This morning I visited Blendon Woods Metro Park (NE Franklin County). I covered the Sugarbush Trail which is 2 miles in length. A word of caution - the trail is currently very muddy in many locations and your footwear should take this into account. I finished my morning walking back to the nature center via the road that goes to the reservable picnic areas.

A highlights of the morning was a Merlin working the field by the Goldenrod Trail. Initially when I spotted it I expected it to be an American Kestrel. But its behavior, soaring low and rapidly over the field rather than hovering and diving caused me to look more closely. Then it obliged me by landing in a nearby tree where I was able to clearly observed its field marks. The grayish back, tail bands and lack of any rufous coloring on the back identified it as a male Merlin. Not all of them hang around Green Lawn Cemetery.

Later at the loop at the far end of the trail I spotted a hen Wild Turkey at the edge of an opening in the ravine on the north side of the trail. As I watched she was joined by 9 more hens and a tom that began displaying for all he was worth. When the Wild Turkeys first were found at Blendon Woods they were more apprehensive of humans. Now they seem more disinterested in us. I ran into one of the park rangers and we chatted. He commented that they have lost much of their natural fear of humans. He has driven the Ranger Truck right up to them. Now they are attacking the shiny hubcaps on the new park vehicles parked in the maintenance area.

There was a Barred Owl perched in the vines off the road between the Dogwood Reservable Picnic Area and the Nature Center parking lot. It briefly opened one eye, decided I wasn’t of interest and closed its eye and went back to napping.
　

Along with the pound of mud attached to my boots I saw the following species of interest at Blendon:
Sharp-shinned Hawk (2 - nesters?)
Cooper’s Hawk (1)
Merlin (1)
Wild Turkey (11)
Barred Owl (1)
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (4)
Eastern Phoebe (4)
Brown Creeper (2)
Yellow-rumped Warbler (10)
Eastern Towhee (6)
Field Sparrow (3)
Savannah Sparrow (1)
Swamp Sparrow (1)
White-throated Sparrow (3)
　
Charlie Bombaci
　



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