The Spring Valley Wildlife Area, southeast of Dayton, is one of my favorite birding destinations in Ohio. Spreading across the Little Miami floodplain, this 842-acre refuge, centered on a shallow lake, is a mix of wetlands, riparian woods, hillside forest and upland meadows. Access to the refuge is via Roxanna-New Burlington Rd., which leads east from U.S. 42, approximately 6 miles north of Waynesville.
By late April, Spring Valley is teeming with summer residents and migrants. The lake attracts Canada geese, mallards, blue-winged teal, coot, wood ducks, pied-billed grebes and migrant ospreys. An excellent variety of herons, egrets and rails stalk the wetlands while killdeer, spotted sandpipers and migrant shorebirds scour the mudflats. Wetland songbirds, including eastern kingbirds, eastern phoebes, red-headed woodpeckers, common yellowthroats, tree swallows and prothonotary warblers, are abundant in the riparian woodlands.
The upland woods and meadows also attract a wide variety of birds. Barred owls, northern orioles, indigo buntings, barn swallows, wood thrushes, yellow warblers, American goldfinches, eastern bluebirds, yellow-breasted chats and white-eyed vireos are among the summer residents, joined by a mix of migrant songbirds in April and May. Mammals at Spring Valley include white-tailed deer, red fox, beaver, muskrat, mink and long-tailed weasels; of course, like most wetlands, the refuge is home to a wide variety of reptiles and amphibians, including the massasauga rattlesnake.
