I got up early this morning 4/5/12 and wrote checks to pay my bills. I 
took them to the main post office before the sun came up and deceided to 
go raptor watching. Way to nice a day to waste.

0745 Rt 104 and Haul Rd in Columbus. There are two nests here. One is an 
eagle nest north of 104 and the other is an osprey nest south of 104. 
There was 1 eagle on the nest and the mate was perched nearby.
There was a osprey on the nest and one had just flown away.

0805 Bixby Rd. Groveport nest had 2 eagles on the nest changing the guard.

0825 Pickerington Ponds Metro Park near Canal Winchester had one osprey on 
the nest and the mate perched nearby.

Headed north and dropped by home to pick up my scope and camera.

0943 Oxbow island Hoover Res. 1 eagle on the nest across the lake.

1015 Hogback Rd north end of Alum Creek Res. The osprey here have me 
somewhat confused. The pair on platform 1 were doing their normal thing 
getting the nest ready for the eggs. Platform 2 had 1 osprey with a nest 
that was less than finished. I never saw another osprey at this nest. 
Platform 4 had 1 osprey on the well put together nest. I was here earlier 
this week and saw the same thing with two birds on platform one and one 
bird each on 2&4. At one point I did see two birds at platform 4 but there 
was no one on two. Either there are three pairs setting up houskeeping (I 
hope) or the two birds on 2&4 are a pair and are having a disagreement on 
where to set up houskeeping. I intend to watch these nests a lot this year 
so I will be able to figure it out sooner or later.

1032 Delaware WA on the east side of Delaware Res. offered up a nice 
suprise in the form of a coyote. He was in great shape with a beautiful 
gray and red coat. The red really stood out in the morning sun. I was so 
surprised I did not think about my camera until he disapeared in the brush.

1049 Rt 229 at the north end of Delaware Res. 2 osprey working on the nest.

1103 Sciota River south of Prospect. 1 eagle on the nest.

1124 Rt. 203 before the turn onto Larue-Prospect Rd had a nice surprise. 2 
juvenile bald eagles were feasting on a road kill racoon. They were very 
close to the road and this time I fired up the camera. 

1135 Big Island WA nest south of Larue-Prospect Rd. 1 eagle on the nest.

1210 to 1225 Killdeer Plains WA. 1 eagle each on the three nests. I also 
got some great shots of a killdeer on her nest. I saw her the last time I 
was there. She froze as I drove near and did not flush. I did not get out 
of the car but took the pictures through the open window then moved on 
before she stressed out.

1300 CR 62 1 eagle on the nest.

1307 CR 62 at CR 129 I observed an adult bald eagle chasing an immature 
bald eagle. This was several miles from the nest I had just left but near 
a river. Could there be another nest nearby?

1315 OH 199 1 eagle on the nest and the mate perched nearby.

1337 TR 49 north of Upper Sandusky. 1 eagle on the nest.

1351 CR 44 1 eagle on the nest.

1410 CR 29 Things get interesting here. There was 1 eagle on the nest and 
the other was flying but then landed nearby. What was strange is there was 
a juvenile bald eagle on the ground near the nest picking for food in a 
large pool of water left over after the last rain. There was also a third 
year juvenile with some white on the head and tail (he looked like he was 
dirty LOL)I did not think the adults would tollerate any other eagles near 
their nest while they were incubating. 
  Last winter at this same nest I observed two adults and six juveile 
eagles there at the same time. Tolerent adults I guess.

1415 OH 53 1 eagle on the nest.

1430 CR 37 Seneca County. 1 eagle on the nest.

1449 Woodside Rd Crawford County. Another interesting sight. 1 eagle on 
the nest and the mate chasing another adult bald eagle away. The intruder 
was last seen flying rapidly south.

1500 OH 19 Seneca County 1 eagle on the nest

1530 Gallion nest. 1 eagle on the nest

1639 Clearfork Lake Morrow County 1 eagle on the nest.

1741 Jeromesville 1 eagle on the nest.

1755 Funk Bottom 1 eagle on the nest

1810 Loudonville east 1 eagle on the nest and one flying.

1843 Loudonville west 1 eagle on the nest and 1 pearched nearby.

1920 Pleasant Hill Lake 1 eagle on the nest.

1953 Knox Lake Rd 1 eagle on the nest

2007 Mt. Vernon OH 13 2 eagles on the nest changing the guard.

IT"S GETTING DARK!

2033 Killduff Rd. Knox County. With the help of the last of the twilight 
and a full moon I did see 1 eagle on the nest. Thank God for a good Kowa 
scope.

I visited a total of 28 active eagle nests and 5 or 6 active Osprey nests.

Totals for the day

19 Adult Bald Eagle
5 Juvenile Bald Eagle (one was a third or fourth year)
10 Osprey
19 Red Tail Hawk
1 Sharp Shined Hawk
1 Rough Legged Hawk
7 American Kestral
1 Coyote
1 Killdeer on her nest and numerouse others flying around

Don Stover
Columbus, Ohio 

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