...did some atlasing down in Scioto County this morning in the far
northern portion of Shawnee State Forest (just south of Lombardsville
and mainly from Forest Roads 1, 19, 4, & 6).  What a gorgeous day!  My
main goal was to track down some of the Blue-headed Vireos that have
recently been reported from this area.  But before I get into
that...many species are now in active OBBA2 safe dates right now.  Any
vocal or visual detections of these species are AUTOMATIC atlas data.
If you have seen or heard any of the following, please let us know if
you aren't already compiling them for the Atlas.  They include:

Ring-necked Pheasant
Ruffed Grouse
Wild Turkey
Northern Bobwhite (as of yesterday)
American Woodcock
Rock Pigeon
Great Horned Owl
Barred Owl
Eastern Screech-Owl
Belted Kingfisher
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
Pileated Woodpecker
Carolina Chickadee
Black-capped Chickadee (as of yesterday)
Tufted Titmouse
Carolina Wren
European Starling
Northern Cardinal
Common Grackle
House Sparrow

Blue-headed Vireos were all over this part of Shawnee.  I did manage
to locate a female carrying some cottony nesting material from the
road and she was joined by a singing male.  These birds were not shy
and I followed them straight to their nest placed "vireo-style" in a
clump of dead oak leaves only about 150 ft. from the road.  During
this Atlas so far, Blue-headed Vireo has been confirmed twice in
Scioto County where it wasn't recorded during the 80s (it was detected
just to the west in Adams County).  Vireos were detected last year in
courtship display in late-March in western Lawrence County.  If you're
birding in southern Ohio, keep your ears and eyes out for this
species!  Late-April and May will be a great time to get nesting
confirmations for Blue-headed Vireo, at least in the southern part of
Ohio.

Good birding!

Aaron Boone
Columbus, Ohio
614-247-6458

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