Hi all,

Spent a chunk of the day up at Big Island Wildlife Area (for info:
http://www.ohiobirds.org/birdingsites/showsite.php?Site_ID=7). Plenty of
waterfowl about; I'll give a roster of those at the end. There were plenty
of other signs of spring migration, with lots of singing Eastern
Meadowlarks, Red-winged Blackbirds teed up everywhere, Killdeer galore, some
flyover American Pipits and Lapland Longspurs, and a few Tree Swallows. A
treat was hearing the sweet lilting whistled songs of American Tree
Sparrows. Several Northern Harriers were still present, as were two
Rough-legged Hawks. It was warm enough that at least four species of frogs
were out, painted turtles were basking, and I saw my first Eastern garter
snakes of the year.

On to the fowl. The following were found at various nooks and crannies, all
within or very near the wildlife area. I walked about two miles around the
dikes, and got a bunch of stuff in the back that wouldn't be readily visible
from the roads. A great spot is the flooded field just north of State Route
95 and just east of State Route 203. Several hundred birds in that former
prairie slough, but a cautionary note: the only good viewing is off 95, and
one must be very cautious about that. There's few wide spots to get safely
off the roadway, and although traffic is not especially heavy, they do zip
through there at a good clip.

Snow Goose - 1 (blue morph)

Canada Goose - hundreds

Trumpeter Swan - 2

Tundra Swan - 8

Wood Duck - 12

Gadwall - 70

American Wigeon - 110

American Black Duck - 55

Mallard - 600 +-

Blue-winged Teal - 4

Northern Shoveler - 130

Northern Pintail - 180 - 200

Green-winged Teal - 250 - 300

Redhead - 20

Ring-necked Duck - 120 - 130

Lesser Scaup - 35

Bufflehead - 2

Hooded Merganser - 40

Ruddy Duck - 2

Whoever does this area for the Breeding Bird Atlas should be on the alert
for our more uncommon nesting species of waterfowl, if they've not already
been documented thus far at Big Island. The wetlands really look great, and
some of these ducks - possibilities including Green-winged Teal, maybe
Gadwall, American Wigeon, American Black Duck, Northern Shoveler, Northern
Pintail, Redhead, Ruddy Duck - should stay and attempt nesting. Should be no
problem confirming nesting Hooded Mergansers in the Wood Duck boxes behind
the three large diked wetlands on the south side of the area.



Jim





Jim McCormac

Columbus, Ohio

Like nature? Visit my blog: http://jimmccormac.blogspot.com/

Like birds? Join the Ohio Ornithological Society: http://www.ohiobirds.org






______________________________________________________________________

Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society.
Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list.
Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/.

You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at:
http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS
Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]