CA bird walk at Blendon

Early every month, at Blendon Woods Metro Park, the Columbus Audubon hosts a public birdwalk. Fun for all ages. The guide is Naturalist Bruce Simpson, and it averages 25 people or more. So on the cold Sunday morning of February 2nd, we bird! The group walked out Lake Trail to the blinds to see waterfowl.  Not much in the woods along the way. But the view at Lake Thoreau did not disappoint!!

"Birds eye view" on the blind

Most of it was frozen, but the center was open water, and lots of ducks, and what is that big white thing? A good amount of Mallards, American Black Ducks, but nice views of Redheads, American Wigeon and a pair of Gadwall.

Mute Swan(pinkish bill)

The lone white wolf is called a Mute Swan. We can get four countable Swans in the ABA, and the three common ones can all be seen in Ohio. The hardest swan to see is a Whooper Swan(code4) and is only considered countable in the wild in Alaska, and guess who has seen a Whooper? Red&Louise Gambill(6/4/91 Nome,AK#754)

Inside blind

After all the waterfall gets identified, we get to take a special trip into the pine woods behind the lake. We only get to do this in the winter and that's because we are looking for the Red-Breasted Nuthatch, a winter bird. But no luck this time. Some of the group did get to see and hear a Brown Creeper though.

Bird Walk!

Team SnowBlunting_2014

March 9th, 9am meet HERE

Back in the parking lot, and its SNOWING. What an end to great a mourning. Getting to see some friends, walk and talk, see wildlife and learn about nature. GOD is good. I ended up with 41 species for the day, but that included my screech owl(prior post) and a stop at the Hoover spillway for new ducks, merganers and GBH. Next walk is March 9th, 9am.


Next up: Life bird part Duex!?!

Owl in a what?!?

Owls are a great species of bird. Even non-birders can identify an owl from other birds. Maybe not the proper name of the owl, but at least they know of some like Snowy, Great Horned and Barn. This large family comprises around 189 living species in 25 genera. The typical owls have a cosmopolitan distribution and are found on every continent except Antarctica. For the record keeping of the American Birding Association(ABA), there are 23 different owls to count, but only 19 are a code 3 or less. Meaning the other 4 code 5 owls are once in a lifetime events. So, my current life owl list is at 14 for ABA, with my most current lifer, the Flammulated Owl seen 3/1/2013 in South Padre, Texas.

On Sunday morning, February 2nd, before the Columbus Audubon Bird walk, myself and team SnowBlunting member SP, went to a Westerville bike path, to see an Eastern Screech Owl that has been making his roost in the rafters of a bike bridge. Pictures below

Eastern Screech-Owls are active at night and are far more often heard than seen—most bird watchers know this species only from its trilling or whinnying song. However, this cavity-roosting owl can be attracted to nest boxes or, if you’re sharp-eyed, spotted in daylight at the entrance to its home in a tree cavity. Red and  Gray individuals occur across the range of the Eastern Screech-Owl, with about one-third of all individuals being Red. Rufous owls are more common in the East, with fewer than 15% red at the western edge of the range. No red owls are known from southern Texas, although they occur further north in Texas and further south in Mexico. Intermediate brownish individuals also occur in most population

I see you . . you see me?

zoomed out

Red Morph Eastern Screech Owl

scoping the Flammulated Owl 3/13' TX

Gray Morph Eastern Screech in TX 2013

ABA Owl history with grandpa and grandma:
They're baack! Park staff was happy to see the return of some of our favorite park visitors, Red and Louise Gambill from Ohio. If you've been to Bentsen in the morning during the winter anytime during the last 26 years, you may have seen these two walking through Bentsen on their daily walk. Red and Louise are great birders. They are credited with finding the first U.S. record for Collared-Forest Falcon(Code 5) on January 22nd, 1994 and the first U.S. record for Stygian Owl(Code 5) on December 26th, 1996. Roy, one of Bentsen's naturalists, poses with them here. If you see them at the park, make sure to say hello.

My grandparents have seen 20 of the 23 ABA species of owls in the ABA region. Only missing 3 of the hard to get code 5 rare owls(Oriental Scops-Owl, Mottled Owl, Brown Hawk-Owl). They always had seen the even harder to get now Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl and Elf Owl in Bentsen SP, which was always the place to bird in the Rio Grande Valley, Texas.

 

fall of 2012 at Bentsen State Park

 Next up:  Columbus Audubon Bird Walk at Blendon Woods Metro Park

I do it for the Snow

What a January it has been. Nothing but snow and cold. It was the coldest winter in the last 20 years. We had 17.7 inches of snow for the month.  The average temperature was 22.8 degrees. The coldest day was Tuesday 28th at minus-11 degrees. I mean Cold. I have been wearing thermals during the day at work and outside birding almost everyday.
On the last weekend of 2014 Columbus, Ohio had another one-two punch. On Friday night it snowed 5"s and Saturday was the snowday bailout day. Then Sunday, another 3"s of fresh powder. So me and Mr. Torro where busy tying the record with 7 uses for a winter. Remember, Records are made, and Records are made to be broken!!

full weekend snow total

25 mins. later

Mr. Torro no.7

 

The olde turn gets her another one

looking west, highest point in Franklin cty?

Next Up: Happy February! Columbus Audobon Birdwalk at Blendon Woods