On Tuesday, Denise Miller and I went over to the Ottawa National Wildlife
Refuge for an hour or so.

We saw some real exciting birds and both the Orchard Oriole and Dickcissel
were new birds for her.



1. Common Moorhen - we saw a female with 6 newly hatched chicks. Denise took
lots of photos of them.

     They were so cute, all fuzzy black with red bills, red tops of their
heads and wing area. We watched them

     for a long time. The little ones could fit into the palm of your hand!
When the adult mom went about 20

     feet away to feed, the young chicks would float real still together.
When the mom would come back and

     feed her young they would race over to her. So cute!!! They were at the
beginning of the road to the old

     visitor center on the right hand-side out to the edge of the cattails.
The viewing was fantastic!!!



2. Dickcissel - we heard three males calling and found two of them in our
scope. The yellow upper throats

      were brilliant along with the chestnut-colored wing patch. Their bills
are very thick!! One was calling

      from a small oak tree, another from a tall plant stem, and one from
the field edging of shrubs. The

      location is the field just west of the new parking lot near their new
green visitor center.



3. Orchard Oriole - While scanning the field for the calling Dickcissel, we
found at least two adult

      male Orchard Orioles feeding on the Canada thistle plants way back
near the end of the field. The

      scope showed their deep brick red and jet black patterns nicely.



4. Field Sparrows - Sitting in the semi-newly planted Oak Trees in the same
field. Nice pink bills!



Happy birding everyone,



Chris Knoll,

Education Director

Black Swamp Bird Observatory





Christopher J. Knoll

Education Director

Black Swamp Bird Observatory

13551 West State Route 2

Oak Harbor, Ohio 43449

Phone: 419-898-4070

Fax: 419-898-1363




Visit us at:

www.bsbobird.org

www.ohioyoungbirders.org



We are the proud sponsor of the Ohio Young Birders Club.






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