Greetings... I made a couple brief morning trips this weekend, and also
found the weather really nice. Saturday morning, Jeff Brown, Bob Lacker, and
I walked a section of the Mill Creek that runs through Keehner Park in West
Chester. We were hoping for Louisiana waterthrushes, but didn't find any.
Along a powerline cut parallel to the creek we found two singing winter
wrens, a brown thrasher, and perhaps six or so singing territorial male
towhees, (didn't see any female towhees, though.) plus a couple field
sparrows, and a swamp sparrow.

Sunday, Bob Lacker drove me to a couple sites in southeastern Hamilton
County--much of our time was spent in Indian Hill, so it was a very posh
birding trip. We visited Rowe Arboretum where local birders have been
finding pine warblers, red-breasted nuthatches, pine siskens, and purple
finches. We found none of those, but did see a couple spring azure
butterflies. The mansion just off the arboretum grounds was quite the sight.
It was a bit like birding on the set of a Masterpiece Theatre
production--"Brideshead Revisited," or something along those lines.

An early morning visit to the Cincinnati Nature Center produced the first
green heron I've seen this year, as well as two Louisiana waterthrushes.

We stopped around 10:00 a.m. at the Camp Dennison gravel pits--soon to be
renamed "Grand Valley" by the city of Indian Hill, which now owns the site.
Why the new name makes me think of Barbara Stanwyck and a young, pre-"Six
Million Dollar Man" Lee Majors, I don't know. The highlight here were a few
thousand American coots, a nice assortment of waterfowl, and a merlin. The
merlin was approximately two-hundred yards away from us, and the underparts
looked rather light. I assume it was a female. Mostly, it stayed perched in
a small tree, but it also spent five or ten minutes resting in water in the
gravel pit near a sandbar.

There were a number of spring azures flying at Camp Dennison, as well as an
eastern comma, and a few cabbage whites, and there were numerous wildflowers
 getting ready to bloom or already blooming at the Nature Center. Very nice
day, indeed!

Take care,
---Mike Busam
West Chester, OH

----- Original Message -----
From: "David Russell" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, March 29, 2004 9:35 AM
Subject: Birds!!


I could get used to the midwest with weather like this weekends!! The birds
liked it also--Jill and I dashed over to Stout Rd (off 27N via Mitchell
Rd-north of Liberty IN) to hear and see the Western Meadowlark Bill Buskirk
from Earlham located last week. Being so nice outside, we ended up at the
Oxbow in Lawrenceburg to see 3 huge White Pelicans.  A couple minutes later
we were watching the male Peregrine Falcon stooping on Black Vultures that
would soar too close to its nest box at the Cinergy plant at Shawnee
Lookout. A falcon cam has been placed in a nest box in Indy--its really
cool-go to www.indystar.com/falconcam. Later while setting up net lanes at
Hueston Woods we found Rough-wing Swallows (and Field Sparrows) at the dam.
Anybody else go out and enjoy the sunshine?
Dave