Photographs in color |
Contents of Volume 2 , Issue 1
Published December 2000
mailed 10 Jan.
Summer 2000 Bird Review
by Victor W. Fazio, III |
Coverage map for seasonal reports |
Invited Authors . . . .
- Richard A. Bradley is an Associate Professor of EEO Biology at Ohio State, an active birder since 1963, and has been conducting research on arachnids since 1980.
- Dwight Chasar is research chemist at BFGoodrich Co and has been involved in many aspects of birding for about 20 years.
- Jeff Price is director of Climate Change Impact Studies, American Bird Conservancy.
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Summer 2000 published reports originated from these shaded counties
Each issue of Volume 2 will introduce an editor of this journal.
Associate Editor Jeff Grabmeier is assistant director of research communications at Ohio State University. He has been birding for about seven years.
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Also in V2(1) . . .
Spiders in Ohio by Richard Bradley Ph.D.
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Division of Wildlife has provided funding for a survey of spiders in our state through the Do Something Wild tax check-off program. Each year since 1994, this funding supports public education activities and the collection of spiders from a number of focal localities throughout the state. Public education programs have been very popular. During this project I have presented talks to a combined audience of over 700. A few times per year, I conduct all-day spider identification workshops and field-observation/collecting workshops. These have attracted nearly 600 participants. Outreach activities have also included a number of magazine and newspaper articles, as well as a short television program that aired on ONN and PBS. The new Ohio Spider Survey web page, which was completed at the end of April 2000, has tabulated thousands of visitors during its first months on the Internet.
Volunteers are working to census spiders in a variety of localities throughout Ohio. Most volunteers submit relatively few records; some provide detailed notes and voucher specimens for dozens of spider species. Survey participants use spiders to teach natural history and ecology lessons in schools and at community-group meetings. The focus of these efforts is to provide an appreciation for the rich invertebrate biodiversity of our region. Spiders are now regularly featured at the annual “Insect Day” festivities at the Columbus Zoo and “Creature Feature” at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.
A survey of Ohio is an ambitious project and will necessarily involve a lot of volunteer effort. I would welcome donations of spider specimens, and I am particularly interested in receiving specimens that include basic data (collector, habitat, date and locality). The collections will be permanently housed at the Museum of Biodiversity of the Ohio State University. Many spider species cannot be determined from photographs, but slides could be used in public-education projects associated with the survey. If you are interested in learning more about Ohio spiders, contributing specimens, slides, or your time to this effort please contact: Dr. Richard Bradley
- Accompanying photo file: coming 20 April 2001
Literature Review: Bias in Roadside BBS Surveys? by Jeff Grabmeier
Modelling the Potential Impacts of Climate Change on the Summer Distribution of Ohio's Non-game Birds by Jeff Price, Ph.D.
In summary, a high probability exists that climate change could lead to changes in bird distributions. Even a relatively small change in average temperature could impact bird distributions within the state. Some of these changes could occur (and may be occurring) relatively quickly. While these changes may have some ecological and, possibly, economic effects, the magnitude of these effects is unknown.
Cuckoo Population Changes in Cuyahoga/Summit Cos. by Dwight Chasar, Ph.D.
A significant spraying program was carried out in May of 2000 in the heaviest gypsy moth infested areas of the CVNRA and neighboring communities to deter the pest’s further advancement. Some declines in cuckoo numbers may be attributed to localized effects to control tent caterpillars (Hughes 1999). It will be interesting to see how the cuckoo population is affected over the next few years in Cuyahoga and Summit Counties. It is tempting with only limited data to conclude that the small drop in cuckoos in the 2000 Summit County count was due to either or both the spraying program and non-eruption year for cicadas, i.e., lower food supply. An old cliche is “One man’s loss is another man’s gain.” While a toll has been taken of the white oaks and maybe some bird nestings due to the gypsy moth defoliation, the cuckoo has emerged the richer for it. In this latter aspect, so has the NE Ohio birder.
Grassland species cometh
and the bounty of wetland restorations overflows
Having lost 90% of its wetlands, Ohio as a drought refugia understandably is not a role one would expect the state to play in the biology of too many bird species. Yet refuge they seek in harsh times from the central prairie states. The drought of the previous year, alleviated in the Midwest, continued fiercely further west. Coincident with environmental factors, several relatively new wetland restorations (notably those in Lorain, Marion, Pickaway, and Hamilton Counties), have attracted the attention of local birders. The two came together in 2000 to produce some interesting breeding records for Ohio. For rarity, waterfowl took center stage for which the Ruddy Duck, Northern Shoveler, and Green-winged Teal are of special note. For the Blue-winged Teal too, local populations fluctuate and “tend to be largest when drought has eliminated many of their preferred nesting marshes in the prairies of North America” (Peterjohn and Rice 1991). Brood production at one central Ohio site reaffirms this assessment for the species. From the same site, Big Island W.A., comes another breeding record in the same vein, that of the Wilson’s Phalarope. Less obvious is the relationship between these conditions and the numbers of other marsh species. Least Bitterns and Common Moorhens were in substantial numbers within the Western Basin marshes according to wildlife biologist Mark Shieldcastle (O.D.N.R., O.D.O.W.). The common herons of West Sister Island N.W.R. fared well registering slight increases in the number of nests. However, as much as the fortunes of the Snowy Egret wax, those of the Cattle Egret have waned in recent years. More subtle (for we lack the data for firmer conclusions) are the productivity increases for certain wetland species. How much of the production of 35 young Spotted Sandpipers at Big Island W.A., where unconfirmed as a breeder during the breeding bird atlas of the 1980s, was due to the wetland restoration and how much influenced by the drought? Only long term studies will shed some light on the matter. Another beneficiary of wetland restoration seems to be helping itself out. Of the Pied-billed Grebe, Peterjohn and Rice (1991) wrote “nesting grebes are almost exclusively restricted to large marshes today”. The species has gradually increased in numbers and localities ever since. The nesting success this year, appears more clearly a matter of the species colonizing new wetlands; bodies of water as little as an acre in size. This apparent adaptability should have field observers watching for the species early in the development of wetlands. More attention too should be paid to a host of wetland species over time to better understand the dynamic between local habitat availability and regional environmental conditions.
Grassland species also get their due during the summer. Dickcissels were the headliners as a June influx was more widespread than typically experienced pushing further east to infringe upon the consciousness of birders unaccustomed to their presence. Overall numbers were only slightly elevated above those of 1998. In recent years, the statewide population may have matched the abundance recorded during the mid-1980s. Records from the northwest corner of the state for Henslow’s Sparrow suggest a return of the northern population southwards. A subsequent revision to its range map, would make all the more apparent the inexplicable absence of the species in the central west. Nearby in the Lake Plain, the Vesper Sparrow, elusive for some, proved as abundant as ever. Reclaimed strip mines have garnered attention recently for their concentrations of Grasshopper and Henslow’s Sparrows, yet the wetland restorations mentioned above have shown themselves capable of harboring non-trivial densities of these species. The diversity of these sites, and the sheer numbers from the expansive strip mines, should attract further attention from the birding community. Our understanding of the biology of these species will be the richer for it.
To the Ohio birder, the June-July period once represented merely the last breath of spring migration and the beginnings of fall shorebird migration. Lake Erie estuaries remained inundated during the period, depressing the shorebird migration, perhaps helping to focus attention elsewhere. This year should convince observers to continue to take another look at the summer nesting season. A season that continues to surprise and where the greatest discoveries await.
The Sandhill Crane family at Killdeer Plains W.A.(Wyandot Co.) in late July - photos courtesy Ron Sempier.
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