Kestrels.  We then stopped at the Willow Island power plant and scoped the American White Pelican roosted across the river at Pleasents, WV.   We stopped at a small pond by large oil tanks and saw a group of Canvasbacks and Redheads diving.  From there, we hit Newel Run and picked up Am. Black Ducks, Wood Duck, PB Grebes, as well as some land birds including a nice group of White-crowned Sparrows.

We ended our morning at the SR 807 bridge that crosses into WV to look for Peregrine Falcons that had been seen recently.  Terry spied the birds on a power tower just north of the bridge, giving us 45 species for the morning, which I was very happy with for just 4 hours of effort, especially in February.

A big thank you to Terry for taking the time to help me and to Jon for taking the time to give me a roadmap if I was to try it alone.  I hope to return sometime later this spring for migration.

Happy birding! 

Jon Cefus
Stark Co. 
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