I returned home Wednesday night from ten days of business in California. I
read with great interest about the short-eared owls recently observed on the
property (The Defense Supply Center) just south of the Columbus airport, and
since we landed around dusk I kept my eyes peeled as we taxied in after
landing. I spotted a lone red-shouldered hawk
(flap-flap-flap-glide-flap-flap-flap-flap-glide-etc.) cruising across the
north runway area, but no owls.

At home on Flint Ridge yesterday I was too feeble from a cold and the
effects of the flights' pressure changes to venture out much, but this
morning, with a clearer head and mind, I took a walk with Jane around the
pastures. The woods and ravines are too treacherous at the moment with slick
mud, and both of us with gimpy right knees. Male red-winged blackbirds are
back and singing. I heard but did not see bluebirds twice during our walk. I
didn't try too hard, since (except with lifers) hearing is believing for
this birder. I have been seeing (and hearing) a few bluebirds all Winter,
and robins from time to time as well.

We walked around the "back-forty" successional field, (which reminds me I
have to go out and listen for woodcocks this evening) and then the hawk show
started. First Jane commented about some distant screams, "That sounds like
seagulls." Such remarks remind me that my farmer wife is very observant, but
she is not really a birder. Seagulls? (She undoubtedly holds complementary
but not complimentary opinions of me as I struggle with remembering the
parts of a horse: the stifle, the withers, etc.) Anyway, I thought the calls
sounded more like red-shouldered hawks, and I turned to the north and
trained my binoculars on three soaring birds, two of them jousting in
mid-air, that I took to be a couple males and a female. Yep. Spring is in
the air. A few minutes later I saw something swooping along the treetops. A
red-tailed hawk.

An unexpected hawk trifecta occurred when we were heading home, back at the
top of the hill. I saw another bird soaring and flapping against the breeze
high over the house or nearby. When I looked through the binoculars I was
delighted to see a juvenile northern harrier: orange-ish breast glowing in
the late morning sun, slender, unmistakable white rump as it wheeled around:
a new yard bird, number 129.

Our farm sits on Flint Ridge, literally atop the divide between the
drainages of the Muskingum and Licking Rivers. We have no true wetlands,
just a lot of mud, since it also sits smack dab on the outcrop of the Middle
Kittanning Clay. That's the stoneware clay that provided the raw material
for the once thriving ceramic industry in these parts (Roseville, McCoy,
Weller, Shawnee, etc.) What is means currently, after the thaw, is many
patches of boot-sucking mud. But there are no wetlands or even much wide
open ground for the marsh hawks. A few years ago I saw a harrier cruising
low over some more open farmland a couple miles west of here, at the
Muskingum-Licking County line along Route 40. So, I always maintained that
it was possible I might see one at home. This morning, there it was.

As for turkey vultures, we have been seeing them off and on all Winter. I
think there is enough road-killed deer and such in these parts to sustain
them. I remember I saw one on January 18 or 19, a day or two before I left
on my previous California trip. Also, I saw two the day after Christmas. It
never surprises me any more to see them in Winter here at 40 North...

Bob Evans
Geologist, etc.
Hopewell Township, Muskingum County

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