Lave Vesuvius State Rec. Area - Backpacking

[Brian Wulker]

This weekend, I was down in Lave Vesuvius State Rec. Area. If you're not familiar with the area, it's SE of Portsmouth, just north of Ironton, OH. Anyway, its a really cool place, and this weekend, there were springtime birds everywhere. Sat. Morning had flocks of Grackle and Red-winged Blackbirds flying over, several hundred of each. Tried for some Rusties in there, but they can be hard to find when they are flying. Also, Eastern Pheobes seamed to be everywhere, 7+ on Sat., and two of them were working on a nest already. 25-30 Wood Duck were also in the area, either on the lake or in the air. Also lots of woodpeckers drumming all over, at least 5 species seen, 3 starting to show nesting behavior. Time to start looking out for the OBBA2. I also had an old raptor nest, but no one was arround to tell what species. I would have guessed RS hawk simply because of size, and placement compared to others I have seen.

[Brian Wulker]

Oh, forgot to mention I heard my first Spring Peepers of the year on Sat. too.

[Lukas Padegimas]

I heard my first Spring Peepers this Saturday also

[Kenn Kaufman]

Hi Brian, Sounds like you had a great trip there. Glad to hear that you're thinking about records for the Ohio Breeding Bird Atlas 2. It's interesting to see how early the Eastern Phoebes show up in the southern edge of the state -- you had a lot of them, and one pair was already working on a nest. Up here in northwestern Ohio, a few will show up this early, but they don't become common until late March. So they're early migrants compared to other flycatchers, but they sure take their time crossing the state.

[Brian Wulker]

Not only do the Pheobes show up early here, but they leave late also. I had one near a gravel pit on the east side of cincy on Jan. 11, and The cincinnati Christmas Bird count had 3 of them on Dec. 28th. In fact, the first bird I recorded for the chrismas count that day was eastern pheobe. Them nesting already though was a surprise. It was also in a natural rock face, I usually see them nest under eaves or some other man-made structure. Also, I should probably mention that those 7 pheobes were spread over about 8 miles, but you could definatly tell they were back in almost full force.

Its kinda weird, but it seems that Pheobes are not out of the question through early to mid January, and then they come back in late Feburary and early march. Another species that seem to be staying through the winter arround cincinnati is Chipping Sparrow, there have been a few reports throughout the winter, including the Cincinnati Christmas Count, which had 23 of them! Granted, it seems this is a more recent trend for them than the pheobes, and the pheobe reports are a little more frequent than the chipping sparrows, but it seems every year, there is more of each in the winter here. I wouldn't say they are common at all, but definatly regular into January.