First Birding Weekend, March of 2013

It's time for the migrants to head north so we decided to look for ducks.  We kept our eyes open for other visitors and recently arrived summer residents also.  I'm not listing all the birds we found, just the ones we found notable for one reason or another.

At Spring Valley on Friday afternoon we saw swans across the lake among the old cattail stems, probably Tundra Swans (Cygnus columbianus).  From there we drove to Eastwood Lake where we saw Lesser Scaups (Aythya affinis),  Ringnecked ducks (Aythya collaris), Buffleheads (Bucephala albeola), and American Coots (Fulica americana).

On Saturday we drove  through the fish hatchery at St. Mary's, then  around the lake and stopped at Mercer County Wildlife area. On that trip, we added a Canvasback (Aythya valisineria)

Monday was rainy but we drove to Englewood Lake and found two addtional species, Northern Pintail (Anas acuta) and Redheads (Aythya americana).  Tree Swallows (Tachycineta bicolor) were swooping above the rafts of scaups.  Must be enough insects have emerged for them to find lunch.

The Worst sighting...evidence of the Emerald Ash Tree Borer which has invaded our area.  Ashes are one of the trees that are prevalent throughout many wooded areas of Southwestern Ohio.  We will miss them.  Scientists are working on ways to save the trees but haven't come up with a surefire way, yet.

And the best sighting on Saturday...a male Lesser Scaup and a Canvasback swimming close enough to get a good size comparison.

We saw this groundhog at Eastwood Lake, one of the Dayton Metro Parks on Friday afternoon.  It is the first one we've seen this spring.