Our birding adventure started at 9:00 am on the morning of September 22 at Blendon Woods Metro Park. There we walked the trail to Thoreau Lake, seeing many varieties of birds along the way. Some of the cool birds which we saw there included Chimney Swifts, Magnolia Warbler, Phoebe, Eastern Towhees, Ovenbird, and many Snowy and Great Egrets. After we finished birding there we ate lunch at the visitors’ center.
From Thoreau Lake we drove over to Ellis Pond at Pickerington Metro Park to see if we could get a look at the rare Roseate Spoonbill. Roseate Spoonbills live in the tropics including Florida so seeing one here in Ohio is quite rare. We were lucky and got the chance to see a Roseate Spoonbill. From there we were going to see if a pair of owls were still living in the area, but sadly we were informed that they had left earlier in the summer. After that we got a group picture and the birding trip was over.
In total we saw 44 different species of birds. Here’s the bird list: Blue Jay, American Goldfinch, Northern Cardinal, Carolina Wren, Pileated Woodpecker, Red-bellied Woodpecker, American Robin, Downy Woodpecker, Cooper’s Hawk, Bluebird, Hairy Woodpecker, Carolina Chickadee, White Breasted Nuthatch, Chimney Swift, Crow, Turkey Vulture, Magnolia Warbler, Phoebe, Gray Catbird, Great Blue Heron, Green Heron, Spotted Sandpiper, Wood Duck, Mallard Duck, Great Egret, Snowy Egret, Canada Geese, Pied Billed Grebe, Swainson’s Thrush, Eastern Towhee, Red Bellied Woodpecker, Oven Bird, Tufted Titmouse, Song Sparrow, Mourning Dove, Snowy Egret, Roseate Spoonbill, Killdeer, Kingfisher, Northern Shoveler, Blue Winged Teal, Green Winged Teal, Common Yellowthroat Warbler, Tree Swallow, Osprey, Sandhill Cranes, Chimney Swift, Black Throated Green, American Redstart, Blackpoll, and some kind of seagull.
Also, we had 6 kids, 2 advisers, and 1 leader.
The day did not end for me as my dad took us for a short drive over to Fostoria to get a glimpse at some rare trains. While there we got to see the ultra-rare EMD SD40-2 #8039 for CSX railroad along with a rare EMD SD70M-2 for Norfolk Southern. The different locomotives from various railroads we got to see included CSX, Norfolk Southern, Union Pacific, and Canadian Pacific. That was our birding and side train watching trip!