Skip to main content

Great Egrets in a Tree at the Bridge

March 28, 2018

I visited Lost Bridge mudflats where I have seen several Great Egrets in recent years and, after seeing a report of a flyover at Fernald Preserve, I was prompted to seek them in the most reliable place, in my experience, in Hamilton county. I had identified 9 Wood Ducks (flyovers), 11 Blue-winged Teal, 4 Mallards, 12 Lesser Scaup, 8 Bufflehead, 3 Hooded Mergansers, 3 Red-breasted Mergansers, 3 Great Blue Herons and 2 Horned Grebes at the flats before a very dense, heavy fog settled in and I was unable to see the birds on the water and the flats anymore. I decided to go across the bridge to turn around and the pull off at Miamiview Road when I looked to my left and there they were! Five Great Egrets were sitting in a tree just east of the bridge.

Great Egret is #115 for the year.

Comments

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...

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 clot...

Moviemaking and Birding

My son's cub scout den met at the Den Leader's house in Westwood this afternoon to make a movie outdoors in the woods as one of the electives for the Arrow of Light program. They will be bridging over to boy scouts in February. While I tried to stay out of the shots as they filmed their movie, I wore my binoculars around my neck, birding in the backyard, and quickly added Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. There were two birds, a male and an immature with white throat (female?). Next, a noisy flock of Common Grackles was music to my ears, as I needed this bird for my list. Normally I would not get excited about grackles, but they added one more to my total! Later I added a Northern Flicker as it flew past my head and into the woods. We went inside to warm up with hot chocolate and rice krispy treats. As we enjoyed these and enjoyed one another's company, I turned around to look out the window. What was that up in the tree? Could it be? Yes, a Hermit Thrush! Sometimes I have a hard...