Coyote Run is an 800-acre farm located in Violet Township and Pickerington, Ohio. We want to meet all our visitors on your first visit.

Please contact Tammy Miller, Coyote Run Farm’s Conservation Manager at 614-557-6883 or walkinnature@protonmail.com to make arrangements.

The main access to the birding area will be either from the old farmhouse located at 9270 Pickerington Road Northwest, Pickerington, or from Pickerington Central High School. The fields are mostly planted in corn and soybeans but the wetter fields have been restored to wetlands under the Conservation Reserve Program. The adjoining woods feature 100-year-old oak and beech trees and several vernal pools that come alive in the late winter and early spring. Soon after, the Ohio spring wildflowers reveal their splendor for their ephemeral showcase. A farm pond is a haven for waterfowl in the winter and during spring and fall migrations but the dragonflies rule in the summer. Sycamore Creek twists through the property for several miles and we usually find herons or ducks in the shady spots or kingfishers chattering on their flyover the creek.

We hope to preserve forever the land and habitat for all the animals and plants that call Coyote Run home. We welcome birders, students, citizen scientists, and nature lovers to visit and to help share the joys of this special place. We want to know our visitors and we can show you where to park (and not park, too, but have a tractor just in case), provide a map, give you a tour to show you how to find the best viewing spots, and answer any other questions. We have a few birders making regular visits now and hope to meet more of you soon!

Birders do like our population of red-headed woodpeckers and a good selection of migrating waterfowl.

According to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, there perhaps is no more colorful bird than the male wood duck, with its distinctive shimmering green head, white facial markings, bright red eyes and bill, and metallic blue back.

A conservation manager and a Pickerington land owner have teamed up to promote the local wood duck habitat by installing wood duck nesting boxes in two wetlands located inside Pickerington’s city limits. One wetland, established in 2012, is on 14.3 acres just south of Pickerington High School Central off Hill Road South that Conservation Reserve Practices manager Tammy Miller oversees with David Hague of Coyote Run LLC. The other parcel is 15.3 acres restored as wetlands in 2007. It is part of Hague’s property located adjacent to the Sycamore Creek subdivision.

Miller said Hague chose to preserve both parcels as wetlands by participating in a federal program administered by the Fairfield County Soil and Water District. They have planted native grasses and wildflowers which prevent further erosion on land previously leveled for farming activity, Miller said.