I convinced our visiting sister-in-law that a trip out to the nearby MetroPark would be a good occasion to sharpen her birding skills on some migrants.  We've got her interested in birding, and figured Blendon would be a great hike even if the birds were slow.  We hiked the forest loop (Overlook Trail & Streamside Trail) and migrants were not very conspicuous, until we reached the lower portion of the Streamside trail.  There we ran into a number of birds singing, including one of the few WORM-EATING WARBLERS that I've ever seen in Columbus.  We also had 3 singing Hooded Warblers, most of which are likely residents at Blendon, and a singing Veery, which is also a potential pioneer here.  3-4 singing Redstarts, plus single Bay-breasted, Black-thr.Blue, Magnolia, and Chesnut-sided helped keep things lively, as did singing Scarlet & Summer tanagers and calling Pileated Woodpeckers.  Toss in some Swainsons Thrushes, singing Red-eyed Vireos, calling Wood Pewees and Acadian flycatc
 hers, and mix liberally for the complete effect.   All this was along about 100 m of trail.  Sometimes you don't need the entire trip to be good, just a small part of it to be great.   We talked about this golden stretch all the way back to the car, and I noted that she was writing in her field guide on the drive home.
I think our sister-in-law might be hooked.


Rob Thorn
[log in to unmask]
EarthLink Revolves Around You.

______________________________________________________________________

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]