I've got a post on the sighting of a Snowy Owl on my blog and I know there are bird watchers here, so I wanted to share. Guess it's a pretty rare sighting.
When the recycle trucks came by this morning, s/he flew northward hugging the shoreline. For those interested, there are numerous public accesses to the Maumee Bay at the end of almost every street in the Point.
Comments ... #
actually, I'm not the bird watcher...just happen to notice the wildlife around the house...
JR is really into birding, though, so I'm sure he'll have some advice on good places to go, etc.
Also, Josh, you can search this site...think jr's got quite a few links around here...
posted by MaggieThurber on Nov 26, 2007 at 01:41:43 pm #
Thanks for posting this, Maggie. On Thursday or Friday of last week, I read about the Point Place Snowy Owl sighting on the Toledo Naturalists message board, which Maggie linked to in her blog posting.
The bird looks really dark in Maggie's photo, which could mean it's an immature female. The adult males are the ones that are nearly all white. The darker immature Snowies get pushed out of the prime feeding areas up north and are more likely the ones that make it to Ohio. The U.P. in the winter is a good spot to see the all-white Snowies.
A few Snowy Owls make it to northern Ohio almost every winter. Once in a while, a Snowy will appear in central or southern Ohio. Toledo Naturalists Christmas Bird Count data would provide additional info on how frequent Snowy Owls are observed in mid- to late-December around here.
Excerpts from the book "Birds of Ohio" about the Snowy Owl :
Wherever they appear, Snowy Owls are certain to attract attention. Mostly diurnal in their habits, they are likely to be observed during the midday hours as they hunt from low perches or the ground. These large owls are remarkably tame, normally inhabiting the Arctic tundra and infrequently encountering people. Although Snowies hunt over open fields, they regularly turn up in the middle of cities, perched on a large building and oblivious to the commotion on the street below.Snowy Owls normally winter north of Ohio, where they subsist on lemmings and other rodents. Lemming populations undergo severe declines every three or four years, and then the owls move southward in search of food, producing sizable winter invasions into the Great Lakes region.
Snowy Owls annually appear in Ohio. During some years, these reports are restricted to two or three sightings along Lake Erie; other years may produce five to seven lakefront reports and two or three inland.
The timing of their movements has not changed in recent years. [T]hey normally appear during November or December. Considerably fewer Snowies return north each spring.
Most Snowy Owls appearing in Ohio are immatures that have poorly developed hunting skills. Many cannot capture enough food to sustain themselves and perish during winter, accounting for the relatively small numbers of spring migrants.
It's been an amazing fall thus far for north country birds invading Ohio. Follow the "action" on these two Web sites:A Pine Grosbeak was observed last Wednesday next to Oak Openings Metropark. This rare Ohio visitor has attracted a lot of birdwatchers. My wife and I got to see it Thanksgiving morning.
The Pine Grosbeak doesn't always make it south to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in the winter. If food is available, these birds will stay north of the U.P. My wife and I spent a few days birding the eastern part of the U.P this past February, and the Pine Grosbeaks were not around. When I was in the U.P. in February 2004, I saw dozens of Pine Grosbeaks. So to have at least one Pine Grosbeak hanging out in the Toledo area is amazing.
Some birds are irruptive :
Every winter, bird watchers across North America anxiously await the possible incursion of birds that don't normally winter in their areas. These periodic bird irruptions add a dramatic level of excitement to winter birding. The birds most commonly associated with these winter irruptions are the winter finches (Pine Grosbeak, Red Crossbill, White-winged Crossbill, Purple Finch, Pine Siskin, Common Redpoll, and Evening Grosbeak), but other species will also shift from their typical wintering grounds into other areas. For example, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Clark's Nutcracker, Bohemian Waxwing, Black-capped Chickadee, and Varied Thrush will stage periodic winter irruptions.It is generally believed that irruptions are driven by a lack of food on the normal wintering grounds. For example, Common Redpolls feed primarily on the catkins produced by birch and alder trees. When catkin production is low, Common Redpolls leave these areas and irrupt into areas where food is more plentiful.
Here are the irruptive birds that have been observed around Ohio in recent weeks. All of these have been seen in the Toledo area, except for the White-winged Crossbill.Common Ohio Visitors :
- Red-breasted Nuthatch
- Pine Siskin
- Purple Finch
Rare Ohio Visitors :
- Evening Grosbeak
- Common Redpoll
- Red Crossbill
- White-winged Crossbill
- Pine Grosbeak
- Bohemian Waxwing
The first three bird species are the more common irruptive birds found in Ohio during the winter. They may not appear in Ohio every winter, but every two or three years, we get some movement into Ohio of the Red-breasted Nuthatch, Pine Siskin, and Purple Finch. And then some years are big invasion years. It seems to be a good fall for Pine Siskins around Ohio. We don't have any at our feeders yet. They like thistle seed.
This fall is probably the biggest invasion year for Red-breasted Nuthatches since the 2001-2002 fall and winter. It seems everyone I've talked to this season has at least one Red-breasted Nuthatch at their feeder. We've got two coming to our feeders. First time we've had them at our feeders since the 2001-2002 winter. Red-breasted Nuthatches are neat-looking, fast moving, tame, little birds. You can stand next to your feeder, and they will still visit the feeder. They may even land on the feeder while you are filling it with seed.
We saw several crossbills this past February in the U.P., but the crossbills were nearly non-existent in the U.P. during my Febuary 2004 visit. A Red Crossbill was observed at the Oak Openings Metropark nature center two Sundays ago. And a White-winged Crossbill visited a feeder in Lake County last week.
Common Redpoll sightings around the region are increasing. This is another bird that may visit a thistle seed feeder.
Evening Grosbeaks have been observed in many parts of Ohio, including the southern part of the state. I've only been doing more serious birding for eight years now, and I've not seen this many reports for Evening Grosbeaks in Ohio before.
Here are some other north country birds that are around right now and visit Ohio annually with their numbers varying from year to year :
- Northern Shrike
- Snow Bunting
- Glaucous Gull
- Snow Goose
- Ross's Goose
- Long-eared Owl
- Northern Saw-Whet Owl
A Ruby-throated Hummingbird is hanging out right now at a feeder in East Toledo. That's a nice find for this time of the year. Many people put their hummingbird feeders away by September, but hummingbirds can still be moving through Ohio late in the year.
The rarest bird in Ohio right now is probably the Sabine's Gull over at Huron. This Toledo Naturalist message board posting contains a photo of this fine-looking gull.
No such bird exists around here called a Sea Gull. What we see the most are Ring-billed Gulls and Herring Gulls. But winter time brings more gull species to the lakeshore. Here's my winter gull ID cheatsheet for adult plumage gulls that are possible to see in the Toledo area. Young gulls have too many plumage variations for me to know what I'm looking at.
Although the photo I have makes it look like the owl has darker feathers, I'm sure it's just the photo and the zoom I had to use to get a good shot.
When viewed through the binoculars, it looked exactly like the picture in our Birds of North America book. This is a better picture of what our owl looked like, except we could clearly see the three black bands on the tail feathers.
I don't know who they were, but we had two guys come by ... very excited to be hunting (with binocs and cameras) the infrequent visitor.
posted by MaggieThurber on Nov 26, 2007 at 03:51:49 pm #
"... any other places you recommend for a beginner to go?"
Many of the local parks have an indoor room with a big window where you can comfortably watch birds coming to the feeders. This is how the Red Crossbill was found at Oak Openings last week. The bird was splashing in a bird bath by the feeders.
Here's a Nov 25, 2007 posting at the Metroparks of Toledo blog about a Fox Sparrow seen from the window on wildlife. When people think of "sparrow" they probably only think of the House Sparrow, but many species of sparrows can found in the Toledo area. The species available depends upon the time of year. Photo of the Fox Sparrow from the Metroparks blog posting :
The winter sparrow that's around now is the American Tree Sparrow. Other sparrows that can be found during the winter in our parks include: Field, White-crowned, White-throated, Song, and Swamp. The Dark-eyed Junco and the Eastern Towhee are in the sparrow family and are also around the area now, especially the Junco.The sportsman's center at Magee Marsh and the Black Swamp Bird Observatory nature center at the entrance to Magee Marsh both have indoor, sit-down areas where you can watch birds visiting feeders.
Same for the nature centers at Maumee Bay State Park, W.W. Knight Nature Preserve in Perrysburg, and Pearson Metropark in Oregon. I think most of the metroparks have a window on the wildlife. I'm not sure about the new visitor's center at Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge next door to Magee Marsh.
So you could do all your birding indoors by driving from place to place that has a window on the wildlife. From Oak Openings Metropark to Magee Marsh. It would be a lot of driving, but you would stay warm and dry. Or just pick one window on the wildlife and spend an hour or two.
For outdoor birding, Woodlawn Cemetery is a good spot in the winter. Just walk along the roads winding through the cemetery. It's obviously an old place. It contains a wide variety of trees. One of the crossbills was seen in Woodlawn Cemetery seven years ago. Woodlawn is good for sparrows and finch birds and some other decent winter finds for our area like Hermit Thrush and Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. The pond or river that runs through Woodlawn stays open in at least one spot due to a natural spring. That's why a Belted Kingfisher can found at Woodlawn even when it's bitter cold out. I predict someone soon will find one of the rare irruptive birds at Woodlawn Cemetery.
Toledo area Metroparks with a "Windows on Wildlife" that looks out at bird feeders :
- Pearson
- Secor
- Wildwood Preserve
- Swan Creek
- Oak Openings
Here's a photo of the Oak Openings Metropark Red Crossbill from last week that was seen from the window on wildlife. Naturally, the bills on crossbills are crossed.
On the Toledo Naturalists message board, nice photos exist of the Point Place Snowy Owl and the East Toledo hummingbird. The photos of both birds were taken on Nov 26, 2007. It's frigging amazing that these two birds can be seen in Toledo on the same day. And what a size difference between the two birds.
jr - is this owl likely to stay in the area for a while? perhaps the whole winter?
It was sighted this morning at the end of 118th St....
posted by MaggieThurber on Nov 27, 2007 at 09:05:17 pm #
In the farm fields of the eastern U.P., Snowies are present for several weeks in the winter. In an urban setting, I'm not sure how long one would stay around. As long as it can find food and nobody shoots it, the Point Place Snowy may stay for a while if it can learn to tolerate human activity. Does a field exist nearby that the owl may be feeding at? I might stop up today and check it out because I have a feeling the owl won't stay around for long. My guess is it will move out to the country.
Side note: I checked the Toledo Naturalists message board this morning, and last night someone posted seeing a Prairie Falcon yesterday (Nov 27) near Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge. The person included a photo of the bird in the posting. This falcon is a western states bird.
Yep, jr, quite a few fields and marsh areas within a 1 mile radius...the bird didn't seem to mind the people looking at it and taking pictures, but did fly away when the recycle and leaf collections trucks came around...
We keep an eye out for it throughout the day...
posted by MaggieThurber on Nov 28, 2007 at 11:19:40 am #
What is the URL for the Toledo Naturalist message board? beautiful pics :)
jr - as of this posting, he's sitting on my deck - has been for about 10 minutes. End of 117th St.
posted by MaggieThurber on Dec 02, 2007 at 12:33:55 pm #
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current date: 22-Nov-2008 4:53 P.M.
Wow, beautiful bird. Nice post. I've always enjoyed nature but never became a "bird watcher", any other places you recommend for a beginner to go?
posted by jshriver on Nov 26, 2007 at 12:22:49 pm #