White-winged Crossbill

 

March 25th

          Today we were back on the road chasing rare birds in Ohio with some success.  We left the house early to drive to Hoover Reservoir near Westerville which is a little northeast of Columbus.  A Little Gull has been reported there periodically for the last ten days.  Unfortunately, this is a large reservoir that is inaccessible in some areas because of homes along the shore.  We searched several different spots but couldn’t find the Little Gull.  Mike said, “I think I’m going to make a list of all the birds we didn’t find.”  To which I replied, “That’s a very negative attitude!”  We did find two new birds while at this location.  There were many Tree Swallows flying over the reservoir and we saw a pair of Ospreys building a nest on a cell phone tower.

          From here we drove an hour northeast to an Amish farm where the owners had been seeing a White-winged Crossbill at their feeders since Saturday.  This is a rare bird in Ohio, and we knew that birders were welcome, so we decided to go.  We stopped at Subway to buy lunch and arrived about 12:20pm.  The family was very friendly but said we had just missed the bird. They said, “It’ll probably be back in about an hour.”  So, we were invited to sit on an old sofa on their porch to watch the feeders. We sat and ate our lunch and sure enough almost exactly an hour later the bird showed up.  This was the highlight of our day.

          Next, we decided to drive to Wendy Park on Whiskey Island near downtown Cleveland to look for a Great Cormorant.  There were dozens and dozens of cormorants on the breakwall, but we couldn’t find the Great Cormorant (if it was there).  I think Mike’s list is getting a little longer!  (3 new species, total 133)

          Tree Swallow

          Osprey

          White-winged Crossbill (rare)

White-winged Crossbill
(immature male)
Common Loon at reservoir





Comments

  1. AnnMarch 25, 2022 at 5:55 AM

    You meet the nicest people while birding.

    ReplyDelete
  2. John SobetzerMarch 25, 2022 at 7:14 AM

    I look forward to these posts Cathy. Keep finding, and not finding, the birds.

    ReplyDelete

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