Unexpected Surprise +2

       Well the last 2 days were a couple of awesome ones! It started on Saturday. Chris, Jeremy and I planned our trip up to Lorain to see the Common Redpoll flock that had been hanging out there for a few days. We met up with Alex E at about 8:20 or so at the Lorain Impound. The snowy owl was out on the docks where its been hanging out for a few days now, absolutely gorgeous bird! Little too far for my camera to reach though. So we walk the impoundment to look for the redpolls. We wait and we listen. After about 5 min, I hear them and say "they're coming guys!!" Everyone turns to look to the right and the entire flock comes zooming right over our heads!! We almost got hit in the face by redpolls! It was incredible, some even landed on the ground within 10 feet of us for a few brief moments before they scattered again. Great way to get a life bird and another bird for my Ohio big year! #309 We spent the next few hours staking out areas trying to get pictures of the redpolls in the low light conditions we had that morning.

Me creeping up on a redpoll. (Photo Credit: Chris Collins) I was pretty excited...

     After Lorain, we decided to start heading back south towards home (Dayton) with a quick stop in Columbus at a secret location to check on some Long-Eared Owls. Well sure enough, we find 2 on the same exact branch! I have never seen more than one at a time before and they have always been obstructed views where you only get to see an ear or an eye through the tangles. These birds gave amazing views. At first they were a little stressed but quickly became relaxed again and one even went back to sleep. We took a few pictures and then departed quickly to leave the owls in peace. 

   Both of these birds returned to relaxed states quickly. 100's of pellets were seen all around the pines. I suspect there are more birds in the area and that these 2 have been there for a while. See Chris Collin's flickr page for more photos:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/roguephotoohio


     That ended a great Saturday and what I thought was going to be my last bird of the year. Boy was I wrong! Sunday afternoon I get a message from Shawn Collins about a Loggerhead Shrike in Ohio. My first thought was, "really? yeah right!" But I started investigating who the reporter was, if was reliable, where the bird was, could I chase it, all that jazz. 30 min later, Greg and I were in a car headed to Adams County! (Dang it, I was hoping to take a nap today). I was still not liking our chances on finding this bird even if it was real, with our quickly diminishing daylight. After 2 hours on a long and very winding road that felt like a roller coaster ride, we get to the location. The bird was sitting on a wire right where Ned told me it would be! Sure enough, Loggerhead Shrike, unbelievable! Such a great bird, it is much cuter than Northerns and the small bill really stuck out to me. I couldn't believe that I added LOGGERHEAD SHRIKE to my Ohio list on December 28th!! At 1 pm that day, I didn't even know about it. 5 hours later at 6 pm, I was back at my house with LOSH checked off. I still can't believe it! Great way to end my Ohio year!

Loggerhead Shrike, Ohio 2014 #310

Bring on 2015!!

     With 2014 coming to a close very quickly, my first year of being a birder is almost in the bag and boy was it a good one! At the start of the year, I was still learning the basic birds and had no idea about pretty much everything. The goal: learn as much as possible and fast!!  I met up with Chris Collins, another fairly new birder on the scene, but compared to me at the time, he was like the Hawking of birds. We started going on long adventures across the state to see 'rare' birds along with a few others from the Dayton area. I was hooked and my learning and studying got to be a bit out of hand. I was reading and storing any fact I could about birds, asking questions to anyone who knew more than I did, and was out in the field as much as I could be. By the start of May I had seen a lot of birds here in the state of Ohio, I don't remember the number but I think it was in top 3 (according to eBird). It was at the biggest week when I met Dan Sanders and Doreene Linzell for the first time. They are Ohio birding legends and do Ohio big years every freaking year! They share the record together (320!!!). At the time, they both had a higher number than me for the year, but I was VERY close which surprised me a little. I guess I was doing better than I thought. It wasn't until Doreene introduced me to someone as, "this is Jacob, he is doing a big year", that I realized, I guess I'm doing a big year! From that moment I really dug in deep and committed myself to this Ohio Big Year. Sure I made some tactical mistakes in the early going before I was fully committed and I missed on several birds I shouldn't have. I continued to make mistakes as the year went on, oh I should have done that or gone there, etc. I made it a point to chalk them up to rookie mistakes, learn from them, and never make the same mistake twice. I continued to bird my butt off and was slowly check birds off one at a time, learning a ton along the way from all my new friends and mentors. Next thing I know, its late October and I'm sitting at 299 species already!  Cackling Goose ended up being #300 for my Ohio big year on October 26th, making me one of about 12-15 people in the 300 club, the youngest to ever accomplish it, and one of the quickest to reach it (under 10 months). I couldn't be more honored. As of 12/26, I'm sitting on 308 (plus Trumpeter Swan) and already planning my trip to Lorain tomorrow to add Common Redpoll with Chris, how fitting! The birding and planning never stops! One of my favorite things is when I tell people that this is my first year of birding and they don't believe me (which actually happens a lot haha). It's a testament to how hard I've worked and studied birds this past year so I don't sound like a beginner anymore even though I actually am. I am looking forward to learning so much more!! The plan for 2015 is to travel more out of state and get accustomed to birding other locations and learning the other birds of the ABA area. It's going to be like a 'practice, mini-big year' or at least I hope it is. Don't worry though, I'll still be doing a lot in Ohio ;). Soooo much more to learn and I can't wait to get to started. Bring it on 2015.

Here are a few images of some of my favorite Ohio birds of 2014:

Parasitic Jaeger: Jen's Pelagic 9/27

Black Rail: Amish Farm 6/10

Yes I know its blurry but come on, its a black rail!!

Little Gull: Buck Creek SP 8/14

Red-Necked Phalarope: Conneaut Sandspit 8/16