Ok, so it has been forever since I updated the blog. January kind of kicked my ass. I have been the lazy birder the last few weeks and have little to show for it. I guess I can go back and recap the end of the January for starters.
A couple of additional local patch trips and winter rarity chases finished out January. My total was 122. I am happy with that. Sort of. I find myself becoming a greedy birder sometimes, you know the type; wild eyed and rabid to find more more more birds. It's embarrassing, but sometimes I fall into it. Maybe we all do.
Took a quick trip to Calvary cemetery to find the Merlin. He was perched on top of a tree in the newer section of the cemetery. All in all that was an easy bird to find. From there we hightailed it over to Berea to a little pond behind the library. Among the Canada Geese and Mallards a single drake Wood duck was paddling around and calling. It was a good end to the day.
I met Prettybird at Seiberling Nature Realm in Akron the next day at lunch time and found a lone Pine Siskin at the thistle feeders. Such neat little birds. The next day she and I headed to Killdeer plains and found 7 Long Eared Owls roosting in a white pine as the sun was coming up behind them. Finding owls is always a strange kind of adrenaline rush. Maybe because they are not the easiest birds to find or maybe it is just because they are freaking awesome.
I checked off Hermit Thrush on an awesome Local Patch day in the valley. It was a great day for lots on the tour. Just cool birds all around.
A few more chases yielded some more new January birds: Black crowned night herons near the lake and the Northern Shrike at Bath. Another little trip towards Columbus was a great day. Brown Thrasher, Turkey Vulture, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Green Winged Teal and Savannah Sparrow we all new birds for the year.
One last Local Patch trip for January gave us another amazing day. I honestly didn't think I would get any new birds that day. I was wrong. A little pack of Horned Grebes at Eastlake was a total surprise. A Thayer's Gull at 72nd was a killer pull by Jen. Then Ring-necked Pheasants near Carlisle made it a three new bird day pushing my January total to 121. I was good with that until we heard there was a Virginia Rail somehow staying alive in a ditch in Kent. So on the 31st I dragged my now pretty ill ass into the car and drove out there. Sure enough, there he was, hunkered down in the smallest little bit of open water with the look like "Seriously, I stayed here why?" . Nevertheless, bird 122 for January. A pretty awesome way to end the month. From there it was back home to bed and chicken soup for the next week.
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