2013 Birdathon
The Flying Redheads picked a glorious day to do their birdathon. Christie Vargo, Doc Jordan, and Shawnna Jordan met at 7:30 this morning at Suzan Jervey’s house. We picked up a couple of honorary members for the day—Suzan’s mother Mary Ellen Jervey and her brother Tod Jervey. On our way out to the Jervey Cabin in Licking County, we stopped at Northridge High School to see the tree swallow grid that was just installed there by Tod’s natural history class. Eastern Bluebirds and Tree Swallows have both taken up residence in the grid behind the high school track and field area.
A small, brown bird was pointed out by Tod. It sat in plain view long enough for everyone to see its buff-colored, streaked breast, striped head, and yellowish-green face. We truly enjoyed the wonderfully crazy dance that Tod made has he realized he was seeing his very first Henslow’s Sparrow! And reading that these, somewhat rare, definitely declining in numbers, birds are quite secretive and more often seen than heard, made us all certain we had picked a good day to get together.
Our purpose today was more camaraderie than accomplishing large numbers. We got to know one another better, hiked a little, picked asparagus, and saw at least 32 species of birds as well as many butterflies, wildflowers, and a huge coyote den.