Anybody who thinks birding is for wimps wasn't with the intrepid group who
attended the Dawes Arboretum "wetlands" tour today.  Birds sighted between
blizzard white-outs, including a quick stop at the visitors' center to thaw
out:



Canada goose

Wood duck

Green-winged teal

Mallard

Blue-winged teal

Northern shoveler

Bufflehead (single female)

Hooded merganser

Common merganser

Turkey vulture

Killdeer

Wilson's snipe

Mourning dove (at feeders)

Red-bellied woodpecker (at feeders)

Downy woodpecker (at feeders)

Northern rough-winged swallow (2, over wetlands)

Brown thrasher (at feeders)

Carolina chickadee (at feeders)

Tufted titmouse (at feeders)

White-breasted nuthatch (at feeders)

Blue jay (at feeders)

American crow

House finch (at feeders)

American goldfinch (at feeders)

Eastern towhee (at feeders)

Chipping sparrow (at feeders)

Song sparrow (both at wetlands and at feeders)

White-throated sparrow (at feeders)

Dark-eyed junco (at feeders)

Northern cardinal (at feeders)

Red-winged blackbirds (wetlands)

Common grackles - everywhere!





I learned a little of the history of the wetlands.  One point of interest to
me is that all highway construction in Ohio is required to "mitigate" for
any wetlands habitat that is destroyed.  (I wasn't aware of this.)  In
Licking Co., there were several small patches of wetlands in the path of the
Route 161/37 construction.  Part of the Dawes wetland is the ODOT mitigation
for those lost wetlands.  In my personal opinion, the waterfowl really got
the best of this deal.  The Dawes wetland is much more amenable to waterfowl
than any of the small areas I have seen along the old Route 161 corridor.
And it was a win-win situation.  Dawes had the land, but not the funding to
create the wetlands.  ODOT would have been required to obtain land, had not
the Dawes land been available for creation of wetlands.



Cold day, but good companionship and good birding warm the heart!  Thanks to
Lori and the Arboretum staff for making this event possible.



Margaret Bowman


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