The Century

January comes on the heels of the busy holidays and brings with it the promise of a new year; a fresh start. It also brings a challenge. The January 100 - the Century - 100 different species of birds in 31 days. And those 31 days can be some of the coldest and most brutal on the north coast of Lake Erie. This year I roped my mom into being my birding partner in crime. We spent most of the month driving around to different parks, wildlife areas and nature preserves following web posts and rare bird tips in search of our 100.
It all began on January 2 and ended on January 26.
Our first bird was of course a European Starling and they were seen everyday in large numbers. American Robins were also a star this month. Large flocks seemed to materialize and the disappear in minutes as they fed. Eastern Bluebirds were also a welcome find at multiple locations every other day or so. Red-tailed Hawks, always along the highways, were in smaller numbers than we both remembered, but not a day went by without at least a few. The Bald Eagles of the western counties were seen and enjoyed periodically as well.
Although all of these birds are great to see, especially in January in Ohio, not much compares to the owls. We managed to find four species in this cold month. A pair of Great Horned Owls were spotted at Maumee Bay State Park. Two Long-eared Owls were observed in a cedar tree in Killdeer Plains Wildlife Area. Five Short-eared Owls put on a show over the Big Island Area at dusk. And a Barred Owl was found in Blacklick Woods Metropark sitting, plain as day, in a large Beech tree. Not all of our findings were perfect. We found a Northern Saw Whet Owl, an Eastern Screech and a Great Horned Owl along Route 2, all the victims of car collisions. Though sad, we were able to really get a good look at each one before reporting them to the Black Swamp Bird Observatory.



Our final two birds were found at Killdeer Wildlife Area on the 26th of January.
A Northern Shrike was sitting atop a small shrub along route 115. We both had great looks and enjoyed my 100th bird with smiles. Not 30 seconds later a beautiful Rough-legged Hawk soared over the field ahead of us and hovered for a while affording us the opportunity to really study this beautiful raptor. That was it, one hundred birds in the cold month of January in Ohio. We did it. Of course now we are both excited to see just how many birds we can find in 2010….only time will tell.