I was wide awake at 4:30 a.m., when the birds began
to sing their dawn chorus, and worked on the Blog - catching up to April
27th. At 7:30, I packed up and headed
back over to the Glacier Ridge Metro Park, off Brock Road, to walk the Marsh
Hawk and Red Oak trails.
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| The Parks folks have erected bird nest boxes |
There was a
west breeze on this partly to mostly cloudy, 62° F morning. I
started out on the first trail that went through open, tall fields and past the
“Wind and Solar Learning Center”.
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| A Sea of Grasses . . . |
About
half-way around the loop, I heard the distinct song of the Henslow’s
Sparrow. The breeze was blowing a
little, so the birds were not as willing to “tee-up” on perches. But, finally, a bird jumped up on an old
milkweed stem and sang.
Whoop! Henslow’s Sparrow! For my ABA “Life Bird” No. 607.
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| Crappy digiscoped photo of my Lifer Henslow's Sparrow |
I
watched and listened to the two birds for about 15 minutes.
 |
| Oh, the Joy! |
Around the open grassland trail loop, i saw quite a few Bobolinks, some of which were
“larking” - sallying up into the air - and giving their territorial songs while
in flight.
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| A "larking" Bobolink - or is it a Bobbing Lark? |
I got
back to the parking area and walked into the woods along the Red Oak trail,
with many oaks, hickory trees, and forest plants.
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| Oak-Hickory Woods |
This was a perfectly enjoyable morning -
especially so in that I found a new “Lifer”.
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| Cowbirds weren't Life Birds, but they were certainly abundant here |
Back in
the car, I headed south toward the town of Lancaster, Ohio, where my Anderson
relatives homesteaded some 210 years ago.
I drove up to the Pleasant Hill White Church, now a United Methodist
congregation, to visit my dead relatives.
Out in
the Cemetery was an obelisk for Thomas Anderson, Jr., who was the son of Mary
Magdalene Macklin (the Pennsylvania Dutch girl who married my Great-Great-Great-Grandfather) and
Thomas Anderson.
A
mockingbird perched on top to cheer his spirit.
I
wandered amongst the gravestones for a while, finding quite a few monuments to
those long deceased, and marveling that I was descended from these sturdy
pioneers.
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| The top of G-G-G-Grandpa Thomas Anderson's headstone is broken off . . . |
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| Mary Magdalene Macklin was known as "Molly" or "Maria"; hard to follow the Genealogy |
I also
discovered a few stones that give speculation to who and how they came to be
buried in this place.
Not far
down the road is the old Thomas Anderson house, where a shirt-tail relative
still lives.
The
family lore of the “Oregon Andersons” is that the 1855 house erected by James
Mechling Anderson, my Great-Great-Grandfather, was built according to the floor
plans for this Ohio house that were sent West.
The family barn in Oregon blew down during the Columbus Day Storm in 1962, so I don't know whether it looked like the Ohio barn . . .
It is
always well to stop and visit those who had gone before, so I let them know how
those of us Andersons were doing “Back West”, and took a room in town at the
Baymont.
Glacier Ridge Metro Park eBird Checklist is Here
Pleasant Hill United Methodist Church eBird Checklist is
Here
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