APRIL 06, 2024 - CUYAHOGA VALLEY MONTHLY TOWPATH TRAIL CENSUS. ROUTE: Red Lock Trailhead south to Merriman Valley with a stop at the Peninsula Coffee House. TIME: 7:00am - 4:50pm TIME AFIELD: 9:50 TEMP.: 35F ~ 52F ~ 51F COND.: Cool and cloudy early; clouds moving out at 10:15am and turning mostly sunny; partly cloudy after 12:30pm until end of census; breezy with variable winds all day. TRAIL COND.: Sloppy; saturated and muddy in low spots from recent rains. RIVER COND.: High, swift, and muddy from recent rains - no rockbars or sandbars showing. FT. MI.: 14.0 OBS.: John Henry and Douglas W. Vogus. I. MAMMALS: 6 SPECIES, 33 TOTAL. 1. Eastern Chipmunk - 4 2. Woodchuck - 1 3. Eastern Gray Squirrel - 6 (2 black morph) 4. Eastern Fox Squirrel - 5 5. Red Squirrel - 14 6. Common Muskrat - 3 II. BIRDS: 61 SPECIES, 761 TOTAL. (NOTE: m = male; f = female; ? = bird was seen but not sexed; * = bird was heard calling but not sexed) 1. Canada Goose - 52 (6 nests) 2. Trumpeter Swan - 2 (at Ira Beaver Marsh - Third April Record on Census) 3. Wood Duck - 12 (8m,4f) (one male Wood Duck was cozied up with a female Mallard) 4. American Black Duck - 2 (1m,1f) 5. Mallard - 16 (9m,6f,1*) 6. Common Merganser - 8 (3m,5f) 7. Pied-billed Grebe - 1 (calling at Ira Beaver Marsh) 8. Rock Pigeon - 7 9. Mourning Dove - 21 10. Killdeer - 3 11. Wilson's Snipe - 1 (performing its courtship flight over Stanford Swamp near Lock 33 - Second Record on Census & First April Record on Census) 12. Ring-billed Gull - 2 13. Common Loon - 2 (both solo fly-overs of adult birds heading north over Stanford Swamp - Fifth Record on Census & Second April Record on Census) 14. Double-crested Cormorant - 9 (Third April Record on Census) 15. Great Blue Heron - 16 16. Turkey Vulture - 16 17. Cooper's Hawk - 1 (immature m) 18. Bald Eagle - 5 (3 adult,2 immature) 19. Red-shouldered Hawk - 1 (carrying an unidentified snake) 20. Red-tailed Hawk - 13 (1 immature) 21. Barred Owl - 1 (along Akron sewer line near Akron Compost Facility - Third Record on Census & First April Record on Census) 22. Belted Kingfisher - 6 (2m,3f,1?) 23. Red-bellied Woodpecker - 16 (3m,3f,1?,9*) 24. Downy Woodpecker - 11 (3m,3f,1?,3*) 25. Hairy Woodpecker - 6 (1m,2f,3*) 26. Northern Flicker - 13 (2m,1f,1?,9*) 27. Pileated Woodpecker - 3 (*) 28. Merlin - 1 (f) (First April Record on Census) 29. Peregrine Falcon - 1 (m) 30. Eastern Phoebe - 7 31. Blue Jay - 13 32. American Crow - 25 33. Fish Crow - 2 (pair at Szalay's corn field - Fourth Record on Census & Second April Record on Census) 34. Black-capped Chickadee - 7 35. Tufted Titmouse - 18 36. Tree Swallow - 37 37. Northern Rough-winged Swallow - 2 38. Golden-crowned Kinglet - 7 (2m,4f,1*) 39. White-breasted Nuthatch - 13 (3m,4f,2?,4*) 40. Brown Creeper - 3 41. Carolina Wren - 22 42. Winter Wren - 1 43. European Starling - 52 44. Eastern Bluebird - 4 (2m,2f) 45. American Robin - 24 46. House Sparrow - 9 47. House Finch - 6 (3m,2f,1?) 48. American Goldfinch - 14 (4m,3f,7?) 49. Field Sparrow - 1 50. Fox Sparrow - 2 51. Dark-eyed Junco - 7 (6m,1f) 52. White-throated Sparrow - 17 53. Song Sparrow - 40 54. Swamp Sparrow - 8 55. Eastern Towhee - 5 (2m,3?) 56. Red-winged Blackbird - 39 (37m,2f) 57. Brown-headed Cowbird - 4 (m) 58. Rusty Blackbird - 7 (5m,2f) 59. Common Grackle - 45 60. Louisiana Waterthrush - 1 (first footbridge south of Peninsula - Third April Record on Census - all at this location) 61. Northern Cardinal - 45 (31m,10f,4*) ??. Unidentified Blackbird Species - 23 ??. Unidentified Passerines - 3 III. REPTILES: 5 SPECIES, 1 UNKNOWN, 200 TOTAL. 1. Common Snapping Turtle - 3 2. Red-eared Turtle - 6 3. Midland Painted Turtle - 188 4. Northern Water Snake - 1 (Third April Record on Census) 5. Eastern Garter Snake - 1 (Fourth April Record on Census) ?. Unidentified Snake - 1 (in the talons of a Red-shouldered Hawk) IV. AMPHIBIANS: 4 SPECIES, 9 TOTAL. 1. Northern Spring Peeper - 6 (heard) 2. Western Chorus Frog - 1 (heard) 3. Bullfrog - 1 (Fourth April Record on Census) 4. Green Frog - 1 (Fifth April Record on Census) V. FISHES: 1 SPECIES, 34 TOTAL. 1. Central Mudminnow - 34 (all in Lock 28 - a.k.a. "Deep Lock" - Fifth April Record on Census) VI. BUTTERFLIES: 1 SPECIES, 1 TOTAL. 1. Eastern Comma - 1 (Third April Record on Census) Compiler: 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]