Road Trip

 

April 25th

          We left home this morning for southern Ohio on a four-day road trip with Ann and Howard Rosenberg.  We are staying at Shawnee State Park which is directly south of Columbus fairly close to the Ohio River.  The area is surrounded by Shawnee State Forest which is the largest state forest in Ohio.  Part of the forest is designated as wilderness with no roads or logging allowed.  The main reason for our trip is to locate certain warblers and other birds that are much more common in southern Ohio.  

          We made a detour by going to Hueston Woods State Park which is near Oxford and Miami University.  We were trying to find a Yellow-crowned Night-Heron which is a fairly rare bird in Ohio, but we were unsuccessful.  We did have a nice lunch at Fiesta Charra in Oxford.  After lunch we drove out in the country to a grassland area. We were blindly searching for a Northern Bobwhite that had been reported somewhere in the vicinity.  We got out of the car to look and listen and miraculously we heard the bobwhite calling.  This was definitely the bird of the day!

          We still had a 2 ½ hour drive to get to Shawnee and we arrived around 4:30pm.  We took a short walk around the lodge before and after dinner and found both Cerulean and Hooded Warblers among other things.  Can’t wait for more adventures tomorrow.  Most of the birds today were heard and not seen so only one photograph.

(10 new species, total 192)

          Northern Bobwhite                       Warbling Vireo

          Ruby-throated Hummingbird        Wood Thrush

          Least Sandpiper (scarce)              Baltimore Oriole

          Great Crested Flycatcher             Cerulean Warbler

          Eastern Kingbird                          Northern Parula

                                               Gray Catbird

                

Comments

  1. LynneApril 25, 2022 at 6:54 PM

    Sounds like a successful day!

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnnApril 26, 2022 at 4:33 AM

    It was great to hear the songs of birds that we rarely get to see. A little bit of rain did not dampen our good spirits. Listening to the beautiful song of a wood thrush right now.

    ReplyDelete
  3. SharonApril 26, 2022 at 3:58 PM

    Have fun!! I love Hueston Woods. Had my 16th birthday celebration there with my family.

    ReplyDelete

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