Birds and other Animals

Good afternoon again
IMG_6314.jpeg


my dog being very good and calmly watching the deer from across the street


IMG_6313.jpeg
 
Tesoro said:
My favorite animal. We used to hunt them in the 80's....always really went because of my dad...I always felt bad shooting them. Never did after that.
Click to expand...
I couldn’t do it, but I don’t judge those who do. However, what’s really odd is I live 10 minutes from downtown Cincinnati. My neighborhood would definitely be considered “urban”, yet I see way more wildlife in my backyard than my parents who live near a Nature Preserve/Park.
 
Calling chs1971.

Several weeks back there were hundreds of Trumpeter and Tundra Swans in fields near Crane Creek and Ottawa Wildlife Refuge. I've never seen so many in one place before. Is this common migration and perhaps I never noticed in the past? Last Saturday between OWR and East Harbor State Park the wife and I counted 15 Bald Eagles and 7 Bald Eagle nests. There is no shortage if Bald Eagles near Lake Erie. There is also a large Osprey nest on top of the cell phone tower off Route 2 between the two Port Clinton exits. An impressive bird in its own right. Today I saw the resident mink in my marina (I'm lucky to see him twice a year) and at East Harbor State Park there were thousands of Common Merganser ducks. I think. Much like with the swans, I have never seen so many of these all in one place. Is it common?

Here is a general pic but the ones I saw seemed to have darker spiked feathers. Sound right?

1710630590975.png
 

irish_buffalo said:
Calling chs1971.

Several weeks back there were hundreds of Trumpeter and Tundra Swans in fields near Crane Creek and Ottawa Wildlife Refuge. I've never seen so many in one place before. Is this common migration and perhaps I never noticed in the past?
Click to expand...
If you saw flocks of hundreds, they were Tundra Swans. Yes, this is normal migration, hundreds or even thousands of swans. We've seen them as far east as Bellevue and south of Bowling Green. And we tend to find them in the same fields from year to year.

irish_buffalo said:
Last Saturday between OWR and East Harbor State Park the wife and I counted 15 Bald Eagles and 7 Bald Eagle nests. There is no shortage if Bald Eagles near Lake Erie.
Click to expand...
ODNR reports over 900 active nests in Ohio. That's 1,800 breeding adults and doesn't count nonbreeding juveniles. The largest numbers being around Sandusky Bay and Maumee Bay. 30 years there were probably not more than a dozen.

irish_buffalo said:
There is also a large Osprey nest on top of the cell phone tower off Route 2 between the two Port Clinton exits. An impressive bird in its own right.
Click to expand...
There is also an Osprey nest on the cell tower in Castalia, and there is a nest at Howard Marsh Metropark on the platform built for them. Likely a few more around that I don't know about.

irish_buffalo said:
at East Harbor State Park there were thousands of Common Merganser ducks. I think. Much like with the swans, I have never seen so many of these all in one place. Is it common?

Here is a general pic but the ones I saw seemed to have darker spiked feathers. Sound right?
Click to expand...
The picture is a female Common Merganser. Two weekends ago we were on the lakeshore from downtown Sandusky up around Marblehead to East Harbor SP. We saw thousands of Red-breasted Mergansers everywhere. The males are very different. The females are similar except for the coloring on the neck. On the Common the switch from red to white on the neck is an abrupt line, whereas on the Red-breasted the colors sort of fades from red to white. But I don't know, maybe you saw Common Mergansers. We saw a few that day, and they both migrate through here by the thousands.

Mink: Almost forgot. I've only seen mink twice. We've seen beaver once at Magee and once at Ottawa. River otter were reintroduced to the state in 1986 and have since been confirmed in 75 watersheds over 83 counties, but I not seen one.
 
Last edited:
chs1971 said:
If you saw flocks of hundreds, they were Tundra Swans. Yes, this is normal migration, hundreds or even thousands of swans. We've seen them as far east as Bellevue and south of Bowling Green. And we tend to find them in the same fields from year to year.


ODNR reports over 900 active nests in Ohio. That's 1,800 breeding adults and doesn't count nonbreeding juveniles. The largest numbers being around Sandusky Bay and Maumee Bay. 30 years there were probably not more than a dozen.


There is also an Osprey nest on the cell tower in Castalia, and there is a nest at Howard Marsh Metropark on the platform built for them. Likely a few more around that I don't know about.


The picture is a female Common Merganser. Two weekends ago we were on the lakeshore from downtown Sandusky up around Marblehead to East Harbor SP. We saw thousands of Red-breasted Mergansers everywhere. The males are very different. The females are similar except for the coloring on the neck. On the Common the switch from red to white on the neck is an abrupt line, whereas on the Red-breasted the colors sort of fades from red to white. But I don't know, maybe you saw Common Mergansers. We saw a few that day, and they both migrate through here by the thousands.

Mink: Almost forgot. I've only seen mink twice. We've seen beaver once at Magee and once at Ottawa. River otter were reintroduced to the state in 1986 and have since been confirmed in 75 watersheds over 83 counties, but I not seen one.
Click to expand...
Thanks. They were Red-breasted. I typed "duck with spiked feathers on head" into Google and Common came up but they were definitely Red-breasted.

1710691106169.png


I think we have talked about this before but Maumee Bay State Park has a resident Beaver. There is a little known trail that follows a channel out to the lake. It is at the roundabout at the end of the road that serves all of the cabins. The Beaver has felled a bunch of trees there.

And I forgot to mention that there are now several Pileated Woodpeckers at Pearson Park in Oregon. Definitely established there whereas they were not several years ago. I'm assuming they love the old growth forest and all of the larvae that old wood provides? Awesome bird to see flying and navigating a tree trunk.
 
Speaking of birds, went bird hunting two weekends ago. First time hunting ever, got the itch now. Bagged me 4 pheasants, 1 chukar and 18 quail.

Then got me my first feral hog mid last week. Didn’t get a clean shot so it didn’t go down right away. Found it 2 days later, well the little bit of remains that the coyotes left.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top