Bruce Simpson and Bill Kinkead joined me to do some birding  in  
south-central Ohio today. We covered areas in Ross and Pickaway Counties  including Scioto 
Trail State Forest, Stages Pond Nature Preserve, Pickaway  Plains and several 
nooks and crannies in between. We specialized in brown-eyed  owls as we 
scored with both a Barn Owl and a Barred Owl. 
 
Scioto Trail State Forest was somewhat quiet as the employees are still  busy 
cleaning  up the debris from the recent wind storms. We did find a few  
decent birds there such as Red-shouldered Hawks, Brown Creepers, Eastern  Towhees, 
Eastern Phoebes and a Pileated Woodpecker that was calling but not  coming out 
to be seen.
 
At Pickaway Plains we observed many Horned Larks, a few Eastern Meadow  
Larks, a pair of Hooded Mergansers, a female Northern Harrier and finally, much  to 
our surprise, a lone Snow Bunting in breeding plumage. 
 
Stage’s Pond State Preserve provided most of the waterfowl we observed and  
also a Ring-necked Pheasant, Rusty Blackbird and Barred Owl.

We had 51 species for the day:
Pied-Billed Grebe
Horned  Grebe
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Turkey  Vulture
Canada Goose
Wood Duck
Mallard
Northern  Shoveler
Ring-necked Duck
Lesser Scaup
Bufflehead
Hooded  Merganser
Northern Harrier
Cooper’s Hawk
Red-shouldered  Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Ring-necked Pheasant
Killdeer
Ring-billed  Gull
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
BARN OWL
Barred Owl
Red-bellied  Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Pileated Woodpecker (heard  calling but not seen)
Eastern Phoebe
Blue Jay 
American Crow
Horned  Lark
Tree Swallow
Carolina Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
White-breasted  Nuthatch
Brown Creeper
Carolina Wren
Eastern Bluebird
American  Robin
European Starling
Eastern Towhee
Song Sparrow
Dark-eyed  Junco
SNOW BUNTING
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird
Eastern  Meadowlark
Common Grackle
House Finch
American Goldfinch
House  Sparrow
 
Charlie Bombaci

**************Feeling the pinch at the grocery store?  Make meals for Under 
$10. (http://food.aol.com/frugal-feasts?ncid=emlcntusfood00000002)

______________________________________________________________________

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]