At 9:00 am on a cold, cloudy Saturday, an intrepid band of nine birders, led by Columbus Audubon board member Kori Gasaway, assembled at the Blendon Woods Metro Park nature center. The skies were cloudy and a cold wind was blowing, making the conditions less than ideal for people or birds – but, as they say, a bad day birding beats a good day doing anything else, right?
To complicate matters even further, we quickly encountered ice on the path that runs from the nature center to the blinds overlooking Thoreau Lake. Most of the ice was quite visible and easy to avoid, but near the nature center were a couple of very small spots of black ice. These caused momentary concern, but we worked around them and were on our way.
Birds were scarce at the start of our walk, but the pace gradually picked up. We ticked off the usual Ohio winter residents, such as Downy and Red-bellied Woodpeckers, Blue Jays, Carolina Chickadees, and even signing Carolina Wrens. As neared the bird blinds at the end of the path, we found bird of the day: a Hermit Thrush with its light brown upperparts, white breast spotted with black, and cinnamon tail, was energetically searching the snow-covered vegetation and branches for food. Although most Hermit Thrushes migrate to points far south of Ohio, a few make it through our winter most years, and all of us were delighted to see this survivor.
Looking over Thoreau Lake from the blinds, we found quite a squadron of Black Ducks along with their Mallard relatives. A pair of Hooded Mergansers emerged momentarily from under some brush overhanging the water, and a Great Blue Heron stood motionless on the far bank, leaving us to wonder whether it was frozen in place!
We finally worked our way back to the nature center and its welcome warmth (and restrooms). The feeders outside the observation windows attracted a number of the usual species such as Tufted Titmouse. We also found our final highlight bird of the day here: a colorful Fox Sparrow who politely posed for us just outside the windows.
Despite the cold, we all enjoyed being outside in this lovely corner of nature with the city. The new songs of Northern Cardinals gave us hope, reminding us that spring will soon be on the way.
Here’s a list of the birds that we saw:
Canada Goose
Mallard
American Black Duck
Hooded Merganser
Mourning Dove
Great Blue Heron
Red-tailed Hawk
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
Blue Jay
American Crow
Carolina Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
Red-breasted Nuthatch
White-breasted Nuthatch
Carolina Wren
Hermit Thrush
American Robin
House Finch
Fox Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
White-throated Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Northern Cardinal