I headed over to the east side of Columbus today to look for some waterfowl to add to my Jan. list.

Seen from the lookout areas in the new northern section of Pickerington Ponds there were good numbers of N. Shovelers and Gadwalls, and a few Am. Wigeons and N.Pintails in addition to the more regular stuff for the date.

Hoover wasn't especially productive. The best place to look into the reservoir was at the end of Oxbow Road. Seen from there were 28 Snow Geese (24 white, 4 blue), 2 Red-br Mergansers, a Mute Swan, and many Hooded Mergansers. In the more sheltered areas there were some N. Shovelers. Pied-blled Grebes were widely scattered throughout the reservoir, but I can't seem to get a Horned anywhere yet for 2007. The shovelers, Snow Geese and Mute Swans brought my Ohio Jan. list up to 82.

Closer to home, the big quarry pond on Rt, 33 at Grandview Ave. has held a good number of Ring-necked Ducks for a while now. There are also H. Mergansers, Gadwall, and Pied-billed Grebes, etc. there. There were H. Grebes too but they seem to have left at midnight on Jan. 1.

Yesterday I spent a couple hours driving around in Madison County, a county that has a mostly well deserved reputation as being one of the least interesting in the state for birding. I have found some good stuff there early in the spring in flooded fields, but not too much yesterday. The best birds were a flock of ~25 Am. Pipits on Jones Marsh Rd. just east of Madison Lake State Park. I didn't find any longspurs, which was what I was looking for.  During the last week of Dec. I saw a Ruby-cr Kinglet at the state park, but couldn't relocate it yesterday.  On Hume-Lever Rd. there is a good grassy field where I saw 4 N. Harriers. 4 other harriers were seen elsewhere in the area. I didn't hang around for SE Owls, but they're usually there too. Am Kestrels were plentiful, but I couldn't find any Rough-legged Hawks, a species that seems scarce this winter in Ohio except for the Wilds.

Bob Royse

Robert Royse
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www.roysephotos.com

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