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February 2007

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From:
Margaret Bowman <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Margaret Bowman <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Sun, 25 Feb 2007 20:17:16 -0500
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Yesterday I spent some time cruising the roads near the Croton egg farms.
Horned larks were abundant, and I did find one small "flock" of maybe 12
longspurs along Tagg Road.  However, the nemesis snow bunting continues to
elude me.



However, as I drove past some sort of drainage ditch, seven mallards rose up
in a flurry, and that got me to thinking about other small wet areas that
might be open and hold waterfowl.  So, this afternoon, I set out in search
of waterfowl, with the following results:



The quarries to which I have access were all frozen over.



The Evans Park, off Route 13 north of Newark held some Canadas and mallards,
and a few feral barnyard varieties, but nothing else.



The river above the waterworks low dam, along Horns Hill Road, held more
Canadas, mallards, and one very cold-looking great blue heron.  I did stop
at the little church parking lot on Cedar Run Road and study the heronry
which is on the Owens Corning property but viewable from where I stopped.  I
was not able to spot any birds there yet.



I hit paydirt however, at a small wetland between Route 16 and the railroad
track just west of the intersection with Route 668 - Brownsville Road.  Here
I found:



A pair of hooded mergansers

2 pairs of redheads

A male shoveler

A pair of ring-necked ducks

Several Canadas

A belted kingfisher!



I then drove some of the back roads that more or less follow the river,
without much success.  However, in one of the large overhead flights of
Canadas, a single white-phase snow goose stood out.



Later I decided to brave the ice and take my "birding dog" for some exercise
along the Black Hand Gorge bike trail, western end.  It turned out to be
about the unbirdiest I have ever seen along that trail, with two rather
startling exceptions:



At the big bend in the river, which some of us now refer to as the eagle
pool, there was a single male lesser scaup and a single male ruddy duck.



Speaking of eagles, from the trail, I was able to see both the male and the
female near the nest, although neither was actually on the nest.  They were
right beside each other on a sturdy limb, a few feet from the actual nest.



I also spotted my first sharp-shinned hawk of the year near the east
entrance to Black Hand Gorge, as well as an expected brown creeper.



All in all, not a bad weekend of birding, for February, even though I
whiffed on woodpeckers and kinglets.



Margaret Bowman

Licking Co., OH




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