We hiked around these two scenic west Ohio gorges, mostly for wildflowers but with an ear & eye out for birds.  Both are islands of forest in a sea of agriculture, with Clifton Gorge being far larger than its southerly neighbor (where we hiked Indian Mound County Park).  Neither had much leaf-out in the trees, but a good selection of wildflowers.  Bird highlights included

Broad-winged Hawks - Clifton had 4, with a small flock early, including 1 hunting the forest
Pileated Woodpecker - Clifton had 2-3, while Massie had 1
Flycatchers - only E.Phoebes, with 3 at Clifton, 1 at Massie
Swallows - plenty of Rough-wings at both spots; Massie also had 2 Barn Swallows
Gnatcatchers - good #s, with 8-10 at Clifton, plus 5 at Massie
Kinglets - no big #s, with only a few Ruby-crowns at each spot, plus 1 Golden-cr. at Clifton
Thrushes - only Robins & Bluebirds
Mimids - nothing of note
Warblers - good #s of singing Yellow-throated Warblers and Louisiana Waterthrushes at each spot (3-4 at Clifton, 2 each at Massie).  Massie also had Parula and Black-thr.Green
Sparrows - plenty of the expected Chipping-Field-Song, but also small flock of White-throateds at each
Blackbirds - small #s of grackles to go with fair #s of Redwing Blackbirds & Cowbirds at each spot

______________________________________________________________________

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.miamioh.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS
Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]