A fine bit of prose on this bird sighting! Even lacking a name, surely a tell-tale description gets to the heart of the matter. We can only hope this spring will Usher in new records, and not simply a premature burial of this sort of report.
Andy Sewell
Columbus, Ohio
-----Original Message-----
From: Ohio birds [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Paul Dubuc
Sent: Monday, April 05, 2010 1:22 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [Ohio-birds] Possible Extralimital - Greene Co.
At 11:50 a.m., while watching a pair of Northern Rough-winged Swallows in
courtship flight over the gravel pit along Roxanna-New Burlington Road
(about a quarter mile east of its intersection with Rte. 42), a large black
bird came into my peripheral vision moving south to north between my
position and Rte. 42 -- roughly tracking the course of the Little Miami.
Raising my binoculars, I noticed the bird was carrying a large stick (!).
Wings were long and noticeably tapering. Flight consisted of fairly deep,
but not rowing flaps and the bird occasionally interrupted its generally
straight-line flight and wingbeats to execute two steep, swept-wing climbs
and swoops, all the while continuing north. In all, the bird was in my view
for less than 30 seconds before it was obscured by the treetops (flight was
rather low - 100-200 feet) and I never could discern tail shape, only
length: longer than a crow's.
While I am hesitant to definitively ID this bird on this listserv, or log it
with eBird, I will say that I have considerable experience with a particular
montane corvid from my years in New York's Hudson Valley, and I would not
hesitate to GISS it with confidence had I been in Nyack or Rheinbeck instead
of Bellbrook. So publicly I'll equivocate, lest this post be judged mere
raving, or some craven jest. But the blank space on this birder's Ohio
list, "wedged" between American Crow and Horned Lark, will stare emptily at
him nevermore.
--
Paul Dubuc,
Dayton, OH
at sign beween pauldubuc and gmail dot com
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