Lake Hope Furnace

Last Saturday, we took our second class field trip to Lake Hope State Park, in Vinton County Ohio. We arrived on site at the Furnace, a pyrimidal structure looking very Mayan in the early morning sunlight. In reality it was once used to smelt iron ore mined in the hills of Southern Ohio. I jumped out of the van at 7:40 am, the air had a fall chill and the temperature was in the lower 60s. The birds must have felt it too, because it was mostly quiet for the first twenty minutes or so. I think they were just waiting for it to warm up a bit.

The first thing I heard was some American crows followed by some Eastern Blue Jays. Then I got the treat of hearing a cranky sounding Red Shouldered Hawk, which has a call reminiscent of a Red Tail in puberty. While the rest of the class hung around the swampy lowland, I felt compelled to climb the hill and try to glimpse the hawk in roost. It called repeatedly, and I was able to track it in a large sycamore tree flapping its wings and warming up for a morning soar.

Red Shouldered Hawk

I went back to join the rest of the class, and by this time the sun had peeked out from behind the hill and the birds were out in full force. At first we heard more than we saw as we followed Miles into the marsh. Someone heard a White Breasted Nut Hatch, and I caught a glimpse of some American Gold Finch as they darted across the stream. The Gray Catbirds were singing their rusty meows in the willows by the stream. We went back to the meadow and heard some Downy Woodpecker on the other side of the holler. I also caught some Carolina Wren calls and learned what a Yellow Throated Vireo call sounds like.

Then the Warblers came, and let me tell you they are some of the most beautiful birds I have seen. Someone saw an Orange Crowned Warbler. Twitting in and out of the bushes all around us, the Warblers decided to put on a show. I saw many a Townsend's Warbler and a few Magnolia Warblers playing and chasing each other through the underbrush. There were two White Eyed Vireos sitting in the willow fifteen feet away. Some Tufted Titmouse came to join the party and finally I saw a Canada Warbler, which was a first for me. We also saw some Song Sparrows as we headed down the path to the lake.

Canada Warbler

We arrived at the lake at 9:15 and managed to scare off most of the Wood Ducks right away. Some Turkey Vultures were soaring up above the lake. We spotted a few Blue Jays flying across the water and a Cedar Waxwing on the way back. We also saw a flock of Eastern Bluebirds nestled in the Pines across the lake. When we got back to the field, the Red Shouldered Hawk was catching some thermals with his friend that looked like a juvenille Red Tailed Hawk. We decided to jump in the vans when a ranger gave us a tip off about woodpeckers up by the nature center. 

Red Headed Woodpecker

When we got to the nature center, we were amazed by the number of Red Headed woodpeckers scurrying all over the oaks. They were engaged in stashing acorns in holes they had drilled in the trees. I personally spotted at least six, it seemed everywhere I looked I found one. I wandered behind the nature center with Kyle and we scared a juvenille down onto a stump near us. This was cool because he lacked the red headed feature and just had a silvery-brownish head.