On Sunday, July 20, I tried to see the Common Ravens reported the
previous weekend at Ferndale State Forest by the Columbus Avids and Bill
Whan.  I was not successful.  Perhaps I arrived too late in the day at
11:00 - 11:30 am, but I tried to compensate by staying rather late until
about 7:00 -7:30 pm.  There was a period of about 1 hour in the early
afternoon that a line of thunderstorms came through with heavy rain.  So
that may have affected birding for a period of time.  I spent most of
the time on the black-topped road in the state forest, scanning the area
from the vistas along that road and listening for the tell-tale croak of
ravens.  The only corvids that I found were Common Crows and Blue Jays.
Upon my arrival I found two distant black corvids feeding in a mown hay
field, viewed from a vista, which raised my pulse rate, but alas they
were only crows.  I saw these birds again in the same field later in the
afternoon.  There were a number of small groups of crows with young of
the year and adults.  I also covered roads 32 and 33 north toward
Steubenville and visited the Jefferson County Airport at least twice.  I
found a large group (8+) late in the evening along the state forest
road, but again they were crows.  Up the hill on road 26, there is an
extensive grassland area recovered from strip mining. I found a flock of
crows there also.  This area had singing Savannah Sparrows, Grasshopper
and Henslow's Sparrows and Bobolinks.  The Bobolinks were gathering in
flocks with Red-winged Blackbirds.  At the small graveyard near the
entry to this area from 26, I also had a Yellow-billed Cuckoo calling.
On my last pass through only part of this grassland area, I started
counting Henslow's Sparrows singing as I drove slowly for about a mile.
I stopped counting at 30!  I also had at least five more Henslow's
Sparrows in another area of this recovered strip mine area.  I believe
that this grassland was the area that Aaron Boone reported on after they
had found the breeding Common Ravens earlier this year.  Other
interesting birds in the vicinity of Ferndale SF were a Hooded Warbler
still singing along the state forest road, and Broad-winged Hawk hunting
in the woods near the roadside off of 26 on the way up the hill from
road 34 to the state forest road.  I will definitely try again for the
Common Ravens in this or nearby areas.  These recovered strip mine
grassland areas are fascinating.

Jay

 

Jay G. Lehman

Cincinnati, OH

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