Buckeye+Lake+Licking+County

Also, see Buckeye Lake State Park and Buckeye Lake Birding Drive
 * =Birding in Ohio=

Licking County
=Buckeye Lake= =(Licking County)= Millersport, Ohio 43046 Buckeye Lake State Park website Buckeye Lake State Park map

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Buckeye Lake (Licking Co.)
Coordinates: 39.9335322, -82.4561477 eBird links: Hotspot map View details Recent visits My eBird links: Location life list Submit data

Tips for birding Buckeye Lake in Licking County
The eastern half of Buckeye Lake is in Licking County. Driving the north shore from Edgewater Beach, to Avondale Park, to Harbor Hills, and to the Village of Buckeye Lake provides limited places to view birds on the lake. Much of the lakeside is private property in this area.

From I-71 take Exit 132 for OH-13 toward Newark and Thornville. Turn south on Jacksontown Road (OH-13) and drive .9 mile. Turn right onto Edgewater Beach Boulevard for .2 mile. Turn left onto Westview Place for .1 mile. Continue onto Lakeshore Boulevard.

To continue along the north shore of Buckeye Lake turn right onto Avon Place and follow Avon Place to Christland Hill Road. turn left onto Christland Hill Road and drive .9 mile. Turn left onto Avondale Road and drive .3 mile to the lakeshore. Drive west on Avondale Road along the lakeshore for .3 miles. There are businesses along this section of the lakeshore which provide views of the lake.

To continue west along the lake you must Maple Bay. Drive northwest on Avondale Road for .3 mile. Continue straight onto Columbus Avenue and drive .5 mile. Turn left onto Christland Hill Road and drive 1.7 miles. turn left onto Mill Dam Road and drive 1.2 miles. Turn left onto East Street. Turn left onto Hunts Landing Road. There are businesses with some view of the lake on Hunts Landing Road.

About Buckeye Lake
Buckeye Lake was the center of Milton Trautman's 1922-1934 study of a 44-square-mile patch of east-central Ohio. His most important work was the monumental //Birds of Buckeye Lake// (1940, University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor), which James L. Peters described as the most comprehensive study of the bird life of a limited area in the United States. This book is much more than its title promises. It offers not just the usual report on local birds but a detailed account of the natural history of a region from glacial times to the present.

About Buckeye Lake State Park
At one time, the ground now known as Buckeye Lake was swampland resulting from glaciation. Thousands of years ago the glaciers moved south across Ohio altering drainage systems and landscape. Natural lakes, known as kettles, were created when huge chunks of ice broke off the glacier and melted in depressions. Other lakes were formed when the glacier blocked existing water outlets. As time progressed, clay and silt settled out of the still water into the bottom of the lakes.

Today as we study the landscape, we can learn of the old lake locations by the nature of the underlying clay and silt. The large area of fine clay sediment in the Buckeye Lake region indicates that the glacial lake was broader than the present man-made lake.

When shites began settling in Ohio, only a few of the ancient lakes remained. They were shallow and swampy, and more correctly classified as bogs or marshes. Explorer Christopher Gist, while traveling the Scioto-Beaver Trail just south of Buckeye Lake, camped by the watery bog's edge. In 1751, he named the area Buffalo Lick or Great Swamp in his journal. The Great Swamp included two long narrow ponds that were joined during high water. A considerable part of the wetland was a cranberry-sphagnum bog. Cranberry Bog, a state nature preserve and a National Natural Landmark, is situated in Buckeye Lake. When the lake was impounded in 1826, Cranberry Bog broke loose from the bottom and became a floating island which may conceivably be the only one of its kind in the world. Most of the island is an open sphagnum moss meadow with an abundance of cranberries and pitcher plants making the area a naturalist's delight. Access to the island is by permit only from the ODNR Division of Natural Areas and Preserves.

Buckeye Lake's shoreline offers excellent habitat for waterfowl. Good bird-watching opportunities exist especially during the spring and fall migrations. One of the state's largest great blue heron rookeries is situated on adjacent private land, but the birds can often be seen in the park. From Buckeye Lake State Park website

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|| L2917277 US US-OH US-OH-089 39.9335322 -82.4561477 Buckeye Lake (Licking Co.)