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Catering to feathered friends with a buffet in the back yard
by
James F. McCarty/Plain Dealer Reporter
Thursday January 08, 2009, 9:33 AM
Every winter I try to add new entrees to my backyard bird-feeding menu.
This isn't as difficult as it might seem, given the evolution of feeding into a $3.3 billion-a-year business, according to the latest statistics compiled by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in its report "Wildlife Watching in the United States."
A few years ago, the hot new addition to my backyard smorgasbord was "Suet on a Stick" -- an inventive feeder constructed by my son Kyle from a pine log with drilled holes and a hook at the top. The woodpeckers and nuthatches love it.
Last year, I bought a natural-looking faux-stone bird bath and a heater to keep the water from freezing. But I lost the heater. So that one's a work in progress.
This year, I unveiled two new features: a peanut butter-suet feeder, courtesy of Wild Birds Unlimited, that the Carolina wrens visit several times a day; and a heavy-duty metal, squirrel-proof dispenser of wild bird seed mixes from Father Nature Bird Feeders in Manning, S.C. It's guaranteed for life against breakage by pesky backyard rodents, and the finches have flocked to it. Both dispensers have become vital elements of our feeding repertoire.
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Some birds forgot to migrate for winter
by
Jim McCarty/Plain Dealer Reporter
Monday January 05, 2009, 5:01 PM
Hermit thrush are the only member of their genus to stick around during winter -- but only rarely.My son Bret and I joined 18-year-old Ethan Kistler on the Burton Christmas Bird Count on New Year's Day. We canvassed Headwaters Park and the surrounding region in Geauga County, and were rewarded with a picturesque scene of new-fallen snow, a diverse habitat and a nice mix of species.
The highlight of the day was a serendipitous encounter with four stunning male white-winged crossbills in a stand of spruce. The sharp-eared young birders heard the finches' distinctive chip call before we saw them in perfect sunlight, glowing rose red atop a cluster of cones.
Earlier, we surveyed a group of red osier dogwoods in a marsh that appeared barren of birds until Ethan delivered a "pish" call. In response, a yellow-rumped warbler popped up to see what all the commotion was about.
A distinctive, thin, high-pitched trill was what attracted our attention to two brown creepers methodically working their way up trees, gleaning the bark in search of hidden spiders and mites.
"Birds of the Cleveland Region" features seasonal calendars that show historically what species we should be seeing in the winter months -- and which ones should have left for more temperate climes awhile ago.
But as the book points out, such sightings of insect-eaters, while rare and unexpected, are hardly unprecedented outside of their normal ranges.
These stray birds only foreshadowed the surprises that awaited us.
Continue reading "Some birds forgot to migrate for winter" »Birds Abound for Christmas Counts
by
Jim McCarty
Monday December 15, 2008, 6:11 PM
Pine siskins have invaded Northeast Ohio from Canada, descending on backyard thistle feeders and picking seeds from sweet gum balls.With so many birders in the field, good sightings could be expected, even with the predictable rainy, gray and frigid conditions of mid-December.
Eight of us scoured the parks, ponds and fields around Kent on Sunday and found more than 50 species, including two cackling geese in a giant flock of Canadas, mallards and black ducks feeding in a pasture.
At the Standing Rock Cemetery, several sweet gum trees were filled with at least 40 pine siskins pecking out seeds from the spiky gum balls.
Other highlights of the day included a flock of eight tundra swans, several red-shouldered hawks, a flock of tree sparrows and a dozen golden-crowned kinglets.
Elsewhere across the Akron area, birders in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park discovered scattered flocks of white-winged crossbills -- remnants of the invasion from the week before.
Patrick Coy reported a group of five crossbills feeding in the trees along the Riding Run Trail near the intersection of Everett and Wheatley roads. Dwight Chasar and a group of nine hikers found about seven to 10 crossbills along the Boston Run Trail across from Happy Days Lodge on Ohio 303.
The Thayer's gull is a rarity in the Great Lakes, a Canadian arctic nester that is easy to confuse with the similar Iceland gull.Think Crossbills for Christmas
by
Jim McCarty
Monday December 08, 2008, 5:30 PM
White-winged crossbills are descending on hemlocks and spruce in Northeast Ohio in unprecedented numbers. The beaks on the boreal birds are designed perfectly for prying open cones to reach the seeds hidden inside.If the past week is any indication, white-winged crossbills could appear on the Cleveland count for the first time in 42 years.
Cleveland Heights birders Dick and Jean Hoffman of the Kirtland Bird Club have documented every Cleveland Christmas count since 1940. Their records indicate that the irruptive crossbills have descended from the boreal forests into Ohio only twice during that time, in 1963 and 1966.
Ron Pittaway, in his winter finch forecast, correctly predicted the crossbill invasion three months ago, based on a shortage of the white-winged finch's preferred diet of spruce and hemlock seeds.
Reports of white-winged crossbill sightings arrived from across the state last week, with most of the flocks of winter wanderers concentrated in Northeast Ohio.
Young birder Ethan Kistler had the foresight to target the huge stand of conifers at the Holden Arboretum in Kirtland on Saturday, and he invited my son Bret and I to join him. Before we arrived, Ethan found 15 crossbills picking through the bunches of cones at the tops of spruce trees. But they disbursed just before Bret's and my arrival.
We didn't have to wait long, though, before fresh waves of crossbills arrived from the north, descending in noisy flocks on the cone-laden treetops.
Continue reading "Think Crossbills for Christmas" »Wonderful Thanksgiving birding, but tragedy, too -- Aerial View
by James F. McCarty Plain Dealer Reporter
Monday December 01, 2008, 11:21 AM
Northeast Ohio birders had much to be thankful for last week -- but also a regretful incident to mourn.
The Thanksgiving holiday brought an alignment of bird-friendly weather and the opportunity for birders to spend an abundance of quality time in the field.
Harlequin ducks nest in the high Arctic and winter along rocky ocean shorelines, but occasionally pass through the Great Lakes during migration. This young male thrilled Ohio birders for two days before it was shot on Saturday.
It's a well-known birding adage: More sets of eyes usually means more sightings of rarities.
Two snowy owls -- a bright white male and a black-barred juvenile -- delighted dozens of birders daily at Burke Lakefront Airport. Even when the ground-dwelling owls were hidden from view in a swale, a timely jet would take off or a kindly airport employee would drive by, flushing the birds for all to see.
A trickling of white-winged crossbills raised our expectations for a few days before reaching full-blown invasion status. Hundreds of these fascinating cone-picking finches passed overhead at beaches from Headlands to Huntington, sweeping across northern Ohio in search of hemlock, pine and spruce seeds to feast on. Bill Osborne, Chris Pierce, Jen Brumfield, Gabe Leidy, Susan Ruth Marengo and Jerry Talkington all filed reports.
Continue reading "Wonderful Thanksgiving birding, but tragedy, too -- Aerial View" »Winter winds don't blow away birding chances -- Aerial View
by James F. McCarty/Plain Dealer Reporter
Tuesday November 25, 2008, 11:28 AM
Snowy owls are descending from the Arctic tundra and popping up in fields across Ohio, including one or two at Burke Lakefront Airport and another in Grafton. This handsome bird is being treated at Laura Jordan's raptor rehabilitation center near Spencer in Medina County.
Pull on your long johns, bundle up and venture outside.
The calendar may say it's fall, but our eyes tell us the winter birds have arrived in force in Northeast Ohio.
Check out some of the sightings from the past week:
• At least one snowy owl has taken residence at Burke Lakefront Airport in Cleveland and is being seen on the fields behind the former Aviation High School. A possible second owl also was reported there, plus rough-legged hawks. Another snowy was found in Lorain County, on Ohio 83 near the Grafton Correctional Institution.
Jaeger sightings reward frozen birders: Aerial View
by James F. McCarty/Plain Dealer Reporter
Tuesday November 18, 2008, 11:33 AM
A birder has to be sharp to pick out a black-headed gull from a flock of Bonaparte's gulls, its slightly smaller look-alike. This Eurasian bird showed up in 2006 at Conneaut Harbor, far from its traditional wintering grounds in the North Atlantic.
Bird walk: Want to search for late fall migrants and waterfall? Join members of the Black River Audubon Society at 9 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 22, at the Wellington Reservation and Reservoir Visitor Center, 535 Jones Road, Wellington.
For birders who braved the icy winds, driving rain, stinging sleet, blinding snow and crashing waves over the weekend, the payoff was worth the pain.
Inspired by the prospects of rarities, dozens of birders endured numb toes and wind-chapped faces at some of Lake Erie's best vantage points from Huron Harbor to Headlands Beach.
The reward was the most jaegers seen in Northeast Ohio in years.
Surprise! Seven cave swallows roosting in Rocky River: Aerial View
by James F. McCarty/Plain Dealer Reporter
Monday November 10, 2008, 1:48 PM
Cave swallows huddled against the cold winds on the pier at Bradstreet Landing, Rocky River, on Sunday.A fall trip to Cape May, N.J., is guaranteed to bring birding excitement.
If only I had known the best birds seen over the past weekend would show up on Lake Erie about a 10-minute drive from my house.
Before leaving for the East Coast early Friday, I scanned the latest Rare Bird Alerts for the Cape May area. Cave swallows were the best recent sightings, with other notables including Western tanager, common eider, purple sandpiper and an impressive array of raptors, warblers, waterfowl and shorebirds.
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