43. Tufted Titmouse

Date          September 28, 2002
Location     Chief Logan Scout Reservation, Ray, OH

The sighting of this bird ushered in the most exciting moments in birding that I'd had to that point -- and is still unforgettable to me years later. This and the next two birds were spotted virtually simultaneously; I was having a hard time figuring out where to train my binoculars.

I was walking along the forest edge, with the large central field of Chief Logan to my left. Trees were on the right, bushes were on the left. The titmouse was very close by in the brush on the left.

To be continued . . .


Cornell: Tufted Titmouse

42. Black-and-white Warbler

Date          September 28, 2002
Location     Chief Logan Scout Reservation, Ray, OH

I was coming up a trail through the woods a few minutes before heading up "bird alley" (as I would call it, more on that later) and observed it exhibiting the classic creeping behavior on a large tree. One of the things I love about bird identification is that there are so many clues besides how the bird looks in order to identify it. In this case, it was so obvious what it was just from what it was doing.

Cornell: Black-and-white Warbler

41. Eastern Screech-Owl

Date          September 28, 2002
Location     Chief Logan Scout Reservation, Ray, OH

I heard one about midnight singing for about 5-10 minutes. This was a prelude to what would be my second birding session at Chief Logan. Judging by the date, I believe that this was an 11-year-old scouting event for my oldest son. Since it was already set up and staffed, that gave me the day to go birding.

Needless to say, I was really excited. And it would turn out to be a great outing.


Cornell: Eastern Screech-Owl

40. Downy Woodpecker

Date          September 21, 2002
Location     Front yard (Gillette Ave.), Hilliard, OH

Soon after coming home from seeing the cormorant, we spied a woodpecker on the crab apple tree in our front yard. It was pretty exciting because we lived in a fairly new neighborhood with small trees.

He didn't stay long.

I felt it a rather cruel injustice at the time when we moved away from the neighborhood a few years later in 2006. The day we were moving, as I was loading up the van for the umpteenth time, there was a Magnolia Warbler on our neighbor's tree. We were moving to an even newer neighborhood with essentially no trees (converted farm land) -- just as things were getting interesting!


Cornell: Downy Woodpecker

39. Double-crested Cormorant

Date          September 21, 2002
Location     Scioto River along 670 ramp, Columbus, OH

The ramp onto 670 west from highway 33 leaving downtown gives some nice views of the river off to the right. So whenever I was on this ramp, I would scan the river to see if I could see anything. Usually I saw Canada Geese or Great Blue Herons.

This time, though, I saw something that looked unusual, so I pulled over to the shoulder to have a look. There were two cormorants there, one perched on a rock or branch, another swimming. Both flew off when I paused to look at them.


Cornell: Double-crested Cormorant

38. American Redstart

Date          September 11, 2002
Location     Nationwide Plaza 1, Columbus, OH

This was one of the funnest chases I ever had. And that's what I often had to do at Nationwide because I didn't have optics, and the birds seemed to want to stay in a relatively confined area anyway.

This particular individual was a female or juvenile. I saw him/her on three occasions in two days during my breaks from work. It was almost exclusively on the ground, not in the trees. It skittered about the brush, almost constantly fanning its tail. I was able to get pretty close.

I saw a male a week or so later in the same area (the "quiet" area across from the Plaza 3 entrance). He was in a tree.


Cornell: American Redstart

37. Black-crowned Night-Heron

Date          September 7, 2002
Location     Griggs Resevoir, Columbus, OH

I was standing on the east side of the river below the dam. It was fairly early in the morning and pretty gray out (as usual). He was perched on the opposite shore, just standing very still a good ways from from the water.

Cornell: Black-crowned Night-Heron