Spent the morning in Muskingum County working two OBBA blocks that encompass the Powlson WA.  Great habitat; I'll go back after my OBBA work, for sure.  I had 59 species, including some surprises.

Seen were:
great blue heron
Canada goose - with goslings
turkey vulture
red-tailed hawk
wild turkey
ruffed grouse - hard to spot, but I suspect fairly common
killdeer
rock pigeon
mourning dove
yellow-billed cuckoo - two observed, too early to count
chimney swift
red-bellied woodpecker
downy woodpecker
northern flicker
pileated woodpecker - gave a great show!
eastern wood-pewee
Acadian flycatcher
willow flycatcher
eastern phoebe
northern rough-winged swallow
bank swallow - 5 by Muskingum River, dark breastband obvious
barn swallow
house wren
(possibly a marsh wren, but I'm not certain enough to count it.  Heard it once; never saw it.  Didn't even know there were cattails until I got out of the car to investigate.  It wouldn't pish up and I don't have a tape to draw it out.  Intriguing!)
gray catbird
northern mockingbird
brown thrasher
eastern bluebird
wood thrush
American robin
blue-gray gnatcatcher
Carolina chickadee
tufted titmouse
blue jay - with fledged young!
American crow - with fledged young
European starling
house sparrow
white-eyed vireo
American goldfinch
yellow warbler - many
prairie warbler - one
cerulean warbler - at least 5 singing males observed
American redstart
ovenbird
Kentucky warbler - this area must suit these -  6 observed
common yellowthroat
hooded warbler
scarlet tanager - many males singing on territory
eastern towhee
chipping sparrow
field sparrow
song sparrow
northern cardinal
rose-breasted grosbeak
indigo bunting
red-winged blackbird
eastern meadowlark
common grackle
brown-headed cowbird
Baltimore oriole

My father (age 91) told me an interesting story about Powlson (which he pronounces Paulsen).  During the Depression, each fall he and my grandfather hitched two teams and wagons, and went to Powlson  Coal Company, near Zanesville, to get coal.  It was fairly low-grade and cheap, each wagon-load costing a dollar.  This was enough coal to get the family through the winter.  (My father went owling with me in March one night, and one of the places we hit was Powlson WA.)  

The WA is fairly small, compared to others in the area such as Tri-Valley or Woodbury, but the trees seem more mature.  Does anyone know when it became a wildlife area, or anything about its history?  It has some wet areas, a couple of small cattail marshes, and lots of large oaks and maples, as well as tulip poplar and sycamore.  Unlike the others, I didn't see any grasslands.  What grass there was being cut today for hay - no grassland birds at all.

Margaret Bowman
Region 60 Coordinator,
OBBA II

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