The weather was not auspicious, but the forecast was decent. Thirteen Avids met at the ritual spot, under the black hem of night’s robe, happily including some folks who have been, shall we say, less than regular in their attendance recently. No doubt they came mostly because they missed birding with the rest of us, but the prospect of a very scarce Ohio bird may have motivated them as well. A reliable and well-documented hoary redpoll had been coming to a feeder in Trail, and the homeowners had yielded to entreaties to allow observers to visit to have a look. A couple of other worthy rarities were being seen in the area as well. With mostly frozen reservoirs, and a regrettable gull glut pervasive among us, our choice of an itinerary was obvious.
We dodged snow-squalls and salt-trucks in the dark all the way to Coshocton, where a stop at an unwatering-hole afforded us the dawn spectacle of the dispersal of the local crow roost, a delightful and auspicious way to begin our birding. We were to see small groups of these birds for the next half hour on our way to a farm where we invited two young Amish birders to accompany us, but of course they had already seen the hoary redpoll and weren’t around anyway, but up at the Lake looking for gulls. Their father offered us the chance to use his name later to get a look at some barn owls in the neighborhood.
We wended our way through very rural SE Holmes County to the redpoll spot. It is a revelation to travel through farm country where every bird-feeder is stocked and attended by birds. Beyond the feeders, it is also obvious how much more numerous and varied birdlife is when sub-industrial farming, bereft of chemical assistance, is carried on.
We shared viewing spots with 40+ other birders, mostly local Amish folks, in getting many good views of the hoary redpoll, and left a gift of thistle seed, which was going pretty fast with the hordes of hungry birds.
On the way to a spot for Harris’s sparrow, a rare winter visitor whose winter range lies far west of Ohio, we – or at least some of us – noted manure had been spread on fields, and stopped long enough to note hundreds of horned larks and a few Lapland longspurs. After a false turn, we finally located the barn owls site, and a young boy was dispatched to lead us to good views of the pair perched up in the rafters in good light. This is one of the birds modern farming has discouraged, and it was good to see an old-fashioned method of rodent control.
The Harris’s sparrow was not so cooperative. Things were pretty quiet in the ravine where it had been found, and the property owners had made it known other areas were off-limits. After 45 minutes or so, when we were shrugging and heading back to the cars to continue our journey, some other birders made fairly aggressive and forbidden moves, stalking into the pasture uphill, sliding down the snowy slopes into the ravine then up the other side, pretty much spooking all the birds across the road and into a situation where we could see them, including the sought-after sparrow. At least we were treated to good looks at our quarry at last. The skies had cleared, and we began to see eagles (three) and black (4) and turkey (many) vultures as the thermals formed.
We saw some waterfowl at last as we crossed Killbuck Marsh, but we forged ahead to Shreve Lake, where some interesting divers had been reported earlier. This was a mistake, as the lake was frozen, and other observers later found a good list of waterfowl by a more extensive survey of Killbuck. Convoluted travels in the back county, including of course the classic Avids Reverse Maneuver, were conducted, and we climbed the ridge in Mohican State Forest to look for evening grosbeaks. The bull mastiffs were confined indoors, fortunately, at the host house, but most of an hour of watching and listening failed to produce these birds, although the increasingly good weather produced some good birds there, such as a pine warbler and a sapsucker. Happy with our results, we called it a day and headed home. The trip list comprised 53 species, not at all bad for a February trip with very few visits to watery habitats; here it is.
Canada goose
American black duck
Mallard
Black vulture
Turkey vulture
Bald eagle
Northern harrier
Sharp-shinned hawk
Cooper’s hawk
Red-shouldered hawk
Red-tailed hawk
American kestrel
Killdeer
Rock dove
Mourning dove
Belted kingfisher
Red-bellied woodpecker
Yellow-bellied sapsucker
Downy woodpecker
Hairy woodpecker
Northern flicker
Pileated woodpecker
Blue jay
American crow
Horned lark
Carolina chickadee
Black-capped chickadee
Tufted titmouse
Red-breasted nuthatch
White-breasted nuthatch
Carolina wren
Eastern bluebird
American robin
Northern mockingbird
European starling
Pine warbler
American tree sparrow
Chipping sparrow
Song sparrow
White-throated sparrow
Harris’s sparrow
White-crowned sparrow
Dark-eyed junco
Lapland longspur
Snow bunting
Northern cardinal
House finch
Common redpoll
Hoary redpoll
American goldfinch
House sparrow