MARCH 03, 2017 - CUYAHOGA VALLEY MONTHLY TOWPATH TRAIL CENSUS. ROUTE: Red Lock Trailhead south to Merriman Valley. TIME: 6:55am - 3:55pm TEMP.: 26 ~ 31 COND.: Chilly and sunny early, but a coldfront moved in from the NW at 7:45am turning very gray, clouding out sun; light snow starting at 8:30am changing to steady snow; total white-out conditions from 9:10am to 10:10am with zero visibilty; cloudy turning partly cloudy from 11:15am to 11:40am, turning cloudy again from 11:40am until 12:00pm; then light snow with low visibility from 12:00pm to 1:35pm; snow ending and cloudy from 1:35pm to 2:25pm; clearing out to a clouds/sun mix with blue skies until end of census. TRAIL COND.: Covered with 3 to 4 inches of snow at start; river erosion-control construction still ongoing along trail near north end of Stanford Swamp; snow depth diminishing as we headed south; many sticks & branches littering the trail from 60mph winds earlier in the week; two large trees across trail just north of Peninsula need cleared; no snow on trail from just south of Hunt Farm Visitor Center until end; last section from Botzum to Merriman Valley very muddy with some standing water. RIVER COND.: Higher than normal from rain earlier in the week. FT.MI.: 13.51 OBS.: John Henry & Douglas W. Vogus. I. MAMMALS: 7 SPECIES, 28 TOTAL MAMMALS. 1. Eastern Chipmunk - 1 2. Eastern Fox Squirrel - 2 3. Red Squirrel - 11 4. Common Muskrat - 1 5. Coyote - 1 (below Ohio Turnpike at Stumpy Basin) 6. Common Raccoon - 1 7. White-tailed Deer - 11 (doe) II. BIRDS: 46 SPECIES, 906 TOTAL BIRDS. (NOTE: ? = bird was seen but not sexed; * = bird was heard calling but not sexed) 1. Canada Goose - 102 2. Wood Duck - 7 (5m,2f) 3. American Black Duck - 16 (8m,8f) 4. Mallard - 16 (10m,6f) 5. Northern Pintail - 1 (m - at Ira Beaver Marsh) 6. Redhead - 5 (4m,1f - at Dover Pond) 7. Ring-necked Duck - 5 (4m,1f - at Ira Beaver Marsh) 8. Rock Pigeon - 3 9. Mourning Dove - 3 10. Killdeer - 1 11. Ring-billed Gull - 13 12. Great Blue Heron - 1 13. Cooper's Hawk - 1 (f) 14. Red-shouldered Hawk - 1 15. Red-tailed Hawk - 1 16. Eastern Screech-Owl - 1 (gray morph) 17. Belted Kingfisher - 8 (3m,4?,1*) 18. Red-bellied Woodpecker - 7 (5m,1f,1*) 19. Downy Woodpecker - 13 (4m,3f,2?,4*) 20. Hairy Woodpecker - 9 (2m,1f,6*) 21. Pileated Woodpecker - 3 (*) 22. Peregrine Falcon - 2 (1m "Trailblazer",1f "Gatewood") 23. Blue Jay - 19 24. American Crow - 68 25. Black-capped Chickadee - 22 26. Tufted Titmouse - 13 27. White-breasted Nuthatch - 20 (6m,1f,2?,11*) 28. Winter Wren - 2 (Tied Census High from 6 other occasions) 29. Carolina Wren - 9 30. Eastern Bluebird - 18 (9m,5,4?) 31. Hermit Thrush - 1 (First March Record on Census - Tied Census High from 04/2014 & 10/2015) 32. American Robin - 59 33. European Starling - 166 34. Cedar Waxwing - 39 35. House Sparrow - 14 36. House Finch - 4 (3?,1*) 37. American Goldfinch - 3 38. American Tree Sparrow - 26 39. Fox Sparrow - 1 (First March Record on Census) 40. Song Sparrow - 43 41. White-throated Sparrow - 20 42. Dark-eyed Junco - 3 (2m,1f) 43. Northern Cardinal - 42 (29m,10f,3*) 44. Red-winged Blackbird - 57 (51m,6?) 45. Rusty Blackbird - 2 (m) 46. Common Grackle - 24 Unidentified Duck - 2 Unidentified Passerines - 10 Douglas W. Vogus - Akron, Ohio. ______________________________________________________________________ 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]