jahayes@miavx1.acs.muohio.edu (05/03/91)
A few quick notes on a birding walk from last night. I've been laid up with a cold for several days -- right in the middle of the migration!-- but things are still hopping pretty good out there. Our usual locale, Hueston Woods State Park. Aside from the usual birds (titmice, crows, chickadees, starlings, grackles), blue-grey gnatcatchers were also abundant. We saw two flickers, a red-bellied woodpecker, a hairy, two downies, and a yellow-bellied sapsucker. Not surprisingly, yellow-rumped warblers were abundant. Spotted one Northern parula, an embarassing lifer for me (I know, they're really common, I just have never managed to SEE one, despite hearing what must be dozens by now). Also spotted a resident pair of yellow-throated warblers. Down at the lake there are a pair of marsh wrens, some red-winged blackbirds, and a very aggressive and LOUD pair of Canada honkers. We saw a red-throated grebe as well, another lifer (!) for BOTH my wife and me. Very nice. A kingfisher chirred and rattled and swooped about. On the way back to the car we heard and subsequently spotted (he wasn't very shy) a gorgeous male Northern Oriole (Baltimore race) patiently working through the treetops. I got a surprisingly clean view of a northern waterthrush bobbing on a log over the stream, but Alice missed him....bluebirds were abundant on the drive home, and one meadowlark seems to reliably sit on the same fencepost every day. Chimney swifts have reappeared in recent days, but the swallow count is still way down. Cheers, Josh Hayes, jahayes@miavx1.acs.muohio.edu