Our First Owl

We set out today in search for the snowy owl. Our plan was to go to Black Swamp Bird Observatory (BSBO) and get some advice on where to begin our search. BSBO has posted some updates on their Facebook and Twitter accounts so we thought that this would be a great place to start. We were notified by the BSBO staff that there were four different species of owls spotted at Maumee Bay State Park. The list included a Long Eared, Great Horned Owl, Saw Whet, and Screech Owl. After an unsuccessful trip to Camp Perry Beach to check for the Snowy owl we decided to change our focus to Maumee Bay. We were determined to come home with an owl added to our life list.

Christmas in GR

It is Christmas eve so I thought I would post a video. The video is of our neighbors house. As you can see he goes all out for the holiday. I hope you enjoy it.

Wild Snowy Owl Chase

We have been planning on making another trip to Ottawa County in Ohio specifically Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge, Magee Marsh, and Black Swamp Bird Observatory (BSBO). Our plans were hastened by the fact that all three locations were having a Holiday Open House on Sunday. With this in mind we planned our trip. Later in the week BSBO began to report, via Twitter, a possible snowy owl in the Port Clinton area. Snowy Owls are uncommon in Ohio but last year there were sightings along Lake Erie from Toledo to Cleveland.

Oak Openings Metropark

The Nerdy Birders finally made it back to Oak Openings, however we decided to checkout a different section of the park this time around. We parked at the lot near Evergreen Lake where a few trail heads begin. After gathering our gear and picking a trail we headed off into the woods. This section of the park has many different habitats for birds. Of course there is Evergreen Lake, many different types of trees, streams, open grassy fields, and extremely wooded areas. For the majority of the trip we were running into different woodpeckers such as the downy and the red bellied. We did see some evidence of some larger woodpeckers but no luck finding them. Below is a picture of a red bellied that I captured early on in the hike.

Thanksgiving

Had a great Thanksgiving this year. Started off with a wonderful morning with my wife, then Thanksgiving dinner at her parents, and finally ended the day at my fathers for cards and a couple beers. It was great to step back from work, class, and homework to spend a couple days with family and friends. While I was at my in-laws I managed to get a couple pictures of a blue heron. One of them he actually has a fish in his mouth. You have to look closely to see it.

Winter Roosting Box 2

I posted a few days ago that I planed on building a roosting box, well today was the day. I did run into a few problems with my measurements so it didn't come out great, but I don't think that the birds will mind. I was handicapped by the fact that I was using scrap wood and had a limited amount. Below are some pictures of my progress. I do however still have to find a place to hang it.

Here is hoping that the birds use it this winter.

Happy Birding!

Titmice Are The Tits

Another Sunday and another trip to Maumee State Forest. This time we hadn't planned on going to the same park but we forgot the leashes for the dogs and at Maumee Forest we don't need to keep them leashed. Oak Openings will have to wait until next week. Anyway, we saw the normal birds including blue jays, nuthatches, eastern bluebirds, and pair of red bellied woodpeckers. There were some new birds to the forest. One of which was several titmice. They were acting very strangely tussling around with each other. This made it very difficult to get some pictures but I managed just this one. There are actually two titmice in the picture if you look closely, you can see them.

I also captured a picture of a downy woodpecker.

Overall it was a good trip. A lot of activity and a few birds we don't normally see.

Happy Birding!

Winter Roosting Box

With the winter upon us it is important to give the wild birds at your feeder a warm place to sleep at night. You can purchase one from a number of places such as Wild Birds Unlimited but I think that it would be much more rewarding to build one. I have come up with some rough plans and will be building it later in the week. I thought that I would share my plans and some

Tools Needed
Drill
Screwdriver
Circular Saw
Jigsaw

Supplies
3/4 inch plywood or thicker
Wood glue
Wood screws
Dowel rod
Hinges
Sand paper

Below is a sketch of what I plan the roost box to look like. Hopefully I will have pictures of my progress later this week.

Stay warm and happy birding.

First Snowfall

Last night was the first significant snowfall of the winter here in Grand Rapids Ohio so this morning I thought that I would take some time before work to try and get some pictures. The snow was light and fluffy and there seemed to be very little wind overnight so the snow was sticking quite well to the trees. This made for some very beautiful shots. The first picture is the towpath standing near the Grand Rapids Dam looking down toward downtown Grand Rapids. Since it was Monday the towpath was undisturbed and pristine.

This next picture is of the old canal running beside the towpath.

I finally made it to the dam where there was very little bird activity other than some gulls standing on the dam. I could not help but take some pictures down the river.

Heading back through town I noticed that the town hall had their lights on. I decided not to stop but I am a little disappointed that I didn't. I did however stop at the old railway bridge and get a couple pictures, below is my favorite.

Capping Off the Weekend

I thought that I would cap off the weekend with a picture of a black capped chickadee that my wife captured. This took a lot of patience and forced her to neglect her dissertation work but I must admit that it was worth it.

The snow is falling here in northwest Ohio so expect some wintery pictures over the next couple days.

Happy Birding!

Dark-eyed Junco

Even with the onset of a cold the Nerdy Birders still managed to make it out to bird. We enjoyed ourselves so much last week that we decided to head back over to Maumee State Forest. Upon arriving at the park we were berated by a plethora of activity. Downy woodpeckers, nuthatches, blue jays, and to our surprise a large number of eastern bluebirds. My wife pointed out that some of the birds within the mix of bluebirds looked slightly different. I was busy trying to capture as many images as I could but zeroing in on a small bird high in the trees was proving to be quite difficult. After our nearly two mile walk around the woods we hopped in the car and discovered that I had captured the bird my wife was pointing out earlier. She did a little research and concluded that it was a dark-eyed junco. This brought our life list up to 68.

I found using a camera instead of binoculars somewhat difficult this first time around although without the camera we would have never been able to identify this bird.

New Pictures

So I can't help but share a few more pictures taken with my new camera. They are coming out really good. I will start with the white breasted nuthatch. This guy is around all the time which gives me a lot of chances to capture moments like the one below.

While I was concentrating on the nuthatch I caught a glimpse of a little red and noticed this guy. First time we saw him at the feeder and we are hoping that we can keep him around.

On my way back to work I spotted one of the two kestrels that hunt the fields outside of Grand Rapids. Not a great shot but it really tested the distance that my camera can handle.

Lastly I could not help but capture the female cardinal that shows up in the evening. Not the best light to take pictures in but they still came out pretty good.

Thanks for reading and happy birding!

New Camera!

Earlier I mentioned that I had purchased a new camera and hoped to capture some of the birds we see on our hikes. Well the camera has arrived and earlier this afternoon I was able to take a few pictures of a white breasted nuthatch on our feeder. Although the angle isn't great I am very happy with the clarity and simplicity of the camera. Now all I have to do is figure out how to remove the time stamp, get a battery, charger, and a larger SD card.

 

Maumee State Forest

I have been thinking hard about my first blog post and what I should say. I have come to the conclusion that I should just keep it simple so here it goes...

We got out to bird a couple times over the past few days. First we made it to the Providence dam the other morning and watched the sun rise. There was not a lot of bird activity other than a few ducks flying over head. We did discover what appeared to be ducks in the river but on closer inspection we realized that they were decoys and surprisingly there were two hunters setting in the grass on one of the islands. We later learned that hunting is permitted in the river as long as they only fire up and down the river and not toward the banks. We decided to move on to Maumee State Forest. There we spotted a downy woodpecker, a phoebe, nuthatch, and a black capped chickadee. All of which we had seen before so this leaves our life list (started in June) at 67. Picture below is the hiking path at Maumee State Forest. This is a great forest to walk through during late fall and winter months however during the summer it can be full of masquitoes.

I just purchased a Canon Powershot SX50 HS so I have high hopes of capturing pictures of all the birds. Photography is easy right?