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November 2007

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From:
rob thorn <[log in to unmask]>
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rob thorn <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Mon, 12 Nov 2007 04:43:09 -0500
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Not a place that gets much attention after summer, so I figured that it deserves a late Fall report.  I was with a group of Scouts backpacking on the Loop Trail in Shawnee State Forest over the weekend.  Although I didn't have lots of time to bird, I was able to keep an ear & eye open during the hikes and at our campsites.  The results can be neatly summarized in a few categories:

1. The place is woodpecker heaven.  The combination of big variety of trees with large numbers of ice-storm-killed snags is woodpecker Nirvana.  We had all the common species without any effort.  Red-headed woodpeckers were the revelation, being very common in many places, taking advantage of a bumper year for acorns.  (In fact, almost anything that likes tree cavities - including Screech Owls and flying squirrels - we heard or saw.)

2, The tree foliage is still intact here.  The dry summer & fall have delayed much of the leaf fall here, so we were treated to some spectacular fall colors.  Most of the trees still had leaves on them, and the color palette was broad and intense.  Down here, November is the new October.

3. No lurking Neotropical migrants.  Despite the nice foliage, there don't appear to be hordes of delayed migrants lurking in these ravines along the Ohio River.  The temperatures were quite cold at night, and insect activity was nil.  If you harbored any dreams about late strays hiding in nice microhabitats here (as I did), the cold reality is that there isn't much food for them.  You stand a better chance of finding them in yards in Cincinnati or Columbus.

4. Plenty of winter wanderers.  Aside from the above-mentioned Red-headed Woodpeckers, we also stumbled across many flocks of Blue Jays (including one of 20 birds), so they seem to be accumulating around the good acorn crop.  There were also several flocks of 5-6 Eastern Towhees, mostly down in the creek bottoms, along with small flocks of White-throated sparrows and the occasional Swamp Sparrow.  I heard Red-br. Nuthatch and a few flyover Pine Siskins, but didn't hear any grosbeaks.  At night in one campsite, I even heard a Saw-whet Owl, the only time I've heard them in Ohio.  So the bird activity was fairly good.  A more bird-centered trip could probably find a lot of neat stuff here.

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