Greetings!

Sorry for the late post...

I had to make a research run over to see the folks at ODNR yesterday and when I completed my tasks for the day I tried for a couple of the Columbus area rarities.

I hit Blendon Woods at around 3:45 and the word-on-the-street was that the Dicksissel (#101) was still being seen with some regularity. Ben Warner, Bruce Simpson and others were already waiting for the bird to appear, but it had not been seen since around 12:00. Ben commented that some folks had been saying that the bird seemed to have a habit of making on last appearance just before dusk. Luckily, the bird held true-to-form and Ben was the first to spot it at just around 4:30 p.m. It stayed for about 10-15 minutes and put on a good show. It is a very aggressive bird and once it has a spot on the feeder it is very vocal and bullies anything that gets close to it...no matter how big. It seems to like to stay for an extended period before heading off to another area or taking a break from the feeders.

After Blendon, I made a lightning quick run down to Pinkerington Ponds to try for the Cackling Geese. I arrived at Ellis Pond. Ellis pond is along Wright Road. The SW corner of the pond is just about all that remains open at present. When I arrived at about 5:00 there were very few geese present, but as it got darker and darker, many, many geese began to fly into the area. I watched the flocks fly-over and land until I could no longer see, but did not see any Cackling Geese come into the pond. I may have easily missed them due to the volume of birds and they may have flown in after dark. I would guess that best chances would be had at dawn or dusk. There were also many Mallards and A. Black Ducks in the area, as well as a sigle Red-breasted Merganser and a female Green-winged Teal. Most of the ducks were hidden along the shoreline and flew in various directions at dusk, including the teal which headed to the north. In addition, a Great Blue Heron was
 seen in the drainage ditch that run west out of the pond. This is south of the Bowen Road access and parking lot and begins just west of the mural at the Bowen Road observation area. This was also probably the best spot to watch the geese fly into the pond at dusk.

Good birding,

Jason

Jason S. Larson

Graduate Student

Ohio University

Department of Environmental and Plant Biology

315 Porter Hall

Athens, Oh  45701

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740-593-1126



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