Started the day off at 8:00 with the weekly Wed. morning birdwalks
at Kenyon College's Brown Family Environmental Center, that straddles
the Kokosing River and GAP bike trail. Had a good sized group show up
today, well 9 people anyway, other than me. The Fox Sparrows were on my
mind, and that is what we found!!!! Also had first of the year for the
property, TREE SWALLOWS and singing FIELD SPARROWS. The Foxes were seen
along the upper field and there were probably about 10 up there, they
were singing away as well, a real treat. There were at least 3 E.
TOWHEES as well. A final migrant, the E. PHOEBE was singing away also.
List:
Wood Duck - 2 drake seen along the river on the way driving to the
center
Canada Geese
E. Bluebirds
Am. Robin
Am. Goldfinch - singing away
R. Bellied Woodpecker - a pair looking friendly
N. Flicker - another pair
and the other usuals
E. Phoebe
Fox Sparrow - 8-10
White-throated Sparrow - 6+
Field Sparrow - 2
American Tree Sparrow - 5
Song Sparrow - 10
E. Towhee - 3
Junco - 15
Tree Swallow - 6
E. Meadowlark - seen on the nearby road
Red-wing B.b. - plenty
Grackle, Common
Next I hit the Delaware Wildlife Area with some friends along
Leonardsburg Road, near where there are several Blue-bird nest box
grids, Kestrel nest boxes, and a Bald Eagle's nest. There were a few
migrant waterfowl around but not as much as we'd hoped. We were able to
pish up some Swamp Sparrows who then also began singing away quite
obligingly. Very fun to watch. Also on some of the trails here were
about a dozen more FOX SPARROWS !!!! Their hauntingly beautiful songs
danced across the brushy landscape, it was awesome, such a beautiful
bird, fun to see 4 in one small tree. Also here and singing away
vigorously was a BROWN THRASHER.
List:
Fox Sparrows
Field Sparrows
Swamp Sparrows
W.t. Sparrows
Song Sparrows
E. Towhee - 12!
Junco
Tree Swallow - 100s, this was tree swallow central.
Golden Crowned Kinglet - 6
Brown Thrasher =1
Belted Kingfisher - 1
Bald Eagle - 1 Sitting under nest in the tree, I had heard he wasn't
here yet, but looks like now he is.
Am. Kestrel - 1 male
Great Blue Herons
Blue Winged Teal - 10
G.W. Teal - 10
Ring-necked Duck - 15
Ruddy Duck - 5
Am. Wigeon - 4
Am. Black Duck - 8
Mallards
Wood Duck - 10
Hooded Merganser - 2 female
Pied-billed Grebe - 2
Am Coot.
Killdeer
Ring-billed Gulls
T.V.
we also saw a mink cross the road, and Am. Toads and Leopard frogs
were calling, plus a couple Chorus Frogs.
I then hit Alum Res. at the north end and saw 2 pairs of Osprey back at
the Nesting Platforms, it doesn't look like they have settled on which
platforms the prefer, saw both pairs with fish they'd caught and one
pair was at #1, the other at #2. Monday I saw a pair at #4 platform.
One Osprey had a Transmitter antenna sticking out from its back (at
#1). There were also a pair of Hooded Mergs. here. We cruized the rest
of the resevoir but only had Bonaparte's Gulls and a couple of Horned
Grebes to add to the list.
Finally we did Hoover Resevoir and found a pair of Osprey at the
Nest platform near the boardwalk, with quite a nice nest built up. Also
here were Golden Crowned Kinglets, which I've been seeing every day
lately even yesterday when I was on OSU's crowded campus streets.
Double Crested Cormorants are all over around here, and far out on the
water from the board walk we could just make out a large raft of ducks,
at 60x or so they looked to be mostly Scaup (probly lesser) and a few
Redhead. A drive of the rest of the resevoir yielded only mallards,
Coot, and Ruddy Ducks.
It was a fun day of birding overall, especially seeing so many of
one of my fav's - the Fox Sparrows.
- Ben Warner
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