Greetings!!
We have just returned from an adventure not soon to be forgotten.  We had
our annual Ornithology class trip to Crane Creek this weekend.  Usually it
rains, sometimes its foggy, sometimes it is foggy and rains, so this year
we figured on rain and scheduled to leave at 5:30 Sat morning.  As Sat
approached we weren't disappointed--squalls were forecasted for Sat so we
pushed back our departure until 7am.  We ran over to Brookville in the rain
got the Am. White Pelicans and figured that was a great start to the
trip.  Returned to Hueston Woods to pick-up a bunch of warblers (its early
at the lake for most warblers) we found nothing in the blowing wind and
rain-so we headed north.  Got to Grand Lake St Marys, found the eagle on
the nest (through the rain), found a couple of Caspian Terns at the fish
hatchery (through the rain), and continued north.  Got to Magee Marsh
boardwalk by 3:30--just in time to have the rain change to sleet in the
howling winds. The Tree Swallows just gave up and sat on branches with
their wings drooped to drain the snow and sleet.  The trees on the
boardwalk afforded some protection for us humans from the wind, so at least
the sleet fell vertically.  We were successfully able to find a very cold,
but bright Prothonotary Warbler along the boardwalk, but no other warblers
and very few of anything else.  So we headed back for dinner and a bed
figuring to start today on a brighter note.  It was brighter this
morning--the light was simply reflecting off the new coat of snow!!  Now we
had 20-25 mph winds driving snow horizontally!  We made it back to the
boardwalk [we actually first looked at Metzger (almost got the van blown in
the lake), Ottawa, and various fields] for a brisk walk, again the trees
afforded some protection from the wind. More birds this time--15 or so
Yellow-rumps, a Palm, couple Blue-grays, some Ruby-crowned Kinglets, the
same 30 or so White-throats as yesterday, a sapsucker, a number of delayed
flickers, and a Hooded Warbler! Problem was the snow was blowing so hard
where we found the Hooded, though it was less than 6 feet away, our eyes
had so much snow being blown side ways into them that we got very poor
looks.  Made it back to the vans (only a single crash on the very slippery
boardwalk) and were able to eat a very wonderful (read warm and calm)
picnic lunch in the nature center (no other visitors so they felt pity and
allowed us to eat inside).  In the hour it took us to eat another couple
inches of snow fell so we decided to head for home.  Although our species
count was low (79 species), [we were very proud of everyone of the species
on the list!] we actually had a fun adventure and look forward to only a
little drizzle and fog in the future!
Dave