First Full Ohio Day of Birding

Today marked my first day out in the field since mid-September, as one of my suitemate’s finally got his car on campus, allowing us to reach parks outside that of the COTA system. We left around noon and returned around 6, reaching two locations, both Metro Parks in the City of Columbus. All in all I added 7 new “lifers” to my list, and found some amazing areas that I will definitely return to in the coming months.

The first location we went to was Pickerington Ponds Metro Park, about 26 minutes south-east of Columbus. Pickerington Ponds is a marsh/wetlands, with multiple ponds scattered throughout the property. Not knowing exactly what to expect, as neither of us had been here before, we first pulled into a parking lot looking over Ellis Pond, where a Great Blue Heron and Great Egret were spotted. After a quick but thorough scan of the far bank through the spotting scope, we determined it would be best to drive to a different area and walk one of the trails. We drove up to the Wood Duck Picnic Area, and spent the next two hours walking the Killdeer Trail to Pintail Marsh. During this walk, a large amount of today’s lifers were spotted, including White-Crowned Sparrows, Pied-Billed Grebes, Northern Shovelers, a Nelson’s Sparrow, and a Swamp Sparrow. After attempting to take some pictures of the birds, which overall weren’t very successful due to the overcast nature of the day, we decided to move onto our next choice of birding location.

This location was Blendon Woods Metro Park. Located about 30 minutes north of Pickerington Ponds, and 23 minutes north-east of Columbus, this was definitely the closest I have felt to being back home in New England since I started attending The Ohio State University. The park driveway was extremely hilly, and the leaves were a bright red and orange, a perfect resemblance of the New England fall. While here, we checked out the Nature Center, a beautiful building with windows looking out over a couple of bird feeders, with common birds such as Mourning Doves and House Sparrows feeding at these feeders. After exploring the center, we walked to Thoreau Lake, where we were delightfully surprised to find the presence of bird blinds at both the east and west ends of the trail, allowing for great views of the waterfowl present, which consisted of Wood Ducks, Mallards, Northern Shovelers, and another lifer, a single female Green-Winged Teal. This location quickly became my favorite here in Ohio due to the wide ability to take photos and get amazing views of the birds, all the while not bothering them or disturbing them as we were safely in the blind. After spending about another hour in the blinds, we walked back to the nature center for one final view of the feeders. Right before I was readying to leave, I looked down under the feeder and was shocked to see a White-throated Sparrow, which was clearly distinguished from the White-Crowned I had seen earlier by the dark, definitive outline around the throat patch. This was the final lifer for the day, and capped off an amazing day of birding.

Overall, I would say this day was a massive success, allowing me to explore the Columbus area for the best areas to bird, along with introducing yet another person to the wonderful world of birdwatching. I look forward to the future travels to the surrounding parks, and returning to Blendon Woods to explore and look for more waterfowl, especially those from Canada that winter in Ohio.

Be sure to check out both Pickerington Ponds and Blendon Woods.

Interested in seeing my full list from today? Check out these lists here and here.

Be sure to check out the photos on my Flickr!

Happy Birding!