Birding Drives are routes for birding trips which can be accomplished in one day, stopping to walk and bird at various eBird hotspots. For each birding drive, a Google map is provided with the route and suggested stops at eBird hotspots. You may save the link to the Google map on your smartphone or tablet, or print a copy on paper to take with you. Links are provided with information about each eBird hotspot. Follow those links for more information about birding each location.
Adams County Birding Drive
Click on the hotspot names below to view the page about that hotspot.
This Birding Drive explores eBird hotspots in Adams County. When you submit checklists here you help to add to the data about birds in this region of Ohio.
14633 OH-41 West Union, Ohio 45693
From West Union, take OH-41 north for 1.5 miles to Adams Lake State Park.
Adams Lake State Park lies in an area rich in natural diversity with many unique plants and animals. Wedged between the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains to the east and the glaciated land to the north and west, no other area of Ohio boasts a richer abundance of plant species.
Good birding in breeding season and winter. Look for tanagers (both), Coopers Hawk, herons, and orioles in the summer, ducks and geese in winter.
The Nature Conservancy Lynx, Ohio 45650
From Adams Lake State Park, head southwest on OH-41 toward Page School Road. Drive 1.5 miles and make a sharp left onto OH-125 east. Continue to follow OH-125 for 5.8 miles. Turn right onto Waggoner Riffle Road. The parking area for the Portman Trail is on the left.
The Dr. George Rieveschl Jr. Creek’s Bend Overlook is the first stop in exploring the 17,000-acre Edge of Appalachia Preserve—Ohio’s largest privately owned protected natural area. With its forests and prairies, streams and waterfalls, the preserve is one of the most biologically diverse areas in the Midwest. More than 100 rare plant and animal species call this preserve home.
This visitors’ center features canoe/kayak access to Ohio Brush Creek as well as two trails: the brief Prairie Garden Trail and the 1.6-mile, round-trip, Joan Jones Portman Trail, which leads through prairie openings to a small rock promontory for a view of the adjacent forested valley.
Visitors are also invited to take the time to enjoy the Ohio Brush Creek overlook and to peruse the interpretive signage, which describes the preserve’s natural history and offers travelers information about other points of interest within the preserve to visit.
The Nature Conservancy Cline Road Lynx, Ohio 45650
From the Portman Trail, go north on Waggoner Riffle Road toward OH-125. Drive 2.3 miles and turn right onto OH-125 east. Drive 2 miles and turn right onto Tulip Road. Go 1 mile and turn left on Cline Road. Continue to the end of Cline road and park in the Lynx Prairie parking area.
Within Lynx Prairie Preserve are three plainly marked interconnecting loop trails, named Red, White, and Green. Their combined length is 1.5 miles with no steep hills to climb. The trails loop around and through the preserve’s prairies, where prairie grasses and tall flowers dominate the scene in late summer and early fall.
Parts of the trail system traverse through woods dominated by native Virginia pines and red cedar. Watch along the trail during July and August for an unusual member of the orchid family, known as crested coralroot, which grows underground and only occasionally sends up a one-half to two-foot high purple and yellow flowering spike.
Blue Creek, Ohio 45616
From Lynx Prairie Preserve, return to Tulip Road and turn right. Go .4 mile, turn right onto OH-125 east, and drive 4.7 miles. Turn right onto Blue Creek road and go .5 mile. Turn left onto Churn Creek Road and enter Shawnee State Forest.
Bird Churn Creek Road from your vehicle for the next 4.4 miles. Turn right onto Carter Run Road and bird this road from your vehicle for 1.2 miles. Continue onto Sunshine Ridge Road and bird this road from your vehicle for the next 1.9 miles. Explore the roads in the Adams County section of the Shawnee State Forest as your time permits.
Once inhabited by the Shawnee Indians, Shawnee State Forest came into existence in 1922 with the purchase of 5,000 acres of land which had been cut over for timber and ravaged by fire. During that same year, land acquisition was begun for the Theodore Roosevelt Game Preserve.