Today, Friday, December 23, 2011, I had the enjoyment of a second day in the field with Logan Kahle, a teenage birder from San Francisco, California. Last June we did summer birding in central Ohio. Today I took Logan out for a taste of winter birding in Ohio. The day was a success from the first bird (Eastern Screech Owl) to the last bird (Short-eared Owl). We began at the bike path at Alum Creek Park South in Westerville. Two rufous morph and one gray morph Eastern Screech Owls. Stop two was Blendon Woods Metro Park. Barred Owl, Cooper’s Hawk, Pileated Woodpecker and Wild Turkey. Black Ducks are common at Blendon Woods but try to find them in San Francisco. Stop three was Inniswood Metro Gardens. The Ovenbird which was gracious enough to stay around for my Christmas Bird Count last Saturday is still putting on a show. It came up on the deck at the rear of Innis House and posed for Logan as he shot picture after picture. Ovenbird has been one of Logan’ s nemesis species. Who would ever predict it would finally cooperate in late December in central Ohio? Next we checked Hoover Reservoir for activity. The best location at Hoover today was at Oxbow Road. Some of the species we located included Common Loon (7), Pied-billed Grebe (6), Double-crested Cormornant (1), Hooded Merganser (4), Red-breasted Merganser (100+) and Ruddy Duck (100+). After a break for lunch we headed up to Killdeer Plains Wildlife Area in Wyandot County. We skipped the owl groves due to lack of “mudder” footwear, but still managed to get two Short-eared Owls perched in a tree just north of the Sportsman’s Club. Other finds included Trumpeter Swan (3), Gadwall (150+), American Wigeon (100+), American Coot (50+), Bald Eagle (6), Merlin (1), Northern Harrier (1) and Northern Mocking Bird (1). In all we tallied 55 species, not a bad day considering the date and weather. But numbers alone don’t say it all as I once again had the enjoyment of Logan’s company as I hosted him for a day of birding in central Ohio. Our total list follows. Charlie Bombaci SPECIES LIST Common Loon Pied-billed Grebe Double-crested Cormorant Great Blue Heron Canada Goose Mute Swan Trumpeter Swan Gadwall American Wigeon American Black Duck Mallard Hooded Merganser Red-breasted Merganser Ruddy Duck Bald Eagle Northern Harrier Cooper's Hawk Red-tailed Hawk American Kestrel Merlin Wild Turkey American Coot Bonaparte's Gull Ring-billed Gull Rock Pigeon Mourning Dove Eastern Screech-Owl Barred Owl Short-eared Owl Belted Kingfisher Red-bellied Woodpecker Downy Woodpecker Hairy Woodpecker Northern Flicker Pileated Woodpecker Blue Jay American Crow Carolina Chickadee Tufted Titmouse White-breasted Nuthatch Carolina Wren Eastern Bluebird American Robin Northern Mockingbird European Starling Yellow-rumped Warbler American Tree Sparrow Song Sparrow White-throated Sparrow Dark-eyed Junco Northern Cardinal Red-winged Blackbird House Finch American Goldfinch House Sparrow ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]