Hi all,

Yesterday (Sunday) morning, Beth and I decided to take a few hours off and get in some birding in Geauga County

On Hayes Road, things were looking pretty dead, until we saw our first Rough-legged Hawk perched in a tree. With a couple of minutes, as we were setting up the scope, a Red-tailed Hawk started soaring right above the Roughleg. And then a Cooper’s Hawk chased a flock of pigeons across the road, and got distracted by the sparrows and buntings it scared up. The Cooper’s Hawk gave us a terrific show of flight feathers and tail feathers, within a few feet of us. All of this within about 5 minutes.

So Hayes Road:

2-3 dark-phase Rough-legged Hawks (3 sightings—two of them had to be distinct birds because of distance and time—the third sighting was a bit later and halfway between the other two, so who knows?)
1 Red-tailed Hawk
1 Cooper’s Hawk
4 American Crow
half a dozen American Tree Sparrow
dozens of House Sparrows
a big flock of Starlings—XXX
two big flocks of pigeons
2 Mourning Doves
1 Horned Lark (one?—where were the rest?)
a dozen or so Snow Buntings

We then tried Soltis Road—pretty empty:

6 American Robins (In the woods on the north side of the road, in the middle)
a small number of Snow Buntings right near the intersection of Soltis Road with Rte 88

Those who are not familiar with eastern Geauga can easily find these roads on a Geauga map or Google Maps, using the road names.

The few times we’ve been out there in the winter, I have wondered why we don’t see Snowy Owls when they’re being reported in Cuyahoga County. The habitat seems perfect…

Best wishes to all for a new year of good birds,

Steve Cagan
Cleveland Heights
Cuyahoga County




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