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Firelands Blue Notes
Pick
almost any Sunday afternoon for a pleasant drive all across the
Firelands counties of Erie and Huron. You will be amazed at the huge
number of lovely cemeteries within these two counties. Huron County,
for example, shows over 80 locations.
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The inaugural |
******************************************************************************************* How did I know their genders? Females have a higher pitched ‘hoo’, even though they are bigger than the males. It was very satisfying to hear them, (though I never saw them) because their presence enriches my sense of place. Every species which shares this local habitat is precious for that. I got a similar thrill two days prior upon finding a horde of Snow-fleas on the Huron River Greenway. Hundreds of these tiny collembolids (not fleas at all, but a much more primitive insect) were springing about on the surface of the snow. They possess a powerful spring-loaded appendage on their posterior, which can catapult them a great distance relative to their size, though in a somewhat unpredictable direction. But getting back to the owls. After I listened a bit, I ran back into the house and jumped on the computer. It was not to post on the list-serve, but to enter this one bit of data into the Ohio Breeding Bird Atlas database.
If you are not familiar with the Atlas, it is a five year project
to record nesting and courting activity of all bird species nesting
in Ohio, in all parts of the state. We are now starting year four,
and there is much to be done. The goal is ambitious: separately
survey over 4400 blocks, with each block being about 3 miles on a
side. My personal stake is to oversee 75 blocks, comprising most of
Erie and Huron Counties, with slivers of Lorain and Ashland Counties
thrown in. Much more detailed information is available on the OBBA
website <http://www.ohiobirds.org/obba2>,
which can also be found by clicking a button on this website’s
sidebar! Many if not most species nest in the summer, so our focus period is June and July. However, some species don’t wait for summer, including owls, raptors, horned larks and others. The prime time to observe them starts now! Red-tailed hawks sitting side by side in a tree are pair bonded. Horned larks singing and chasing each other across an open field are defending territory. Hooting owls, especially if you didn’t call them in, are territorial. Birding for the Atlas is a different kind of birding, but can be a satisfying kind of challenge. I invite you to give it a try. I will continue to muse on this topic in the near future, so watch this space!
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invariably
found on railroad wires, and Red-headed Woodpeckers were found on
telephone poles by rural roads.
while uncommon, were still living in our general area, which was a
pleasant surprise. I have found them several places in Huron
County, sometimes very near dwellings. Just recently, I found a
pair on Laurel Road, which is east of Olena. Would you believe it,
they were on telephone poles!
