Ohio
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A wintry start to the day with 33 mph sustained winds, and a 7:40 am temp near Mansfield of 13 deg. F. As to the wind chill, you can do the math .. I only know it was painful to be exposed for more than a minute. I did not start the count until 9:00 am though conditions were not suitable for observation until 10:50 when the weather broke. Only a half hr earlier, practical visibility for birding was down to 100 meters. Were it not for the invaluable assistance of local birder Bonnie Wilhite, I would have been lost on the country roads NE of Mt. Vernon. Bonnie was able to navigate us through the area with great efficiency allowing us to cover about 80% of the assigned area despite the late start and poor road conditions. Our effort consisted of car observations only from 9:00 - 13:00, a break for lunch, and observations from 14:40 to 17:00 hrs. Total mileage = 57 with a time of 6.5 hrs.
| A random slide show of 8 images taken during the census. The birds include a Northern Mockingbird, American Tree Sparrows, a Red-tailed Hawk, and a White-crowned Sparrow. | |
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Canada Goose - 48 (flock overhead heading N at midday) Cooper's Hawk - 1 Red-tailed Hawk - 11 (9 in the afternoon period) Rough-legged Hawk - 4 (all dark morph in the late afternoon) American Kestrel - 3 Mourning Dove - 20 Red-bellied Woodpecker - 7 Pileated Woodpecker - 1 Northern Flicker - 2 Downy Woodpecker - 14 Hairy Woodpecker - 5 Horned Lark - 27 Blue Jay - 17 American Crow - 28 Carolina Chickadee - 14 Tufted Titmouse -20 White-breasted Nuthatch - 6 Brown Creeper - 3 Carolina Wren - 3 Golden-crowned Kinglet - 5 Eastern Bluebird - 7 Northern Mockingbird - 4* European Starling - 35 Northern Cardinal - 78 American Tree Sparrow - 65 Field Sparrow - 1 Song Sparrow - 26 White-throated Sparrow - 1 White-crowned Sparrow - 14 Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored) - 41 Dark-eyed Junco (Oregon) - 1 (adult female; studied at length for several minutes) Red-winged Blackbird - 1 (adult male) House Finch - 3 American Goldfinch - 9 House Sparrow - 105 *and another on Eastern Star Rd. just E of Mt. Vernon returning from lunch. |
cheers
Vic Fazio
Shaker Hts, OH