Eleven of us from the Columbus area set out on an iffy search for common
ravens in Fernwood State Forest. My advice remains not to try to find
this area from the south: approach from the latitude of Steubenville and
work your way south; existing maps are inaccurate elsewhere. Our plan
was to watch for ravens in flight from the several very fine vistas
along the SF road. On our last stop on the way out--around noon--after
seeing little, we lucked into five or perhaps six ravens across the
valley. They were distant, but accommodating enough to perch repeatedly
for scope looks. We drove across the valley and chanced upon the flock
lower down on the slope, standing on or moving across a lawn in a quiet
residential setting 50 yds away. Quite aware of us, they quickly hid,
and a fair amount of searching didn't find them again. But it appears
the group is sticking fairly close to the nesting area. They seem to
approach quiet human habitations, but are very wary up close. Others
might have more luck looking earlier or later in the day. Anyway,
everybody but me got a new bird for their Ohio lists.
        It's a birdy area, where we saw ~60 spp as we walked the road,
including black-billed cuckoos in two places. We'll send in anything
that might add to Scott's excellent OBBA coverage of the area. A stop on
the way back at Harrison Co airport produced a couple of upland
sandpipers, and other grassland birds like meadowlarks, bobolinks,
grasshopper sparrows, etc. The SPs will not be along much longer, but if
you go, do stop at the manager's office at the hangar and obey all their
instructions; according to them some birders have been doing some
dangerous stuff like driving on the runways, parking in the taxi lanes,
etc. We found the SPs at the north end by walking uphill NW toward the
fence along private property.
        We saw a lot of unexpectedly productive areas in this seldom-visited
area. We are thinking about a day-long visit to Egypt Valley another
time. A nighthawk is calling over the back yard now, a good end to a
good day.
Bill Whan
Columbus

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