After lunch today I spent a couple hours at the Hebron Fish Hatchery and picked up three more Licking Co. year birds, making my total 97.  Most of the fish impounds are being filled.  I spoke with one of the men last week, and he told me that the walleye have spawned already.  The hatchery keeps the eggs in jars for about 3 weeks, then they are put in the impound ponds.  This year, the eggs are running about 3 weeks early.

So much for the best shorebird habitat, but I had a couple today anyway.  The yellowlegs were not associating with each other.  The greater left with about 7 killdeer.  Here's the complete list:

Canada goose
wood duck
mallard
blue-winged teal 
common merganser
great blue heron
turkey vulture
killdeer
1 greater yellowlegs (IDed by voice/call)
2 lesser yellowlegs (IDed by voice/call)
mourning dove
belted kingfisher
red-bellied woodpecker
downy woodpecker
northern flicker
eastern phoebe
blue jay
American crow
tree swallow
Carolina chickadee
tufted titmouse
American robin
brown thrasher
European starling
eastern towhee
chipping sparrow
field sparrow
fox sparrow (first I've seen at the hatchery)
song sparrow
swamp sparrow
dark-eyed junco
northern cardinal
red-winged blackbird
common grackle
brown-headed cowbird

Most of the waterfowl have moved on, and in great contrast to recent visits, there was not one gull of any kind in sight.  As recently as two weeks ago, there were over 500 ring-billed & herring gulls.  However, I focused on the impound ponds, and did not spend much time at the wetlands.

Margaret Bowman
Newark, Licking Co., OH

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