When the birding is slow, watch otters!

Tweet Haven't' been able to get out birding much, as I recently came down with the flu.  I still don't feel 100% yet, but anyone that knows me knows that I can't stay indoors for long.

The birding has been kinda slow for me locally.  Since my girlfriend's favorite animal is the otter, I tried to think of a place to find them.  I have read reports of many being seen at Muscatatuck National Wildlife Refuge in Seymour, Indiana.  I have also heard that the birding is stellar there, and I have never been there before, so.

After a two hour drive, I arrived at Muscatatuck.  I was surprised at the size of the place, as I was envisioning a different kind of place.  That being said, the place looked awesome to see some cool birds.

It was unseasonably warm for January, so the birds weren't really moving.  I spotted a Savannah and White-crowned Sparrow.  Not much else of interest.  I proceeded to the auto tour route.  The place was slow bird wise, so we stopped at the first pond we came to.  There was an observation platform, so we got out of the car and walked around.  We immedialty saw some movement on the ice.  River otters!!  Three of them.

They were catching fish under the ice.  I has been a very long time since I have seen river otters.  I remembering seeing them often when I was a kid while fishing.  The last one that I saw in Ohio was deceased.  They are very rare in Ohio.  These otters have been reintroduced at Muscatatuck.  

Here is an otter breaking trough the ice.

There were otters in almost every pond that we stopped at.  They were at first very curious to our presence, but after a while they started to retreat for cover.

                 

The one swimming above was very curious of my girlfriend and swam up very close to her.  

Otters are just as hard to photograph as birds.  Here is a otter tail, as I missed the dive.

You can almost see the disapproval of being watched on the one otters face.

               

Watching the otters was a different experience.  I enjoyed watching them as much as I do watching birds.  Brought back memories of when I was younger.  I remember otters, barn owls, and bobcats.  Things are not the same.

Since this is a birding blog, it wouldn't be right not to have some birds here.  Even though the birding was slow, I did manage to see some good birds.

Here is the first raptor seen on the auto tour.  A far away Northern Harrier.  

We saw two of them.  I also spotted this Barred Owl sitting in a tree sleeping on the side of the road.  

As the sun started to set, we saw thousands of Sandhill Cranes coming into the south closed area of the preserve.  I am not too familiar with the area, so I couldn't get that close to see where they were landing.

              

Love the sound and sight of sandhills!  It was a very much needed help to my recovering from the flu.  

As I write this post, the temps are falling quick.  The coldest it has been in a few years here.  Hoping as the ice forms up north, it pushes some good birds down!

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Lesser Black-backed Gull

Tweet Decided to check the beach at East Fork State Park after work today to see what may have changed bird wise since the weather had changed dramatically. The gulls numbered in the thousands with Ring-billed being the most numerous with both Herring and Bonaparte's Gulls mixed in.

While scanning through the gulls, I came across a very dark-backed gull that stood out from the others.  I am not at all experienced in gull ID.

I usually just try to find one that doesn't look like the others and study it to see what it might or might not be.  I am slowly becoming more confident in my gull ID, but we don't get much in the way of practice here in SW Ohio.  The bird in question was not as large as a Herring Gull, but larger than the nearby Ring-billed.  When the bird flew, I could see the white border of the back of the wing contrasting with the dark mantle.  Once on the water and at quite a distance, I could pick the bird out among both Ring-billed and immature Herring Gulls.  That being said, here are some photos of a gull that I am fairly sure is a 3rd winter or winter adult Lesser Black-backed Gull.  The pics were taken in very poor light and at a great distance with no other gulls for comparison.

Comments welcomed and encouraged!

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Long spurs and Crossed bills

Tweet The first day of winter has brought with it our first noticeable snow of the season here, alas only a dusting.  The temperatures are now in the mid twenties here as I write this.  However, for most of the season so far, it has been very mild for this time of year.  Thunderstorms with hail had taken the place of snow and ice.  But this hasn't stopped the northern bird invasion.

While recently looking for any odd grebes and loons that are different from the "regular" species seen at East Fork State Park beach, I spooked up a small bird from the beach.  I recognized the call as a Lapland Longspur.  This would be cool to see one, as I have only seen them a few times.  The bird flew out over the open lake, only giving distant views.  

As I was walking back to my car to head for home, a small bird landed not far in front of me.  It quickly disappeared among the grasses that border the beach.  I carefully moved in the direction of the bird.  I then spied some movement and this is what I found.

A Lapland Longspur!  And only about 5 ft. in front of me.  It seemed to calm down and started to feed on grass seeds along the edge of the beach.  This is the closest I have ever seen one.  I took time to watch and study the bird.  

Notice that the bill looks identical in shape as the Snow Bunting's.  They both feed on grass seeds and are very similar in behavior.  

And just as fast as the bird appeared at my feet, the bird ran to the center of the sandy beach and looked at me one last time as to say "goodbye" and flew out over the lake.

After seeing the longspur, I wanted to see some more northern birds that are usually not so easy to find in SW Ohio.  I have been seeing reports of both crossbills being seen at a cemeteries and parks on the west side of Cincinnati.  Both crossbills would be a life bird for me.  Since these places are a good drive for me since I live on the far east side of Cincy, I want to see them as close as I can.   The west side of Cincinnati has something that is very hard to find on the east side of Cincy:

Hemlocks!

Since this is the preferred food of the crossbills, I decided to head west on my next nice off day.  I have been told that the crossbills that are being seen at Spring Grove Cemetery are far up in the hemlocks and very active/flighty.  However, this is the only place where both species have been seen.   I have also seen reports from other birders that you could see White-winged Crossbills fairly close at the small county park named Mitchell Memorial Park.  I just read a report that 7 WW crossbills were there earlier in the day, so I decided to go chase them.  

Upon arriving at Mitchell, I could hear several Red-breasted Nuthatches calling.  As soon I got out of the car, I could hear and then saw Pine Siskins.  I said to my girlfriend who was with me, "I think we are in the right spot."

I found some hemlocks, but no crossbills.  Then another birder had pulled up in a car and recognized me and told me he had seen one female up on top the hill in a hemlock.  So, I decided to head that way.  

Just like that, he showed me the bird.  My lifer White-winged Crossbill!

The bird was just chowing down on the hemlock cones.  It was kind of funny watching it stretch to get the cones.  

Very cool bird!  It is so adapted and specialized for feeding on cones.  I am hoping to be able to go back out west and see some more and hopefully a male White-winged or even a  Red Crossbill!

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Pine siskin, pine siskin, REDPOLL!

Tweet Today was the first time that I have been able to get out birding in a while.  I checked out East Fork first.  There wasn't much of anything going on here at all.  I then decided to go the Washington Twp. Park to see if any more odd geese have shown up.  I found no geese other than Canada Geese.  I did find my first of the season Hermit Thrush on one of the trails though.

However, when I got out home and stepped out of the car, I thought I had seen some reddish hues on one of the many Pine Siskins that was on one of my thistle feeders.  The bird was on the backside of the feeder.  I figured it was just a trick of lighting and proceeded to go into my house.  The feeder than turned in the breeze and then I noticed that I was looking at a male Common Redpoll!  This particular feeder is right next to the porch.  I was very close to the bird, and since I just got back from birding, I had my camera around my neck.  I was able to get this very fast shot of the bird before I spooked it.

This is only the second redpoll that I have ever seen here.  The last and only other time was a female in November of 1999.  It stayed off and on for about a month.  

Filled the feeders back up hoping that something else nice shows up (I'll accept more redpolls too!)

Keep them trickling down!

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Snow! goose that is...

Tweet Spent a good portion of the day at East Fork with another birder looking for the Red-necked Grebe that was photographed here yesterday.  While we spotted a grebe that looked different from the Pied and Horned Grebes that were near it, it was just too far away to make any kind of conclusions.

After leaving East Fork, I decided to check a local park that is not too far from me to see if anything good was hiding out here.  I have seen some good things here in the past.

As soon as I arrived at the park and pulled into the parking lot for the playground, I noticed a flock of Canada Geese.  I was hoping something was with them.  I soon spotted a white goose, but I passed it off as one of the domestics I have seen here before.  I got out of the car and walked down to the pond to discover that is was a Snow Goose!

The flock decided to get out of the water and graze before flying back to the pond.

A very nice end to the day!  (The forecast for tonight says snow, but with temps near 50° F when I write this at 8pm, I doubt it.)

*For local birders, the address for this park is 2238 State Route 756, Moscow Ohio, 45153 which maps to here:

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Leucistic White-breasted Nuthatch

Tweet My girlfriend and I took an afternoon walk this Thanksgiving Day at Pattison Park in Owensville, Ohio.  First birds we found was a mixed goldfinch and pine siskin flock eating sweetgum seeds.  The place was pretty birdy, so I decided to walk all the trails.

While I was talking to my girlfriend, I noticed an almost all white bird walking down the tree.  It made no sound.  It took me a little while to determine what I was looking at.  I was looking at a leucistic White-breasted Nuthatch.  I have never seen such a thing, as the bird was almost all white.  You could just see a hint of the black on top of the head and the back of the neck.  The bird appeared all white when it flew, very odd and ghost like.

It then dawned on me that I had a camera around my neck.  Soon as I raised the camera, the bird decided it didn't want any of this.  I was able to get these fast shots.

Dang stick!!

It was a cool looking bird!

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Birds are a trickling in...

Tweet With north winds being steady for about the last week, birds are definitely on the move!  I have good numbers of Pine Siskins and a Red-breasted Nuthatch at the feeders.  From reading reports, it seems that a lot of birds are staging at that imaginary line that stretches from Columbus to Dayton Ohio.  I have noticed that a lot of years, many northern birds stage at locations just to the north of here.  Maybe this year, they will continue to push south.  I am hoping for scoters, I have only White-winged Scoter on my lifelist.

Good numbers of Bonaparte's Gulls are present currently at East Fork.  I and others have been trying to search the gulls to turn up maybe a Little Gull, but with no luck.

The resident Bald Eagles have been fairly active as of recently, and I expect that they may again attempt to nest in the area.  I have been seeing two adults and two juveniles.

Here is one of the adults after flying the beach to scatter the gulls.

and shortly after the adult, one of the immatures does the same.

American Pipits have been regular at the beach at East Fork.  Here is one that was very cooperative.  They are not the easiest birds to spot.

A friend of mine got lucky and was able to photograph a Lapland Longspur in the grass on the beach the other day.  I haven't been able to find the the longspur, however I did run across a couple of Snow Buntings.  I love Snow Buntings!

They seem to love the grass seeds here.  Last year some stayed for a while here.  This one is chowing down.

Isn't it cute?

Love those white wings!

Hoping for Evening Grosbeaks soon!

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A white bird, but not my pelican!

Tweet Swung by East Fork this afternoon to see if anything new had showed up and hoping for a or the American White Pelican that was there a couple days ago.  I didn't find the pelican, but I did see another nice white bird.  Another birder was taking pictures of something on the beach when I got there.  I scanned the gull flock and noticed it was a Cattle Egret.  It was just hanging out.

I like this next photo, it looks cool with the Ring-billed Gull coming in for a landing behind the egret.

It just stayed and preened.  Until...

A guy with a kid decided to chase the birds making odd bird sounds.  The bird flew, but returned to the beach afterwards.

Not the pelican I wanted to see, but still a nice looking bird!

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