For an entire year and walking around 800 miles, I recorded daily the bird species at the Columbus Riverwalk using my vision and a bird-ID app called Merlin. You might not guess that after eliminating some obvious errors of identification, the total number of species for the entire year was 123! Breaking down the year: the month with the most species was April (81); the most species recorded in one day was 44 (April); the least species in one day was 10 (August). Species recorded in every month totaled 28. The overall total included 22 species of warblers, 7 species of woodpeckers, 5 species of sparrows, 4 species of ducks, 4 species of flycatchers, 3 species of hawks, and 3 species of wrens. The loudest bird species was the Carolina Wren, followed by Canada Geese, Red-Shouldered Hawks, and Pileated Woodpeckers. The largest birds recorded were Great Blue Heron, Great Egret, Canada Goose, Bald Eagle, both Vulture species, Great Horned Owl, and Wild Turkey. There were too many beautiful birds to pick out winners in that category, plus I actually saw only 39 of the 123 species. During the winter, Great Crested Cormorants spend the night at White’s Slough and in the morning migrate in large flocks north past the Riverwalk upriver to Columbus Lake where one can also sometimes see huge flocks of White Pelicans.

On a final note, my app recorded a Tundra Swan which I discounted until a local resident produced a photo of one seen in the Columbus area during this same year.

Bill Parker

Columbus

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