I started my quest for the Century List, 100 birds in Ohio for January, on 01/01/08 with 56 birds.  I started at home, then went to Camp Dennison and then to East Fork State Park and vicinity and ended the day at Armeleder Park until dusk.  As in the past three years, I focus my early January efforts in southern Ohio to find some of the half-hardy birds before the weather gets really cold and open water freezes or the wild food supply is depleted by mid-month.  The birds are given in the text below in the order recorded for the day.

 

At home I started the day with a pair of Great Horned Owls calling back and just as the sky started to get light.  I'll check the Atlas blocks and reports as this may be a new record.  A little later, I added House Finch, American Robin, American Crow, Northern Cardinal, Mourning Dove, Red-bellied Woodpecker, House Sparrow, and European Starling.  At Camp Dennison gravel pits, I added Carolina Chickadee, Canada Geese (50), Ruddy Duck (15), about 200 American Coot, Carolina Wren, 3 Hooded Merganser, about 10 each of Canvasback and Redhead, 4 Pied-billed Grebe, Ring-necked Duck, Downy Woodpecker, 3 Eastern Towhee, 2 Cedar Waxwing, Hermit Thrush, 4 Northern Mockingbird, White-breasted Nuthatch, Tufted titmouse, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Gadwall, Mallard, Bufflehead, White-throated Sparrow, Ring-billed Gull (23), Song Sparrow, American Widgeon (20), American Goldfinch, Red-tailed Hawk, 3 Northern Shoveler, and 2 Common Golden-eye.  Northern Shoveler is often hard for me to get at Camp Dennison, so that was a good find.  However, I usually do not miss scaup at Camp Dennison.  Common Golden-eye is a good find.  

 

In Milford on the way to East Fork State Park, I added Rock Pigeon.  At East Fork SP I started at the visitor center near the saddle dam, checked out the lake from the saddle dam and then visited the nearby boat ramp.  At the visitor center I added Dark-eyed Junco and Hairy Woodpecker, and a Killdeer on the exposed beach at edge of the lake at the far end of the saddle dam.  At the boat ramp I added Bonaparte's Gulls (5).  There were also more Common Golden-eye (9) there and 5 Ring-billed Gull.

 

At the spillway, I added Blue Jay, Great Blue Heron, Northern Flicker (3), Pileated Woodpecker, Brown Creeper, and Winter Wren.  As I walked down the steps to the walkway along the water, a Winter Wren started making its sharp kip-kip notes on the wooded hillside across the river.  When I started spishing, it flew across the river and landed on the rocks. I got good looks at the bird as it hunted for food down in the rocks and occasionally popped up for a view.  I have had Winter Wren here in previous years behaving just like this year's observation.  Before I left the spillway area, I added Turkey Vulture and Eastern Bluebird (5).  The spillway area still has a lot of Japanese honeysuckle bushes with fruit, so there were more American Robins (30) and 2 Cedar Waxwing as well as Downy Woodpecker (2), Yellow-rumped Warbler (20 American Goldfinch (6) and tufted Titmouse (4).

 

At the South Beach, I had two immature Bald Eagles soaring at about 1:30 pm as well as additional Turkey Vultures (2) and Ring-billed Gulls (40). 

 

At the prairie, I added Cooper's Hawk, Field Sparrow (20), American Tree Sparrow (25) and a Golden-crowned Kinglet.  At the south east boat ramp east of south beach I added Belted Kingfisher.

 

On the way back into Batavia, I had 2 Black Vultures.  Then I headed east on Rt. 32 to the first rest area, to look for Red-headed Woodpecker.  On the way, a Sharp-shinned Hawk darted across the road between two woodlots.  I found the Red-headed Woodpecker in its usual spot, on top of a dead stub with two holes in a tree inside the sharp left-hand turn of the blacktop path almost in the southwest corner of the rest area.  Heading back toward Cincinnati, I found 3 Cackling Geese in a pond on the south side of Rt. 32 about ¼ to ½ mile east of Eastwood Road.  Just east of the Half Acre Road exit on Rt. 32, a large flock of blackbirds was swirling across and parallel to Rt. 32.  I was able to see Common Grackles and Red-winged Blackbirds in this flock.

 

At Armeleder Park, I arrived in time to see a Northern Harrier and heard about 10 Swamp Sparrows chipping.

Jay

 

Jay G. Lehman 

Cincinnati, OH

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