On the early Saturday morn of September the eleventh, the Ohio University ornithology class(and I along with it) ventured out into the vast wilderness of the ridges above Athens. I arrived by bicycle, substituting my morning coffee for the fresh cold breeze, and met the majority of my class looking nice and chipper from the night prior. Professor Miles was looking fresh with a flashy pair of red tennis shoes and camoflague pants that would put Bear Grylls to shame.
We piled into the vans and headed up to Grovensor St., where the vultures roost. Two type of vultures can be found in Athens, the Black Vulture(Coragyps atratus) and the Turkey Vulture(Cathartes aura). Usually, both of these species can be seen in the afternoons, cruising on thermals high above town. the Turkey Vulture is slightly larger than the Blacks, but the real distinguishing factor is that the Blacks are all black with a silvery patch on the underside of their wings. While soaring the Turkey Vulture has more of a v-shape than the black. These birds are scavengers, and also the largest birds in our area.
We next journeyed down to the Hocking river where the highlight of the show for me was seeing an Osprey(Pandion haliaetus). These birds are also known as water-hawks and are frequently seen hunting over lakes or rivers. This particular fellow was just cruising around in the early morning. Ospreys are a very distinctive bird that almost has an Eqyptian look to it with a black stripe behind the eye. We also spotted a Belted Kingfisher(Ceryle alcyon) on the power lines over the river. This particular bird was a male, telling from the dark blue triangle just below the neck on the chest. These birds are dark blue with a white collar and a large "mohawk" like crest. Flying overhead and landing on one of the larger trees up on the ridge I spotted a woodpecker. Upon closer inspection I found it was a Pileated Woodpecker(Dryocopus pileatus). The white wing patch and its red crest are a dead giveaway of this large woodpecker. The other species that we found on the mudflats by the river was a group of Killdeer(Charadrius vociferus). These are small birds with sticklike legs and a double black breast band which distinguishes them from the other shorebirds. Of course, with a strange name like Killdeer, their call also resembles kill-deer or keew-deew. On the return to the van we saw a group of swifts, which are vertically roosting birds with large mouths and torpedo shaped bodies. This particular species was the Chimney Swift(Chaetura pelagica) which undoubtedly were roosting in the chimneys of the ridges compound. We also saw some Blue Jays(Cyanocitta cristata) which are large blue, white and black birds with a loud cawing call.
We rode the vans up the hill to the ridge top and started walking into the forest beyond a graveyard and a pond. We saw an extraordinary number of American Robins(Turdus migratorius), which have a peach colored belly which as they roosted in the morning chill looked puffy and round. We heard many bird calls in the mixed forest, most of which I did not recognize. I heard two familiar calls, the Carolina Chickadee(Poecile carolinensis) and the Carolina Wren(Thryothorus ludovicianus). These are two beautiful birds, the Chickadees have a laughing cry with a nice little black cap and a white face while the Carolina Wren is distinctive by the white margin about its eyes. As we went deeper we saw a few other new species for me the Red Eyed Vireo(Vireo olivaceus), Eastern Wood-Pewee(Contopus virens), and finally the Red-bellied Woodpecker(Melanerpes carolinus). The Vireo was most distinct by its red eyes and sleek shape; the Pewee was a fairly boring looking bird but immediately identifiable by its questioning call of "peewea?" The Red-belly was a special find for me with its beautiful ladder pattern of white and black on its back with a red hood covering the entire back portion of its head. This fellow just happened to be a male with a more complete hood. I also spotted some American Goldfinch(Carduelis tristis) soaring above the tree canopy.
All in all it was an excellent day for an amateur bird watcher!
