Skip to main content

Chippies are back!

March 23, 2018

Chippies, as my great aunt used to call them, are back in Cincinnati. On my way home from work I made an impromptu decision to pull into Old St. Joseph Cemetery where I expected to find them. I've seen Chippies in cemeteries many times, so I figured it is as good a place as any to look.
I didn't take long before I heard one singing. Already this year I had found a Pine Warbler at Mitchell Memorial Forest and Dark-eyed Juncos have been singing in my neighborhood. Both of these birds sound superficially similar to the Chipping Sparrow, but the Chippie has a drier, more monotone song than these two. The Pine Warbler's song was easily recognized as sweeter, more musical. The Dark-eyed Junco's song seems to be somewhat in between the Chipping Sparrow and Pine Warbler in terms of dryness and musical quality. The Chippie was seen on the ground eating grass seeds from the growing stems, and another was heard in a nearby tree.

After changing from my work clothes at home, I headed to Fernald Preserve where I was expecting to find some target birds. I walked out to the bird blind where snipe have been recently reported. I was unsuccessful once again at finding snipe but was pleasantly surprised to find a small group of Purple Martins flying around the nearby pond.

New additions on this day: Chipping Sparrow and Purple Martin to bring the total to 110 species.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Lake Barber and Metro additions.

Wednesday January 3 I worked a split shift today at Metro. Two Black Vultures flew over my head near Colerain Ave. and I-74 as I was headed to the end of the line. After my morning work, I had some time so I went to Lake Barber Park (near Evan's Landscaping off Roundbottom Rd. in Newtown). Five Long-tailed Ducks were reported here on the Cincinnati CBC. When I arrived, I found that most of the eastern lake was frozen over and only a lone Mute Swan standing on the ice. I walked back to the car and grabbed the scope, and decided to find the western lake that I saw on the map. As I walked I added White-breasted Nuthatch. When I arrived at the western lake, I found some open water and flushed a group of Mallards out toward the other distant ducks and geese. Fifteen Tundra Swans stood on the ice. With my scope I scanned the raft of ducks. Among Canada Geese and Mallards were Redheads, Bufflehead, Common Goldeneye, Gadwall, Northern Shoveler, Greater and Lesser Scaup, Ruddy Ducks and A...
Post a Comment
Read more

Day Two - January 2, 2018

Noisy Blue Jays in the neighborhood were new for the year today. I worked again at Metro (usually happens on weekdays). I had to catch the route 31 bus to my relief point so I could relieve a driver on the route 32. While standing at the bus stop, 3 Ring-billed Gulls flew over my head. I missed these in the county last year. Later, while driving the route 32, I added Northern Mockingbird and Red-shouldered Hawk. New birds for the year today: Blue Jay, Ring-billed Gull, Northern Mockingbird, Red-shouldered Hawk. 2018 Year List = 20.
Post a Comment
Read more

Hooded Mergs and Rumors of Long-tailed Ducks

When I arrived at Lodge Pond at Fernald Preserve early this afternoon, another birder was standing there photographing ducks, geese and swans. There was a wide variety of ducks, a few geese and several Mute Swans. I quickly found a pair of Hooded Mergansers, a waterfowl species that has eluded me all month. Had I been five minutes too late, I would have missed them because after a few ducks went airborne, I couldn't relocate the mergansers. After a brief celebration for finally getting these birds, the other birder informed me that he had 3 Long-tailed Ducks about an hour prior at the Lost Bridge gravel pits. So instead of walking the path around Lodge Pond as originally planned to look for some much needed icterids, I decided to go on this chase. I feared that he had misidentified the pintails there. When I arrived at Lost Bridge, the numbers of geese and ducks were way down from previously. We have had rising temperatures and with that thawing ice and more places with open wate...
Post a Comment
Read more