Monday, February 08, 2010

Winter river hopping

Had to go downtown to take care of family business today, so I didn't really have much time to do any serious birding. I was wanting to go to Armleder , but since I had family with me, that was not an option. Instead, I decided to go river hopping by stopping at various spots along the Ohio River (I have found some of my best birds this way).

First stop was at Rivertowne Marina, where there were 3 Horned Larks on the entrance road.

2 of 3 horned larks seen. Love these birds!


Decided to drive to the back of the marina. Most of the water was frozen, but did manage to find a juvenile Double-crested Cormorant flapping its wings and a Great Blue getting ready to spear a fish. I don't run into cormorants in winter around here very often.

Juv. DC Cormorant and GB Heron.


Went to another nearby marina and was only able to find a Pied-billed Grebe and a few Canada Geese. Stopped at a few other sites along the river between Cincinnati and New Richmond, but didn't come up with anything noteworthy. However, I did come across a Killdeer (in a parking lot none the less), which is not too easy to find at this time of year.
Posted by donaldthebirder at 6:30 PM
Labels: ,

3 comments:

  1. Jonathan Frodge10:09 AM

    I stop by Rivertown about once a week and have never seen a DC Cormorant. Way to stop at the right time! That spot is a pretty good spot for river scanning as well, but that particular stretch of river seems unusually devoid of waterfowl. It's a good spot for passing gulls though.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous4:58 PM

    Gripper on the Larks! We call it Shore Lark here and they are getting pretty scarce. PB Grebe is a mega rarity and there has been one DC Cormorant (in 1989)!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Steve Willson9:19 PM

    I had two Killdeer fly over while I was cleaning snow from the driveway this morning. Also had one fly over on Sunday. I've never seen one on the ground here.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)