21. Northern Cardinal

Date          July 22, 2002
Location     Scioto Lagoon, Dublin, OH

I saw him at the feeders. This was certainly not the first sighting, but I made this the official one because the dawn sun was behind me and he was a brilliant red.


Cornell: Northern Cardinal

20. Red-bellied Woodpecker

Date          July 22, 2002
Location     Scioto Lagoon, Dublin, OH

This first view of a Red-bellied Woodpecker blew me away. The black-and-white barring on the back was stunning. I first heard the "chug-chugging" call, then I saw him fly to a perch in a small tree near some feeders that were near the windows of one of the business buildings.

It would be a while before I ever spied the faint red wash on their bellies. It was an additional challenge that made observing them more fun. Still is!


Cornell: Red-bellied Woodpecker

19. Mallard

Date          July 22, 2002
Location     Scioto Lagoon, Dublin, OH

There were a few females foraging in the water. I was able to get quite close.

I remember a few weeks later being puzzled by some strange-looking Mallards at a community park. I later figured out that they were male in eclipse plumage.

While the Mallard is certainly common and sometimes very tame, they are in fact a beautiful bird with its green head, reddish-brown chest, and soft gray back.

Cornell: Mallard

18. Belted Kingfisher

Date          July 22, 2002
Location     Scioto River, Dublin, OH

As mentioned in the post for number 17, I was out on what had become my weekly bird outing. I had spied out an area in Dublin just along the Scioto river near the High St. bridge. There were some businesses there and a small parking lot. Next to those were a small pond (which I would later dub the "Scioto Lagoon" so I could remember the correct body of water) and a line of trees concealing the river. I probed about and found a short trail leading to the river. There was a large area of rocky shore that permitted some nice birding. I could tell from the water line that these rocks were often under water. It would be no surprise that by late summer they would be revealed.

I don't remember if it was this day or a subsequent trip when I ran into a small mammal on these rocks. It was fairly small and had reddish-brown hair. It looked rather like a river otter of some sort. He was just ambling along and walked right past me, within about 10 feet. He looked up at me briefly but didn't miss a step.

I saw the kingfisher perch on a branch overlooking the river. It was a classic set-up. He dived into the river and came back up with a small fish. Back at his perch, he attempted to eat it, but he mishandled it, and it fell back in the river. He just sat there as if nothing had happened.

Cornell: Belted Kingfisher

17. House Finch

Date          July 22, 2002
Location     Front Yard (Gillette Ave.), Hilliard, OH

I was leaving for my "weekly field trip" on a Saturday morning when I heard a male beautifully singing right at the peak of my roof. He was well out in the open there and easy to identify. I'm quite sure that this was not the first one I had identified.


Cornell: House Finch

16. European Starling

Date          July 22, 2002
Location     Nationwide Plaza 1, Columbus, OH

Obviously not the first time I had seen one, but this was my first juvenile, so I picked this one to record onto my life list.


Cornell: European Starling

15. American Robin

Date          July 13, 2002
Location     Back yard (Gillette Ave.), Hilliard, OH

The American Robin, along with the American Goldfinch, and to a lesser extent some other species like the Red-winged Blackbird, is the bird that got me interested in birds in the first place.

That may seem strange since the robin is such a common bird -- a bird that someone grows up with and is used to seeing. But I grew up in an area where robins were not common yard birds. It was only after I moved to Ohio that I  became familiar with them. Indeed, I was fascinated by them.

This amused my wife because she, a "non-birder" (more on that in my entry for meadowlark), knew that they were a common sight. It's like getting excited over a sparrow or a crow.

But for me, they were new and interesting. They were quite tame and ubiquitous. They had attractive coloring and a pleasant song. They would build nests near your house.

Like several birds early on, this siting was certainly not the first, but it was deemed the most "interesting" siting to that point, so it was recorded here as bird number 15. It was a Saturday afternoon, and I was in the backyard. I was apparently good enough with bird sounds at this point that I recognized an unfamiliar sound coming from the neighbor's yard.

I went over there to hunt down what it was, and it turned out to be a fledgling robin hopping along the ground. It was struggling quite a bit to fly, and I wound up virtually cornering it by the neighbor's house. Then it managed to fly into a nearby tree.


Cornell: American Robin