Nineteen avids ventured south this month in search of new arrivals to Ohio. A very good turn-out considering nine members were in Florida, presumably searching (and hopefully finding) the Stripe-headed Tanager and Key West Quail-Dove. Birding was somewhat slow, but the weather was spectacular. A nice spring day in Southern Ohio.
We met up with a fellow from Washington state at Spring Valley and had the privilege of birding with him the rest of the day. He had a ball mopping up some of the recent splits for his life-list. He had one particular bird in mind for the day…the American Woodcock. So, I offered to take him up to Highbanks that evening to look for them. We have numerous woodcocks on territory; however, the birding gods were not smiling on us that night. Needless to say, I was pretty embarrassed. He traveled up to North Columbus on my advice, stayed until 9:30 PM, and then had to drive back to Dayton to rest up for his 7:30 AM flight on April 25. Not one of my most shining moments. I hope he’s not too upset! We did have one consolation though. As we were waiting for the invisicocks near the main entrance, we heard a strange call from the sky to the south of us. Neither of us knew what it was. Then, I saw two shapes flying over. He checked them out with his binocs and low-and-behold, two American Bitterns were flying over us from south to north, just west of the main park entrance. A new park record! I was pretty excited, but he still wanted the woodcock. We also had the privilege of hearing a group of Coyotes call from behind the nature center that evening. Fire truck sirens got them started. Although we didn’t get the woodcocks, we did have a nice evening at the park. He’ll just have to come back east for the woodcocks sometime.
Anyway, we tallied 92 species and had innumerable misses. Can you believe we had 15 warbler species with NO Black-throated Green. Ugh! As for a highlight, I would have to say the American Bittern out in the open at Spring Valley was the bird of the day. It provided great looks for all.
A = Spring Valley State Wildlife Area
B = Tranquility State Wildlife Area, Adams Co.
C = Scioto Trails State Forest
D = Pickaway Co. Airport and Prairie
E = Highbanks Metro Park, Delaware Co.
R = Seen en route to that location
