With a limited number of free days left this month, I headed south today to look for some passerines which I hoped would be active in the warm weather that was forecast.  Starting the day with 73 species for the year, I had a list of 10 species that I thought would be slam dunks. I only found a few of them, but ended up with 14 new species for the year. 

The first stop was Stage's Pond in Pickaway County. The first new bird of the day was a surprise Rusty Blackbird. I also added White-crowned Sparrow and Eastern Towhee onto my year list there. I have seen Field, Swamp, and Fox Sparrows in the winter there in past years, but I didn't find any of those today.The ponds were unfrozen and there is no hunting there, but waterfowl was limited to only Mallard and Canada Geese. The wooded area was active with passerines and woodpeckers, but again, nothing new.

I then made my way to Tar Hollow SF, entering from the N near Adelphi. The first bird I saw in the forest was a Hermit Thrush flying across the road. I would see several more there today and later at Scioto Trail. I stopped and had a look at that spot. Dozens of passerines (mainly C. Chickadees, W-b Nuthatches, T.Titmice, and G-c Kinglets, Downies) were freaking out over an E. Screech-Owl. The ridges were pretty quiet, so I spent about an hour or two in the valleys hoping to find some Winter Wrens along the creeks, which I never did find. I did add Pileated Woodpecker and Yellow-rumped Warbler for the year at Tar Hollow, which were somewhat expected.

I worked my west out of the forest through the farm fields between it and Rt. 23. I finally came across that mother of all Common Grackle flocks that Bill Whan wrote about. It was an amazing spectacle and completely mesmerizing. It was centered around Marietta and Dry Run Roads (just south of Rt. 180) DeLorme p.78 A2. I'm glad that Bill came up with a number, because I wouldn't know where to start. It seemed like I was just there for a few minutes, but almost an hour had passed before I left the area. Again, it was mesmerizing. Blackbirds were everywhere. I got my binoculars and/or scope on as many as I could to look for other species, but they were almost all grackles. There were some E.Starlings, maybe 5 or 10% at most, with some B-h Cowbirds, but I didn't see a single Red-winged in the time I spent looking through the birds. I also looked for Brewer's and Rusties, but no for them also. 

Onward to Scioto Trail SF. I spent most of my time there walking the trail along the Stony Creek. I thought for sure I'd find some Winter Wrens there, but nope. I still haven't seen an E. Bluebird for the year yet either, which I also expected at Scioto Trail. I did pick up two more new species there, a Barred Owl which I flushed along the creek and a Sharp-shinned Hawk. 

Heading back north along Rt. 23 I saw some big white birds in the quarry pond by the bridge just south of Chillicothe. This is NOT a good place to stop, but I luckily didn't see anyone behind me. I pulled over long enough to ID the Snow Geese in there. There were hundreds of ducks in there, but I couldn't pull out my scope on that bridge along a busy stretch of Rt. 23. The back end of that pond is railroad tracks and there's unfortunately no good vantage point that I know of. That pond frequently has a lot of waterfowl that I wish I could scan through. 

It was already after 4:00 by that time. I wanted to get over to Deer Creek to look for the Long-tailed Duck that was reported yesterday, but there wasn't any time left during these short days. I drove around the Pickaway Co. Airport/Charlie's Pond loop. It was generally pretty quiet, but I did pick up two more species for the year : Eastern Meadowlark, and Swamp Sparrow bringing my yearlist to 87.  There were 5 NHarriers flying around the area. I didn't see any Short-eared Owls, but I didn't stay until dark, so there might be some there too. Also in the area were quite a few pheasants. I didn't count them for my yearlist them because they looked like recent releases trotting around like barnyard chickens. That's not a state wildlife area, and I don't know who would release them there, but they didn't look totally wild.

Bob Royse


Robert Royse
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www.roysephotos.com

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