Birding on thin ice

Tweet I stopped by the local state park (East Fork) to do a little birding this afternoon. The roads in the park were not all treated from the last snow storm we had, so I had to park on top of the hill and walk down to the beach (plus the gate was closed). In a way, this was a good thing, as it kept the dog walkers from being on the beach. The downside was I didn't feel like lugging my scope back up the hill so I didn't take it.

It was quiet and seemed as though there wasn't much around at first glance. Since I walked down the hill, I decided to spend some time here just to see what I could see. The first birds that I spotted was a group of Mallards with some Gadwall in with them. Also spotted some Horned & Pied-billed Grebes, a couple of Common Loons, Black Ducks, and Canada Geese.

As I walked up and over a little rise to see a cove to the west of the beach, I noticed something moving on the shore. Ah, an American Coot.

American Coot

As I continued to walk to the water's edge, the coot decided to walk right up to me. It came to within about 3 ft. of me! I continued to scan the shoreline. I could see a bird that looked like a shorebird on the other side of the cove. Looked like a Wilson's Snipe to me (not easy to find here this time of year). I tried to get a better look, but didn't realize that I was standing on ice!

Wilson's Snipe

The bird appeared to be resting, but that was short lived, as the ice I was standing on gave way and I fell into a small ditch (luckily it was only about a foot deep). All that commotion startled the snipe, and it flew away or at least I thought it did.

I continued walking the shoreline when I saw something pop up from behind a rock in front of me. It was the snipe. It was hiding behind a rock! After my mishap, I couldn't blame it.

Wilson's Snipe hiding behind a rock

Oh, and the coot? It thought the whole debacle was hilarious!!! No kidding, I took this photo not ten seconds after I fell through the ice.

American Coot laughing at my mishap!

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Snow Bunting!

Tweet Although it was very cold (17° F when I left), I decided to go birding after I got off work to see what I could see before I get snowed in from the approaching winter storm. I headed down to East Fork hoping to find a rarity, as there has been some good stuff showing up at other places as of late. I did not find any rarities for say, but I did find a bird that I haven't seen in years. :-)

As soon as I got out of the car, I scanned the gulls, but found nothing "good". The lake was devoid of waterfowl likely due to duck season being in. There was only one Common Loon on the lake that I could see.

As I walked along the beach, I heard and then saw Horned Larks. I heard a call that was different. They took flight and I could see the white wing flashes of a Snow Bunting. As soon as I was able to relocate the bunting against the snow, a lady with a dog came down and told her dog to "get da' birds". She knew that I was looking at birds. The flock took flight and briefly landed close enough for me to get these shots of the bunting.

Snow Bunting

Snow Bunting with Horned Lark

A bird that makes the cold and snow worth it! (well maybe ;-)

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Pine Siskins return!

Tweet The winter storm has brought the Pine Siskins back to the feeders. I have seen five at one time so far, but I can hear more in the sweetgum trees next door.

Pine Siskin Hanging out

Pine Siskin with American Goldfinches

Since it is still coming down outside, maybe there will be more (or maybe a redpoll - wishful thinking) tomorrow.

Ethan Kistler, the Nomadic Birder, has once again made these cool maps to keep track of the winter irruptive birds that move into Ohio this winter, check it out here:

Thanks, Ethan!

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Cold day birding

Tweet I tried to wait until it warmed up some to go out birding today. I waited until about 1:30pm to venture out. Unfortunately, it didn't warm up all that much!

First birds of the day were these Black Vultures who just flew up off of a deer carcass on the side of the road as I drove up.

Black Vultures

I decided to hit the local reservoir, East Fork. One good thing, there was nobody else out walking or fishing that I could see that would have scared off the birds. As I scanned the lake, the first bird I saw was a male Common Merganser right off the beach. I tried to take a pic, but my camera did not like the cold and the batteries died. I did not feel like walking back to the car, so I turned the camera off and put it under my shirt to warm it up.

I walked the beach and could see waterfowl off in the distance that I could not ID without my scope, so I was headed back to the car anyway. On the way to the car, I could hear Horned Larks, but I could not see them. I kept walking and three Horned Larks flew up and two landed on the sidewalk way in front of me. If they all would have landed in the grass, I would have never seen them! My camera came to life just enough to get these pics:

Blurry, far away Horned Larks

My camera starts acting wonky when it gets cold!

Horned Lark

One can really see how camouflaged they are!

After I got my scope out, I could see lots of ducks - Mallards, Black Duck, Common Goldeneye, Gadwall, Red-breasted and Hooded Mergansers, Ruddy Ducks, and Common Loons. I also spotted two Adult Bald Eagles flying high above the lake.

Nothing spectacular, but a good day nonetheless. After about an hour, I quickly became cold and decided to head home.

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Beware of the Sapsucker!

Tweet There is a sugar maple that is right next to the side door in the yard. Today, while coming into the house from work, a bird flew at me and then quickly put on the brakes and went behind the trunk of the maple tree. I went in to get my binos and camera, and went back out to see what it was.

The bird flew at me again, in an attempt to drive me off. Now I see why. A Yellow-bellied Sapsucker was defending his sap wells against me. I guess it felt I was a threat to his food source.

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker sucking sap

The sapsucker continued to keep its eyes on me.

As I was watching the sapsucker, a Fox Sparrow briefly flew in. Also, this Eastern Bluebird landed very near the sapsucker to see what I was looking at.

Eastern Bluebird male

And of course there were many chickadees chickadeeing...

Carolina Chickadee

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Rusty out the window

Tweet Looked out the window this morning to find a mixed flock of 200+ blackbirds. About 10% were Starlings, 10% Rusty Blackbirds with the rest being Common Grackles. Here is a picture of one of the Rusty Blackbirds from out the front window.

Nice looking Rusty Blackbird

Such a nice looking bird!

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Jefferson Salamander?

Tweet The other day, my nephews somehow came across this salamander, not sure where they got it from. It appeared to be cold and was very slow moving. I originally identified it as a Jefferson Salamander because they said it was found in the leaf litter. I haven't seen a salamander around my house in years!

Ambystoma spp.

However, after doing some research, I have discovered that the Ambystoma spp. complex is very genetically complicated. This cool link explains the weird genetics going on with this genus. It is worth checking out! -- http://www.ohioamphibians.com/salamanders/Unisexual_Ambystoma.html

***Update: This is a Small mouth Salamander. or mostly Small mouth.

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The birds are a movin' !!

Tweet Today was a busy day, so I wasn't able to get out to bird until about 1pm. It was still cloudy, cool and dreary. I have noticed that the birding usually stays good all day in such conditions and today was no exception.

I started off by checking out the beach at East Fork. The colder weather finally brought some birds down here. The first bird that I IDed as I got out of the car was an Osprey flying toward me from the west. They are not easy to find in November here.

November Osprey

I could notice a lot of loons out on the lake, so I got out the scope and WOW! I lost count of the Common Loons at 100. I was able to also ID Gadwall, American Widgeon, Ruddy Ducks, 2 Redheads (ducks), Horned and Pied-billed Grebes.

One of the 100+ Common Loons

I then walked to the brushy/grassy western side of the beach were a lot of grassland/open land type birds are often found. I wasn't disappointed. I noticed a small bird running in the cockle burrs as I approached. It did not fly, but ran. I got the binos on it and was able to ID it as a Savannah Sparrow. Savannah Sparrows are also hard to find this time of year in this area. It then flew into the lake and started bathing right in front of me. It appeared to be having a good time, as it was chipping loudly the whole time.

Savannah Sparrow bathing in the lake

It then flew up to perch on a rock giving me awesome views!

Savannah Sparrow

Before leaving, I took a drive down to the close by boat ramp to see if anything was "hiding" over there. The water is low, so I was able to walk out on the mud/sand farther then usual. Here, I found my (surprisingly) first and only coot of the day on the mud with some Mallards. They always look so odd on land.

American Coot

The sun had come out while I was at this location and while looking out on the lake, I could make out the profiles of something interesting. The birds finally swam closer in and I was to ID them as Red-breasted Mergansers. No sooner have I IDed them, they took off flying to the west. I will leave you with the only picture I was able to get of them. It was a nice day to be out birding!

Red-breasted Mergansers in flight (flying away from)


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Watch where you walk!

Tweet Usually when someone tells you to watch where you are walking while out and about to avoid stepping on something, birds are not what comes to mind. Well, yesterday I came very close to stepping on a Winter Wren.

The woods was very quite yesterday morning, so I phished at a brushy area to see what would pop up. My eyes quickly caught birdy movement, but I couldn't make out what it was. I continued to phish and up popped a Winter Wren!

It didn't stay in view long, as they seldom do. I was able to get the above quick shot before it disappeared to the ground.

I then went about my walk. The woods was quiet enough to hear leaves falling. I could hear something ruffling around in the leaves on the ground. I didn't pay much attention to it, as I thought that it was a rodent under the leaves. I then saw a little head pop up from the leaves - it was the Winter Wren.

It was very camouflaged and very hard to see in the poor lighting of the forest floor. I have shown a few birders their lifer Winter Wrens, as they are sometimes hard to spot. Many people's first instinct is to look on top of the log, like a Carolina Wren, but I say "look UNDER the log".

As I continued walking, the Winter Wren followed me. I think he was taking advantage of the insects that I was kicking up with my shoes. At one point, it came within only a few inches of my shoe and I almost stepped on 'em! If it wasn't for that little tail sticking out of the leaves...

See if you can spot the Winter Wren in the photo below (click on the pic for a larger pic).

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Odd company...

Tweet I cruised by the Ohio riverfront in New Richmond on my way home from work today like I do every day checking for anything odd or interesting that might be there (bird wise that is). I have seen some good birds here before. (Sooty Tern, Harlequin Duck, White-winged Scoter)

An odd grebe swimming with a Pied-billed Grebe caught my attention, so I stopped to check it out. The sun was glaring on the water and I only keep my back up binoculars in the car, so I wasn't able to get a good look. It was bigger than the PB next to it and had a different profile and bill. Its colors differed, but the lighting was bad. My first impression was a Red-necked Grebe. Since Red-necked Grebe would have been a life bird, I did not feel comfortable calling it.

Something with a different profile hanging out with the resident domestic geese caught the corner of my eye. Same color, but different shape - Great Egret? I drove closer to find that it was indeed a Great Egret. Not easy to find here in November. I would not have expected it to hang with the New Richmond River Geese.

I decided to go home and get my proper birding implements (including camera) and return. The odd grebe was gone of course, but I did relocate the Great Egret. And also found a Common Loon far out on the river and 8 American Coots.

Great Egret

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A quiet afternoon stroll in the woods

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Took a nice, quiet walk in the woods this afternoon to enjoy the last of this gorgeous fall weather. There wasn't much going on bird wise, as the woods were kind of still. I went by a brushy area near a pond and started spishing and was able to get the birds out of hiding. A lot of Yellow-rumpeds and sparrows. White-throated and a Swamp. Then I noticed a Fox Sparrow, the first of the season for me. I continued spishing and ended up with three Fox Sparrows in view at the same time! Unfortunately, they were too far in the brush and combined with the afternoon sun, I wasn't able to get any pics of them.

My spishing also got the Barred Owls railed up. The deer also came in to investigate what all the commotion was about.

I then came up to a small pond and found this dragonfly flying around. This is an Autumn Meadowhawk, the most likely dragonfly species one would expect to see flying around at this time of year (hence its name).

Autumn Meadowhawk

Continuing on to the woods, I came across this five point buck (or ten point) that must had just gotten into a fight prior to my spotting him. One side of his rack has been broken off. He must had won the fight, as he was with five does. His tongue was hanging out of the side of his mouth. He did not look happy to see me there.

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A sign?

Tweet Such a beautiful day, I had to go birding.

Decided to check out the East Fork beach and surrounding areas this morning to see if that huge low pressure system brought anything good in.

As soon as I got out of the car, an Osprey flew over. The wind was howling out of the northwest. Something large and white caught my eye just over the rise to the west. What the $#%@ is that? I got closer to find this:

Headless cement goose

A headless cement goose. Someone had to have carried this dang thing down to the water's edge and put it there. Don't know what this is supposed to mean. Maybe it's a sign I should quit watching birds?

Nah, that ain't happening.

After I found out what the goofy looking white thing was, I went back up the little rise to hear and then see a flock of about 20 Horned Larks flying around. They decided not to land on the beach. I then spotted an adult Bald Eagle soaring over the lake.

I then decided to head up to the two ponds on top the hill to look for land birds. Glad I did. There was a lot of activity. Found a Swamp Sparrow, lots of Yellow-rumped Warbers, Robins and other birds. Also found this cool looking leucistic American Robin.

Leucistic American Robin

While watching the leucistic robin, I noticed something smaller bathing in the water in front of the robins. Purple Finches! Two of them. They are the first of the season for me. (Crappy pictures)

Female (or immature) Purple Finch(es)

A female Belted Kingfisher was fishing the pond as I was watching the Purple Finches. I love kingfishers.

Female Belted Kingfisher

The woods were going crazy with bird activity, so I decided to go find out what was going on. I often see Barred Owls in this area, so I decided to imitate one to see what would happen. A Barred Owl went (vocally) nuts and so did the other birds.

Pileated Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker, YS Flickers, GC Kinglets, Cedar Waxwings, WT Sparrows.

This White-breasted Nuthatch almost landed on my head.

White-breasted Nuthatch

And the flickers were going crazy!

Yellow-shafted Flicker female

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