Ohio Ornithological Society: Birding News

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Highlights From Around Ohio, June 30, 2004

Assorted Sightings & Ephemera

The OOS news bureau recently returned from a few days of vacation in New Orleans. From Cincinnati, it's an easy trip: turn right on the Ohio and then left on the Mississippi. South a bit of St. Louis, look for a big, crescent-shaped bend in the river. Opposite Algiers. Can't miss it. . . . Nothing of interest to report from the Big Easy bird-wise (this wasn't a birding trip), but we did take a walk past the cottage in the French Quarter, on the corner of St. Louis and Dauphine, where it is "believed," "thought," "often claimed," "said to be possible/likely" that John James Audubon worked out the artistic techniques that he employed in his masterpiece The Birds of America, sometime after he arrived in New Orleans in 1821. Is it really Audubon's cottage and the site of his New Orleans studio? Who knows. But there's a nice little bronze plaque to that effect on the side of the cottage, which for all I know, Audubon might have put there himself--he wasn't above a little bit of self-promotion from time-to-time. Today, chez Audubon is part of a swanky hotel complex, which, like a lot of places in New Orleans, liberally adds two pinches of camp for each dash of history in their commercial gumbo: the hotel's brochure notes that one of the cottages next to Audubon's is said to be haunted. (Audubon's original watercolors upon which the subsequent engravings are based, are excellent, as well. They were part of a traveling exhibition in the early 1990s, and the catalog is really worth checking out: John James Audubon: The Watercolors for The Birds of America, edited by Annette Blaugrund and Theodore E. Stebbins Jr. New York: Villard Books, 1993).

But enough about that . . . here is some bird news that might be of interest:

Sandhill Cranes

A handful of reports of sandhill cranes came in this week. From the famed "middle impoundment on La Rue-Prospect Road" at Big Island Wildlife Area in Marion County, comes a report of two sandhill cranes, which were observed by Bill and Caryn Long on June 28. The cranes were in the northeast corner of the impoundment. The Longs thought that both cranes were adults. (Perhaps it's time to consider placing a couple of those "nest cams" around key spots at the Middle Impoundment? Seems there's always something going on there.)

Also on June 28, John Pogacnik reported sandhills from two sites in northeast Ohio. Pogacnik wrote in a posting to Ohio-Birds that "I was in Williams County . . . doing some survey work and came across a family of sandhill cranes (two adults and one young). They were west of the village of Cooney on P50 Road about a mile west of Rte 49." Jeff Grabmeier has also seen cranes recently near Mud Lake Bog in Williams County, quite likely the same birds Pogacnik reported. Mud Lake Bog, which hosts a number of very rare plants and animals, is accessible by permit only, but applications to visit the site, and other permit-only sites, can be found at the ODNAP website. Such sites can't be visited on the spur of the moment, but with a little advanced planning, one might be able to do some searching and find something really interesting. Additionally, Pogacnik received news of two adult sandhill cranes and one young bird seen on Thursday, June 24 at Eldon Russell Park in Geauga County.

Meanwhile, Randel Rogers noted two sub-adult sandhill cranes from Funk Bottoms Wildlife Area in the Bobolink Region on June 27.

Sandhill Cranes On the Record:

Opening the Book of Peterjohn to page 160 for a moment, we read that while sandhill cranes today are very rare nesters in Ohio, prior to the loss of wetlands, bogs, and other suitable habitats at the end of the nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries, modest numbers of this species bred in spots scattered around northern Ohio (Bruce G. Peterjohn, 2001. The Birds of Ohio. The Wooster Book Company, Wooster, Ohio). Wheaton's 1882 Report on the birds of Ohio (Ohio Geological Survey. Bull. 4:187-628.) reports that the sandhill crane is a "rare migrant; probably occasional summer resident . . . Mr. Winslow includes it in his list of birds of Northern Ohio, and it has been reported to me as breeding within a few years in the vicinity of Toledo. Mr. Langdon mentions two specimens taken in the vicinity of Cincinnati. I have never seen the bird in this vicinity, and though I have infrequently heard of its occurrence, the identification has never been unquestionable."

In the 1903 The Birds of Ohio (Wheaton Publishing Company, Columbus. 671 p.), written by William Leon Dawson, the sandhill crane species account is provided by Willam C. Mills, who wrote "The Sandhill Crane is found in great numbers in northern Ohio, especially in Huron and adjoining counties. They have been known to breed in this section for a number of years."

By 1935, the sandhill crane had left the list of active breeders in Ohio and entered into the fuzzy-edged realm of the "historical-probably": Lawrence Hicks observed that sandhill cranes "probably nested formerly in several northern Ohio counties, being reported from Lucas, Fulton, Erie, Crawford, and Ashtabula counties, but no acceptable evidence is available" (Distribution of the breeding birds of Ohio, Ohio Biological Survey. Bull. No. 32, 6(3):125-190. [emphasis added]).

There are accounts elsewhere of the tameness and adaptability to humans of sandhill cranes, including a story of a man who collected the eggs of a sandhill crane, used a chicken to brood them, and then kept the sandhill colts as pets. There are also stories of American Indians in the Ohio country raising sandhill cranes and keeping them as pets. [Thanks to Bill Whan for providing the information from the historical record.]

Sandhills returned to the list of current Ohio breeding birds in the late-1980s, after leaving the ranks for between sixty to one-hundred years (or more, depending on the source), when nesting was confirmed in 1987 (Peterjohn 2001). Given the increase in the sandhill crane population in this part of the U.S., it's not surprising, but still very welcome, to hear more reports of summering, possibly breeding, and confirmed breeding sandhill cranes from wetlands scattered throughout Ohio. Provided enough suitable habitat, it seems that sandhill cranes could nest just about anywhere in Ohio.

Recent Sandhill Crane Summer Records:

2003: Seven birds, July 30, Funk Bottoms Wildlife Area. No other reports.
2002: Two adults and two young, Funk Bottoms Wildlife Area. None at Killbuck Wildlife Area, following flooding. ODOW reported seven nesting attempts during the summer season: "four at Killbuck, two at Funk, and one at Lake La Su An Wildlife Area." Two adults reported from Mud Lake Bog, Williams County; one flyover from Lima on June 17.
2001: One pair in Tuscarawas County on June 2 and July 15; one pair with two juveniles in Williams County (Mud Lake Bog, again, I think) on June 30 through July 10; four at Killbuck Wildlife Area on July 7; ODOW reported one chick hatched at Funk Bottoms WA and two at Killbuck WA.
2000: One pair "at various spots in Wayne County" through the summer season; Two at Pickeral Creek Wildlife Area on June 7; One bird at Sandy Ridge Metropark, Lake County, on June 10 and July 5.

Sandhill crane records taken from the summer reports of The Ohio Cardinal for the years 2000 through 2003--or the fourth issues of volumes 23, 24, 25, & 26, respectively, to be a little more specific.

Olive-sided Flycatcher

John Pogacnik reported an olive-sided flycatcher at Hogback Ridge Park in Madison Township, Lake County on June 30. The flycatcher was "heard calling several times from the top of a large hemlock along Mill Creek." This bird is too late to be a spring migrant; too early to be a fall migrant. Peterjohn (2001) writes that nonbreeding olive-sided flycatchers are "casual summer visitors to the northeastern counties but are accidental elsewhere, producing two to four summer sightings during most decades. Between 1925 and 1932, Lawrence Hicks "observed summering Olive-sideds at three Ashtabula County locations," including an "incubating adult . . . discovered in a white pine within [Pymatuning Bog] on June 16, 1932" (Peterjohn 2001; Hicks 1933. The breeding birds of Ashtabula County, Ohio. Wilson Bulletin. 45:168-195).

Golden-winged Warbler Remains at CVNP

Sean Zadar writes that the previously reported male golden-winged warbler remained at its Cuyahoga Valley National Park location on June 24. While searching for evidence that the golden-winged warbler is a breeder, Zadar found a pair of blue-winged warblers feeding fledglings, in addition to several blue-winged warbler nests. Interestingly, one of the blue-winged warblers Zadar saw on the 24th was sporting leg bands. "I found a Blue-winged Warbler with a metal Fish and Wildlife Service band, and a color band," Zadar explains. "It was a red band that has faded to pink. And it is likely a bird banded by Norm Kotesovec and I back in 1996 or 1997, making the bird at least 8 or 9 years old. I checked the longevity record for Blue-winged at the Bird Banding Lab's website, and it stands at 7 years and 11 months. I wrote to the BBL to try and get an exact date on when the warbler was banded." The banding project Zadar mentioned produced an article that appeared in The Ohio Cardinal in 1995. The citation is:

Canterbury, R. A., N. J. Kotesovec, Jr., and B. Catuzza. 1995. A preliminary study of the effects of Brown-headed Cowbird parasitism on the reproductive success of Blue-winged Warblers in northeastern Ohio. The Ohio Cardinal 18:124�125.

Dickcissels, Sedge Wrens & Other Grassland Birds

Richard Counts continues to tally a good variety and promising numbers of grassland birds in Wyandot and Hardin Counties, as evident from his June 26 post to Ohio-Birds. On June 23 Counts added three additional dickcissel sites to the area he regularly covers and noted that "CH 82 is still undisturbed, and some of the wheat is still green, far from ready to be harvested," which is excellent news for the birds using this area and the birders who might want to check them out. Counts also added two sedge wrens to the list in a clover field on TH 63 in Wyandot County. These birds are new to the site this summer.

Speaking of sedge wrens . . . not coincidentally, sedge wren reports are coming in from other areas of Ohio, in addition to Wyandot County. Su Snyder reports at least three sedge wrens at Funk Bottoms Wildlife Area as of June 27. Rob Thorn reported a singing sedge wren at Big Walnut Park in Columbus on June 18. Two sedge wrens were at Big Walnut on June 23 when Dan Sanders and Steve Landes saw them. Sanders noted that they observed one of the wrens carrying "either a fecal sac or a very light-colored food item." On June 26 Gene Stauffer found three sedge wrens at Pickerington Ponds. Sedge wrens tend to show up this time of year in places where they hadn't been previously noted, so likely we'll here of additional reports in coming days. Even better, sedge wrens are showing up in places in Ohio where they hadn't been found before--ever: reclaimed strip mines in southeastern Ohio, for instance. Before we leave sedge wrens behind for a little bit, Bob Royse posted a question today on Ohio-Birds that is interesting to mull over . . .

Dickcissels

This seems to be one of those "dickcissel breakout years." In addition the birds tallied by Rick Counts (see above), a few recent dickcissel reports include: six at Cricket Frog Cove in Wood County, according to Rick Nirschl; two from Darke County, as reported by Regina Schieltz on June 27; in addition to sedge wrens, Gene Stauffer found two-plus dickcissels at Pickerington Ponds on June 26; one singing bird at Fryer Park in Columbus on June 20, as reported by Rob Thorn; upwards of four to possibly six dickcissels at the VOA in Butler County, as reported over the past weekend by Neill Cade and Jeff Brown; and Su Snyder writes that "A pair of Dickcissels are being seen near Apple Creek in Wayne County (don't know if these are the same birds whose nest failed earlier this month)." A certain number of dickcissels are around in various Ohio locales every year, but some years there seems to be markedly more reports than in others.

Odds-n-Ends

Now that the news bureau's traveling days are over, it should be easier to provide news highlights in easily digestible snippets, rather than these painfully large chunks. Certainly, there must be something else really noteworthy I've missed (if so, send an email), but let's not forget a few other birds of recent note:

Su Snyder recently received "a report of a couple of Pine Siskins coming to a feeder south of Mohican State Forest." And on June 27 at Funk Bottoms Wildlife Area Snyder reported "2 drake N Pintails, 1 drake GW Teal, and 4 Great Egrets, one of which, was carrying a stick in it's bill."

Scott Hull and Kyle Loper found a sub-adult common loon at Woodbury Wildlife Area in Coshocton County on June 24.

The Bell's vireo and yellow-crowned night-herons remain at their respective Columbus-area sites (multiple observers). According to Dan Sanders, three yellow-crowned night-heron nestlings were visible on June 23, and there's been a report that there's a fourth youngster in that nest somewhere . . .

Finally, as a treat for reading this far, here's a nice photo of the yellow-crowned night-heron at Maumee Bay State Park, which was taken on June 19th by Jay Lehman:

Very nice, indeed!

Have a great week(end). Here I had aimed to have this posted on Monday, and come to find it's almost Friday, already.

Bulletins at once . . . or eventually.

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