OHIO-BIRDS Archives

February 2014

OHIO-BIRDS@LISTSERV.MIAMIOH.EDU

Options: Use Monospaced Font
Show Text Part by Default
Show All Mail Headers

Message: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Topic: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Author: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]

Print Reply
Subject:
From:
Reply To:
Date:
Sat, 8 Feb 2014 11:16:24 -0500
Content-Type:
text/plain
Parts/Attachments:
text/plain (37 lines)
I thought I would do an Update for the Stark County area based upon what I observed over the past week.

The week’s highlight was certainly Kent Miller locating the Yellow-headed Blackbird in a big flock of Red-winged Blackbirds, Brown-headed Cowbirds and Common Grackles.  The flock was working an area of SW Stark along Barrs Rd. between Deerfield Ave. and Alabama Ave.  Ben Morrison and I both were able to locate the bird as well.  I am not sure if anyone else was able to.  As of Wednesday after the snow/ice storm the flock appeared to have moved on to greener, or better said, browner pastures.

Kent also was able to locate an Iceland Gull and a Lesser Black-backed Gull in a gravel pit located just east of Waynesburg along SR 43/SR183.  Also included in that group of gulls was what appeared to be a Glaucous x Herring Gull hybrid (Nelson’s Gull).  A photo of this gull was shared on the Birding Ohio Facebook page and there was some discussion regarding the ID.  I have attached a photo that Kent digiscoped at the bottom of this email if you want to take a look.  I’m sure Kent would appreciate any feedback from those who want to weigh in on this very interesting bird!

At Walborn reservoir, there remained a small open area of water with a little assortment of birds in it.  Canada Geese were typical.  Also there were Tundra Swans, common goldeneye, canvasbacks, northern pintail, and ring-necked ducks.  As of Friday there was still an area of open water (along Reeder Ave).  Also along Reeder was a very nice flock of 300 Snow Buntings, 80 Lapland Longspurs and 10 Horned Lark in field with freshly spread manure spotted by Kent, Ben and myself on Friday morning.  I also heard a male northern cardinal singing a lovely song from a treetop this week…a nice change from the ever-present cheeps we’ve been hearing for months...

Kent, Ben and I attempted to locate Long-eared owls and Northern Saw-whet at several spots in Northern and Northeastern Stark county on Friday morning, but did not have any luck.  We did locate some pellets, which is encouraging.  We are also keeping an eye out for Short-eared owls and, of course, a Stark Snowy.  There was a good report of a Stark snowy a couple weeks ago, with photographs, but we have not been able to locate that bird since the day it was sighted.   There was no shortage of effort to find it…to say the least. 

Sippo Lake Park offers up the usual winter suspects right now, including Golden-crowned Kinglets, Brown Creeper, and the expected kinds of woodpeckers.  I observed a barred owl last weekend near the Sanders Center.  I also observed a Sharp-shinned hawk and a Cooper’s hawk last Sunday.  A red-tailed hawk frequently perches in the swampy area surrounded by the Cottonwood trail.  The lake is frozen over and I have not seen open water there for several weeks.  Bald Eagles were visiting when the water was open, but I have not seen them in weeks.  Hiking the trails was very difficult after the snow/ice storm.

The Jackson Bog was active with Kinglets, woodpeckers and Eastern bluebirds this week.  I attempted to walk along the boardwalk to look for Northern Shrike, but the footing is VERY treacherous there, so I would avoid it.  There were large numbers of mallard and Canada geese in the wetlands to the SW of the park, but I did not see anything else.  There remains to be pockets of open water there, so it could produce a surprise if one takes the time to search carefully.  I scoped from the hilly area to the north of the boardwalk because of the bad conditions on the boardwalk itself.  Even with the trees, you can find spots to get a look at a lot of the water.

There was a purple finch reported at the Huston-Brumbaugh Nature Center on Wednesday, so I met up with Kent there on Thursday morning to see if it returned to the feeders.  We stayed about 3 hours with no luck, but the bird was reported with a group of house finches and American goldfinches, so we think it is possible that it may return there.

That’s the news from Stark County for today.  Happy birding!

Jon Cefus


“Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.” 
-Douglas Adams



______________________________________________________________________

Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society.
Please consider joining our Society, at www.ohiobirds.org/site/membership.php.
Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list.


You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at:
listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS
Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]

ATOM RSS1 RSS2