Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Birds around Columbus (May 6 - 12)




The Cliff Swallows are back at the Lane Avenue bridge over the Olentangy. I've also seen Barn Swallows and Northern Roughwing Swallows along this stretch of river.









There's a lot of furious activity at the nests. Sometimes you see what looks like a traffic jam in flight as the scramble to the nests intensifies.










Steve and I saw a female Hooded Merganser at the OSU wetlands billabong. The Great Egrets have also returned to the wetland.










Wood ducks are in abundance all along the Olentangy.










I always enjoy seeing the ducklings. They seem to run across the top of the water as they keep up with their mom.








This mother Wood duck had twelve ducklings in tow.







Speaking of babies, here are two of the gazillions of Canada Goose goslings seen all over Columbus this week.










I've noticed that the geese ususally start with about a dozen goslings and then end up with just a couple or so at the end of the nesting season. I wonder what eats the babies - raccoons, coyotes, someone's pet dog?

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