On November 14, 2009 our class visited The Wilds which is located in Muskingum County. We started at 9:10 am and ended around 1:30 pm. It was a beautiful day, slight breeze, sunny and around 20 degrees celcius. We started out by an spatacualr view of an adult Red-tailed HAwk perched in the top of a tree. You could see all of the distinguishing characteristics–slight barring on breast, red tail broken up with a dark band. we drove a little farther around the perimeter of the Wilds and were looking in a field and were able to see two Horned LArks foraging. I have never seen a Horned Lark in the wild so I was pretty excited. You could see the light yellow under the beak and the two black stripes which go into tufts on each side of their heads. The black breast band was also prominent. They were in short grazed grass, dispersed with small shrubs. We moved on to our first pond of study, we saw two Pied Billed Grebes in the middle of the pond–we could see their short stubby tails amd bills and their white primary wing tips. We also saw four Mallards as they flew off. One female and three males. We saw two ducks swimming in the pond with no distinguishing charactersitcs from afar so we gaot out the spotting scopes and we were able to see they were Black Ducks by their lighter color (sooty brown) heads against their dark bodies. We heard an American Crow calling and a Canada Goose flying overhead. THere were many Canada geese in all of the ponds throughout out trip. As we looked over into a field nearby we saw a Rough-leggged hawk in hovering actiona couple of time–that how we were able to identify it, only Accipiter that can hover like that. We moved on to the Jeffreys Point bird viewing area. We saw two Trumpeter Swans right off. They were large white birds-obviously swans and had compltely black bills. We saw two more Pied- Bille dGrebes, and saw an unidentifeid raptor species overhead–it later called and was a Red-Tailed Hawk. Dr. Miles also spotted Green Wing Teal , I was not able to see them. We then traveled to where there was a GReat Hored Owl nest, we were not able to see it but we did see another great viwe of a Red Tailed HAwk, a couple of American Crows, and Starlings. We moved to a new pond aroun around 11: 20, we saw lots of Canada Geese. We also identified lesser scaups by their half gray and white around the body. We then saw Bufflehead and were identified by their size, white head tuft and flattened back.The class was able to see a Gadwall and more Green Winged Teal although I was never able to get the spotting scope focused in time to see them.as well as with the Commom Merganser. I did see four more Trumpeter Swans paired off. We left that pond and traveled down SR 340 and stopped at juction on International road. AS we were pulling off another student ANd I saw a Bald Eagle, Large black bird , large wing span, white flash of head as it was flying acroodsthe raod and then it flew into the trees in a field where were not able to locate it again—what a sight. As we were looking at he Bald Eagle the class saw a Northern Harrier identified by its white marking although I never saw it . At this pull off we were right acroos from a large body of water and woodlands and agricultural fields. We also saw a American Tree Sparrow identified by its clear breast, small dark spot on chest, its small size, the white on the wings, and dark bill. We saw 3 Northern Mockingbirds and a Bluebird as well as a Downy Woodpecker as we were leaving the perimeter of The Wilds. The day would have been complete if actually could have entered the Wilds and gone to their special bird viewing sights although we had a wonderful experience aroung the perimeter in regards to the Horned Lark , BAld EAgle , great views of Red-tailed Hawks , and the Northern Harrier what an awesome birding experience!!!!!
