Hello!

Yesterday at about 5 pm I was listening to a Virginia Rail do it’s ‘kiddick’ call from in the reeds at Sippo Lake Park in Stark County when all of a sudden I was treated to the ‘whinny’ call of a Sora.  The birds are in an area of cattails between Exploration Gateway and the Marina.  There is a bridge that spans the wetland and it has a nice large center area to stand and wait.  I returned a bit later to see if I heard the call of any Least Bittern, but did not have any luck.  The rail was continuing to do a mixture of ‘kiddicks’ and Grunt calls.  Interestingly, the 3 times I heard the ‘whinny’ of the Sora, it seemed to be in response to the Rail calling.  

I also had a nice day looking for migrants in the tree tops on the Sanders Rehabilitation Center side of the park with 2 Blue-headed Vireos, Black-throated Green Warbler, Yellow-Rumped Warbler, Yellow Warbler and a lovely Nashville Warbler.  

The lake has been pretty quiet in terms of waterfowl, but Blue-winged Teal, Northern Shovelers, American Coot, Mallards and Canada Geese  remain.  There was a raft of 55 Ruddy Ducks yesterday and good numbers of Tree, Barn, and Northern Rough-winged Swallows working the surface of the water.  

I still have not seen any wading birds in the drying swamp areas along the Cottonwood Trail on the Sanders side of the park.

With the addition of the Sora last night, I have identified 99 species of birds at Sippo since Jan 1.  My goal for 2014 is 125, so I am off to a good start.  

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


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