Harrier, snipe, and sparrow

Time to throw the birds back in Ohio Birds and Biodiversity! I needed some solo bird therapy this morning, having had precious little time to observe and photograph the feathered crowd this fall. So it was off to a tried and true local hotspot, Battelle Darby Metro Park and its huge and successful prairie restoration. This place never lets me down, and it didn't today.

A female northern harrier wings past, just as she glimpsed me concealed in a natural blind of cattails. Prior to spotting the interloper, she had her head canted downwards, watching for voles. I saw one other female, and a striking gray adult male. Note the hawk's owl-like facial disk. The bright buffy tones mark her as a juvenile.

Dapper and sleek, a neatly marked Savannah sparrow pauses briefly atop a snag in a cattail marsh. This sparrow favors open country, but is not named for the plant community of widely scattered trees (which is properly spelled "savanna"). Rather, its common name is derived from the city in Georgia, where pioneer ornithologist Alexander Wilson took the first specimen.

We are at the peak of migration for Savannah sparrows, and I saw perhaps 75 of them this morning.

A juvenile Wilson's snipe, its plumage fresh and crisp, blends well with the punky duff of a drawn down cattail marsh. This species blends astonishingly well with its haunts. I first picked up a few snipe as they flew by, then flushed a few others. After settling into a particularly good snipe honey hole and carefully watching, I gained a better estimate of their numbers. I tallied nearly 50, but as I saw only a fragment of the available habitat I'm sure many others were present.

All told, a wonderful three hours afield on a cold clear October morning.

Northern harrier, hunting voles

A long abandoned farmstead haunts the Pickaway Plains, a former swath of prairie that covered parts of Pickaway and Ross counties in central Ohio. A meeting today took me to southern Ohio's Adams County, which meant driving right by this place. I couldn't resist a stop in the early morning light for photos. And a quick drive through of the adjoining 1,000 acre conservation reserve program grassland. Didn't see much in the morning due to limited time, but I'd stop by here again on my way home, in late afternoon.

The afternoon visit was much more productive for birds. At least four northern harriers, like the male above, were hunting the grasslands. Harriers are often quite wary of people, and will veer off before getting into effective camera range. This one gave me one pass and I tried to make the most of it.

An immature bald eagle flew overhead, and a lone light-morph rough-legged hawk worked the grasslands. It was later harassed by a peregrine falcon that seemingly materialized out of nowhere. Am American kestrel or two perched on wires, and I saw at least thirty ring-necked pheasants. They reproduce well at this site and are quite wary. It was a productive hour or so, but by the time I left at dusk the mercury was plunging into the high teens.

A reminder: If you want to take lots of birds photos and learn lots of techniques, Debbie DiCarlo and I are leading a trip to a MUCH warmer place: South Florida in late February. A good time to escape frigid northern climes. All the details are RIGHT HERE.