What wonderful weather for my spring break.

Sunday, I birded the Dawes Arboretum area:



Canada goose - XX

Wood duck - X

Gadwall - 1 m

Green-winged teal - XX

Mallard - XXX

American black duck - X

Blue-winged teal - 6

Northern shoveler - XX

Ring-necked duck - XX

Lesser scaup - X

Bufflehead - pr.

Hooded merganser - X

Black vulture - 1

Turkey vulture - XX

American kestrel - 1

Belted kingfisher - 2 (1 taking goldfish from the Japanese garden pond)

Red-bellied woodpecker

Downy woodpecker

Northern flicker

Pileated woodpecker

Eastern phoebe

Tree swallow

Golden-crowned kinglet

Eastern bluebird

Carolina chickadee

Tufted titmouse

White-breasted nuthatch

Blue jay

American crow

Yellow-rumped warbler

Eastern towhee

American tree sparrow - 2

Field sparrow - many singing - 2 seen

Swamp sparrow - many singing - 1 seen

Northern cardinal

Red-winged blackbird - XX

Eastern meadowlark - 1 singing

Brown-headed cowbird



This morning I took a friend on her first birding trip, to Black Hand Gorge.
It was a most enjoyable day, especially in view of my companion's enthusiasm
and the cooperation of several first-of-year birds (noted with asterisks).



Great blue heron

Canada goose

Mallard

Turkey vulture

Mourning dove

Belted kingfisher

Downy woodpecker hairy woodpecker

Eastern phoebe

Golden-crowned kinglet - XX (the trees were dripping with them!)

Ruby-crowned kinglet* - 1

Winter wren* - 1

American robin

Carolina chickadee

White-breasted nuthatch

Brown creeper

Blue jay

American crow

Louisiana waterthrush* - 2

Eastern towhee - many singing

Chipping sparrow* - many singing, 1 seen

Song sparrow - many singing

Dark-eyed junco - many

White-throated sparrow - heard only - what a lovely, haunting song!

Northern cardinal

Brown-headed cowbird



I don't always see hairy woodpeckers at BHG, but today there was a very
cooperative pair, who posed quite near a pair of downies, for comparison.
My friend declared the male hairy woodpecker as her very favorite bird of
the day.  She thinks the downy was "behind the door" when bills were passed
out!  I also took her to see the eagle's nest with my spotting scope, and
she was duly impressed, but what impressed her more was the heron rookery.
She also liked the golden-crowned kinglets, and got pretty good at spotting
them.  She was also the first to spot the Louisiana waterthrushes and the
brown creeper.  She's a musician, and was telling me what note each bird was
singing - "That's an A; that's an F", etc.



Margaret Bowman

Licking Co., OH


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