Saturday, May 05, 2007

Black and White Warbler

Another species to add to this Spring's list!

Megan and I are quite fortunate to live where we live. Most people would probably look at our street and consider it, well, not that desirable. Our house itself has everything that we could ask for in a rental property. Our street is a little rough...one side is basically a parking lot for a shopping center, and many of the houses on the other side are rental properties that have seen better days.

BUT, we do live very close to the Olentangy River, known mostly as the river that flows through THE Ohio State University. But upstream from Ohio State, the river is really quite nice and even further north, the Olentangy has been designated a State Scenic River. What does this mean? We can walk to to this lush green corridor and really observe nature at its best. Yes, we are in the city of Columbus. Yes, the area is full of invasive species. And yes, there are unleashed dogs scampering throughout the park near our house. However, there are plenty of native plants, birds, mammals, fish, freshwater mussels, and an unlimited number of other cool natural things to look at. I have found that this blog is a great outlet for my pictures. I know that I have a few regular readers....I hope you are enjoying what Megan and I find.

Today, Megan spotted a black and white warbler for the first time. It was great. She was holding my binocs, saw a little bird scampering through the honeysuckle, and said something like, "wow, that is a cool bird but it isn't yellow." I had told her that most of the spring warblers migrating through Columbus and all of Ohio usually have some yellow feathers. If you haven't seen one, the black and white warbler could be called the zebra bird. They are more black than white, but have plenty of white striping. The word "referee" also comes to mind when I picture this small bird.

Other birds we saw on our mid-day walk.

Wood Duck
Mallard
Canada Goose
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
American robin
Northern Cardinal (including one female on the nest)
Gray Catbird
White breasted nuthatch
Grackle
Red-eyed vireo
Goldfinch

Tom

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