Tall trees

Yesterday we enjoyed another short but greatly satisfying hike in Ohio, this time at Goll Woods in Northwest Ohio. Goll Woods is the least disturbed woodland in the area and includes some of the tallest trees in Ohio. It's rather surprising to discover this place amid the pancake-flat agricultural fields of this part of Ohio. But the Great Black Swamp used to be located here, along with many habitat types and many deciduous trees. Thankfully the Goll family protected these big woods in the 19th century.

We hiked the one-mile bur oak trail from the east parking area. The 200 to 400-year-old oaks themselves were spectacular--stretching more than 120 feet into the sky. We saw several birds--both kinglets among the highlights, including a golden-crowned kinglet that landed just a few feet away. But the faunal highlight had to be the squirrels. We saw and heard red squirrels soon after arriving on the trail, then we saw a fox squirrel. Next we saw a black squirrel. For a moment I believed we recorded a rare sciurid sampler, but I'm pretty sure it was a black form of a fox squirrel--not a gray squirrel. Still, this area likely falls into the section of the country that includes these three tree squirrels.

All in all, another unexpected gem, which is the best kind of gem there is.

Strange combinations

Like many other birders, I mostly show up during spring migration. The charismatic avifauna of April and May are the allure. Fall migration, on the other hand, is mostly as boring as a nondescript sparrow. It's the Little Brown Job, if you will, of bird seasonality. Fall warblers are just not as colorful.

So I'm still learning things about fall migration. Yesterday, we had a nice view of several golden-crowned kinglets, a swainson's thrush and a black-throated green warbler in crab apple trees near our house. This morning, several more golden-crowned kinglets at Montrose Point. It's funny because last spring I recorded only ruby-crowned kinglets, not a single golden-crowned. So if this is a plague of golden-crowned kinglets, that's just fine by me.

What's strange is the timing of bird species in fall. This morning, there were reports of Baird's sandpiper, lapland longspur and horned lark on the beach at Montrose. And yet I also saw an eastern phoebe today, a warbler yesterday and a chimney swift a few days ago. These species would be less likely, in total, to occur together in spring. The longspurs and larks are typically winter species at Montrose that leave by March--before most phoebes arrive, before the kinglets, swifts and warblers arrive for sure.

Fall migration also seems to take place in reverse order of spring migration. So the last species to arrive in spring are generally the first to leave in fall. Sandpipers always seem to be on the move, passing through around May on their way to the Arctic and leaving by mid- to late summer.

I could probably clear all this up by talking to a veteran birder, but it's fun to discover on your own!

Good morning

Today began as a perfect fall morning. Temperature was about 38 when I arrived at Montrose Point at 7:45.

I tallied 33 species including a first--black-bellied plover. There were two immatures on the beach, sifting through big piles of green seaweed. I had seen the species before, but only in breeding plumage in Eleuthera. The plovers are the biggest in North America, according to All About Birds. They're listed as "common" in the Peterson guide, but I'd describe them as "local" for the Great Lakes in fall.

I stayed as far away from them as I could, but one plover definitely was alert to my presence. It puffed up into a ball, dropped to the ground and glared at me. It was almost unsettling the way it kept its eyes on me. And it looked strangely like a hawk when it did this; maybe it's some kind of defense mechanism.

Other highlights were both kinglet species, part of a nice fall/winter flock of creepers, chickadees, nuthatches (including red-breasted--a nice find for the lakefront) and winter wren.