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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