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Wild Goose Chase!!!

Wednesday January 10

I went to Harrison to get some money at the bank to buy a annual park decal for my car at Miami-Whitewater Forest but the attendant wasn't there today. Yesterday he let me in but I found several areas closed due to icy conditions. Today, with the warmer temperatures, these areas were open and I was able to search for and find a Barred Owl for my most consistently reliable spot for this species. I also heard a Winter Wren singing but couldn't find it. I'm keeping my county year list as birds that are seen, so heard only birds will not count. I'll know where to look for this bird on my next visit.

Next I decided to check the Lost Bridge area for the hoards of geese that have been recently reported there. I quickly found the gigantic flock of Canada Geese with some white geese mixed in! Bingo! Stop the car, get out and pop the trunk. I scoped the white birds, quickly recognized 80 Snow Geese, both phases, (check), found 8 smaller white geese swimming near them without grin patches, Ross' Goose (check), about 100 Northern Pintails (check), and ... where were they? As I scanned the rafts of geese and ducks, finding a few Gadwall and 100 Mallards, I searched and searched the goose flocks, making about 3-4 passes back and forth scanning with the scope until I hit pay dirt! I counted 23 Greater White-fronted Geese mixed in with the Canada's. Several Canada Geese were flying in and some smaller, stubbier billed, squeaky sounding look-a-likes too. Cackling Geese, 35 of them! Never before have I ever seen 5 species of geese anywhere in one day, let alone the same spot! Truly a spectacle. Try as I might, I could not pull out a Hooded Merganser.

I then went on to Shawnee Lookout Park nearby and getting one of my target birds, Pileated Woodpecker.

New today (in order): Barred Owl, Snow Goose, Ross' Goose, Northern Pintail, Greater White-fronted Goose and Pileated Woodpecker bringing the county year total to 79. Ross' Goose is new for my county life list, bringing that total to 255, and for the state of Ohio, bringing that total to 304.
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