Early morning Merlin

Woke up this morning, looked out the window, and found this Merlin perched in the tree across the street. I am starting to see more and more Merlins around my place every fall/winter. (Lighting was terrible. This was a quick snap, as the bird didn't stay long)

Another so-so birding day in SW Ohio

Seeing all my birder friends' lists from recent trips from all over the place has got me wanting to see birds. Since my current financial situation will not allow me to travel to the places where good birds are, I can only bird locally for now. (My life list has been stuck at just under 300 for some time, partly due a lack of funds and the lack of quality bird habitat in SW Ohio - specifically referring to wetland/shorebird habitat)

I decided to stop by East Fork State Park Nov. 16th. I have had the feeling that I am overdue to get a good bird or rarity for some time now, but today was not the day. A quick scan of the beach and the lake with the scope only produced Ring-billed Gulls and 3 Herring Gulls. That was it. As I was getting ready to take off, a woman and her child walked down to the water's edge and the child threw something into the water. About 3 seconds later, I noticed a bird with white wing patches flying in fast from the right. It landed right in front of me. It was my FOS (first of season) Red-breasted Merganser (female). I don't know where the bird came from, but I can see how I missed it as it was feeding(?):

Feeding or drinking? female Red-breasted Merganser

The bird finally stopped feeding(?) and started preening.

After not seeing anything else, I decided to stop by the dam as I had to go that way anyway. Scanned the lake a second time and only came up with 2 Mallards and 6 Pied-billed Grebes. As I was getting ready to leave, a large bird flew in from over the tree line - an immature Bald Eagle that landed in a tree across the lake. At about the same time, another birder came running up to the car asking if I had seen it. I stopped to talk to him and ended up carrying on a long conversation about eagles, people we both know, and eagles. Always enjoy meeting new birders!! About 5 minutes into our conversation about eagles, another immature Bald Eagle flew in from the same direction and landed in the same tree.

I was able to get a distant shot of the eagles from across the lake. There are 2 eagles in the picture below if you look hard enough. (click on image for larger image)

Avipoxvirus

Today, I decided to take a walk down my road to look for birds (what else?). Really didn't see much bird wise (maybe because the neighbor's dogs were following me barking constantly???).

What I did find was another dead bird laying on the side of the road. This time it was a Common Grackle Quiscalus quiscula that appears to have succumb to complications from the cutaneous form of an Avipoxvirus. What's up with me finding all these dead birds on my walks? :-(



Since avian pox is contagious to other birds, I used a stick to turn the bird over. I don't know if this particular strain can infect psittacines, but didn't want to take any chances. This is also another good reason to disinfect your bird feeders and bird baths as often as possible (luckily, I have never seen this bird at the feeders or birdbath).

A day of woodpeckers

I spotted this Red-headed Woodpecker down the street from the house yesterday. This is only the third time I have ever seen this bird from the yard. The bird was far away and very skittish. It was also raining when I took these bad pictures.



On a sad note, while taking these pictures, I found a dead male Red-bellied Woodpecker laying on the ground under a utility pole. It looked to have been electrocuted.

Queen City Birders Club Birding Blitz Weekend

Last Saturday, I attended the Ohio Young Birders Club/Queen City Birders Club Birding Blitz Weekend/campout held at Hueston Woods State Park. It was nice to see young people out enjoying and learning about nature instead of inside playing video games. I decided against camping, since I am currently tentless -probably glad I did.

After breakfast, I headed on over to the bird banding station run by the Avian Research and Education Institute. It was a little cool early, but they had some good birds. Here are a few of the birds from the morning.

Mourning Warbler (HY female)

Blue-headed Vireo


Philadelphia Vireo

Event attendants got a behind the scenes tour of the education birds at the Hueston Woods Raptor Center by the park naturalist. The kids got to watch as the naturalist fed the Golden and Bald Eagles as well as the resident bobcat and cougar.

Red-shouldered Hawk

Eastern Screech-Owl

Dr. Dave Russell gave a very informative talk on sparrow ID in preparation for Sunday morning's trip to Miami Whitewater Wetlands for sparrow banding. (I did not go to the sparrow banding, too much traveling for this eastsider who was already an hour and a half away from home!)

More important than anything else, including the ticking off of life birds for us older birders, is that we take the time to plant the seeds of appreciation & discovery of the natural world in children.

Dr. Jill Russell instructing young birders on how to use field marks to differentiate Great Egrets from Great Blue Herons.

Dr. Herman Mays Jr., Curator of Zoology at the Cincinnati Museum Center, gave a talk on what it is like and what it takes education wise to become a professional ornithologist. He presented pics of the many birds he has seen while traveling the world working as an ornithologist. Hopefully, this will inspire the youngins to be interested in science as a career and get as much education as possible.

Dr. Mays and volunteers from the Cincinnati Museum Center came with some dead birds to show how one goes about preparing a study skin specimen for museum collections.

Dr. Herman Mays Jr. showing kids how to skin birds. (bird here is a Rose-breasted Grosbeak)

Before taking off, I decided to go back to the campground for the owl walk given by Susan from Raptor, Inc. She was able to call in a gray morph screech-owl that called back and flew over everyone's head, landing in a nearby tree. Everyone got an up close look at the bird.

Midwest Birding Symposium

Finally made it up to Lakeside. Checked in and got the key for my cabin. When I registered, I was told that everything was full, so I had to settle for a rustic cabin. Here is the rustic cabin that I'm staying in


Not too bad with a sleeping bag. I enjoy not having the temptation of watching TV!


Birders were chumming for birds using popcorn. Didn't draw much other than Ring-billed Gulls and a few Herring Gulls. A few Canada Geese flew over as well. One birder advised that the popcorn was blowing into the windows of the lower deck of the boat. Saw some Caspian Terns earlier, but none while on the cruise.



Cruising by island, note the dead trees from all of the Double-crested Cormorant whitewash.



Beautiful sunset as we were heading back to the Lakeside dock.



Meeting lots of new birders, internet bird friends, and ones I haven't seen in a long time!

Early American Pipit

I decided to stop by East Fork State Park Wednesday morning before going to the store to get everything I need for the upcoming Midwest Birding Symposium. Since there was only one fisherman on the beach, I thought I might have a chance of seeing some shorebirds. There wasn't much going on bird wise, despite the lack of people and dogs. I did manage to see one Pectoral Sandpiper looking for bugs in the grass with the Killdeer - it even puffed up and threatened the Killdeer - pretty cool. There was also an Osprey flying around.

Went to the other side of the beach by the fisherman, I wasn't expecting to see anything. From a considerable distance, a small bird briefly caught my eye in the grass. I was hoping it was another wondering Northern Wheatear, but I know that would be unlikely. I went over to investigate and found this American Pipit (Anthus rubescens) (dang, but still good bird) chasing bugs in the grass with a Killdeer.



If everything goes right with my laptop, my next post should be from the south shore of Lake Erie from the Midwest Birding Symposium.