Photo by Debbie Hurlbert, taken in Wayne County.

The Sunday Columbus Dispatch (February 16, Insight Section, Science, pages E-4 and E-5) has a nice article on snowy owls with great photos.  Even better photos are on its website at:  http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/science/2014/02/16/snowy-invasion.html.  The online versions of newspaper articles are usually held only 30 days.



Jim McCormac also has a link on his blog (http://www.jimmcCormac.blogspot.com).   Jim is the unofficial keeper of snowy owl data in Ohio--besides being all all-round biologist and avian expert for Ohio's DNR and a great photographer and author.  He gives constant updates on snowy owl sightings on his blog.  His latest tally:  159 owls in 54 counties.



I've read that as the weather warms up, there will be even greater chances for sightings--for one thing, the owls will have to migrate back to Quebec, if I remember correctly, and that means all those owls farther south will come through places like Ohio.



The experts know there are far more than 159 snowy owls in Ohio.  Just as an example, I've heard of a reliable sighting on Route 308 near New Gambier Road that most likely was not reported to Jim.

Great Backyard Bird Count Feb. 14-17, 2014

The latest report from the Great Backyard Bird Count, shows that 37 species were recorded for Knox County by 9 participants, including yours truly.  My feeders at Apple Valley had 17 species, including the first sighting during the count of a white-crowned sparrow.  My species count got a little boost when the Cooper's hawk appeared and got chased away by at least one American crow.

I've reported 56 species to "e-bird" since 2008 when I started counting birds while visiting my mother-in-law.  All but two I saw in Apple Valley--the other two were in Gambier and Mount Vernon.  This year I've reported 23 species, 20 of them in the first 17 days of February.

Building Birdhouses--Deadline Mid-March

Pileated Woodpecker (Photo by Debbie Hurlbert)

Red-headed woodpecker (Photo by Don Comis)

I spent the evening working on a pileated woodpecker birdhouse with my neighbor's son, Steven.  The pileated woodpecker box is his and next we'll work on a red-headed woodpecker box for my yard.  I read on the DNR website that mid-March is about the deadline for getting the birdhouses out there.  It's better to get them in the previous fall at least, to get them weathered so birds get used to them.

 I'll spend my next two mornings looking at birds for the continuing Feederwatch count, which involves two days of watching each week