Hello!
Knowing that my weekends are "booked" starting next weekend through
mid-March, I decided to head up to Killdeer Plains today and brave the elements to
see what was out and about. I started at Washburn Road at ~ 12:30 PM where I
was immediately greeted by a large flock of Lapland Longspurs with a few Snow
Buntings mixed in, and a male Northern Harrier. Pond 27 was frozen over
except for a small area on the westernmost portion of the pond where ~500 Canada
Geese and about 62 swans (Tundras of the ones that had their heads up) were
hunkered down. The upland reservoir was almost frozen over except for a small
area around the island in the far portion of the reservoir. In the small
area of open water, there were ~50 Canada Geese and 7 divers which appeared to
be Ring-Necked Ducks and/or Scaup (difficult to distinguish given the
distance, some shimmer, and blowing snow). I did not find any owls in the ODNR pine
grove nor the Northern Shrike I last saw in December. I sat in my car at the
Sportsman's Center from 5:40-6:15 PM hoping to see Short-Eared Owls but no
luck (they were smart enough NOT to be out). A summary of the birds observed
are as follows:
Rough-Legged Hawk: 1 just west of Sportsman's Center, saw another by ODNR
pine grove (may have been the same one)
Bald Eagle: 1 soaring in distance beyond reservoir
Red-Headed Woodpecker: saw 1 male at Pond 33
Eastern Meadowlark: saw ~40 including a flock of ~30 along CH-77 west of
TH-108
American Kestrel: 1
American Tree Sparrow: ~75 total scattered about
Horned Lark: 14 along Washburn Rd.
Lapland Longspur: ~200-250 total along Washburn in 3 flocks
Snow Bunting: ~10 mixed in with one flock of Longspurs
Northern Harrier: ~12 (2 males, 10 females)
Red-Tailed Hawk: 12
Ring-Necked and/or Scaup: 7
Tundra Swan: ~62 (presuming all swan bodies observed were Tundra)
Crow (8), Flicker (4), Song Sparrow (5), Canada Geese (~500-700), Junco
(10), Cardinal (1), Blue Jay (2), Mallard (~15), Black Duck (1), Robin (4), and
Mourning Dove (3).
Directions to Killdeer can be found at the OOS and the ODNR web sites.
Rob Lowry
Powell, Ohio
______________________________________________________________________
Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society.
Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list.
Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/.
You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at:
http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS
Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]
|