I looked for birds today in the Hocking Hills area and visited Conkles
Hollow, Old Mans Cave and Cedar Falls.  As soon as I arrived at the Conkles
parking lot I watched three Black Vultures and three Red-Tailed Hawks riding
a tight thermal pretty high into the air.  Two of the vultures were chasing
each other around which was pretty awesome - providing for about 5 minutes
of good views under deep blue winter sky.  Walking back into the gorge -
notables include a small flock of Pine Siskins, two Brown Creepers, one
Yellow-rumped Warbler, a dozen or more Golden-crowned Kinglets and two very
good looking Hairy woodpeckers.  White-breasted Nuthatches were everywhere.
As I came out of the gorge a Red-shouldered Hawk glided over the field by
the parking lot.

Over at Old Man's Cave, I hiked the rim of the gorge towards Rose Lake and
Cedar Falls and found several small flocks of Pine Siskins and at least 6
Red-breasted Nuthatches.  I had a very brief look at a notably larger
looking finchy bird with big whitish wing bars, short tail and heavily
streaked underneath but it flew away before I could study it like I would
have liked to.  Hiking back out of the woods I found a large roost of
vultures that must have just jumped off a cliff nearby because they were low
in the valley and even the Turkey Vultures were working hard to get
elevation.  I counted at least 20 Black Vultures and 50 Turkey Vultures
before the dizziness took over.

On the way home I buzzed by Lake Logan (Hocking County) and found 7 Mute
Swans, 7 Great-blue herons, one Belted Kingfisher, the usual Canada
Geese/Mallard combo, and two Gadwall. Throw in a couple coots and grebes and
it was time to come home.

Glen Crippen
Burr Oak Lake

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