Devoted to the Study and Appreciation of Ohio’s Birdlife • Vol. 41, No. 2, Winter 2017–18 An extremely rare visitor to Ohio made an appearance at the Greenlawn Dam near Scotio Audubon MP, Franklin. Many birders, including Indiana birder and photographer Jeff Timmons, traveled from all over the midwest to see this Mew Gull on 30 Dec. On the cover: On 15 Jan, Sean Hollow found this drake Wood Duck at Spring Lakes in Greene. It didn’t seem to mind the flurries as he enjoyed some of the scarce open water during one of the most frigid stretches of winter.. Vol. 40 No. 2 Devoted to the Study and Appreciation of Ohio’s Birdlife EDITOR OHIO BIRD RECORDS Craig Caldwell COMMITTEE 1270 W. Melrose Dr. Westlake, OH 44145 Jay G. Lehman 440-356-0494 Secretary [email protected] 7064 Shawnee Run Rd. Cincinnati, OH 45243 [email protected] PHOTO EDITOR Christopher Collins PAST PUBLISHERS 3560 Alvera Ct. Beavercreek, OH 45432 John Herman (1978–1980) [email protected] Edwin C. Pierce (1980–2008) LAYOUT PAST EDITORS Roger Lau John Herman (1978–1980) [email protected] Edwin C. Pierce (1980–1991) Thomas Kemp (1987–1991) Robert Harlan (1991–1996) Victor W. Fazio III (1996–1997) CONSULTANTS Bill Whan (1997–2008) Rick Asamoto Andy Jones (2008–2010 Jen Brumfield Jill M. Russell (2010–2012) Cory Chiappone Tim Colborn Victor Fazio III Stephan Gleissberg Rob Harlan Andy Jones Kent Miller Laura Peskin Robert Sams Jack Stenger Sue Tackett Bill Whan Brian Wulker ISSN 1534-1666 The Ohio Cardinal, Winter 2017–18 COMMENTS ON THE SEASON By Craig Caldwell od. An Empidonax flycatcher, a House Wren, a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, a Scarlet Tanager, and Dec and Jan temps were somewhat below a Rose-breasted Grosbeak were also late-in-the- their long-term means; their average maximums year finds. and minimums and overall average were in the Snowy Owls provided sightings in 40 counties. 40th to 50th percentiles. Many days, however, were However, the winter finch invasion was not as significantly warmer than usual, so the two-week- dramatic as expected; only Pine Siskins were nu- long frigid period which struck the northern part merous and widespread. Lapland Longspurs and of the state on Christmas Eve was a shock. Lake Snow Bunting flocks were larger than usual. Sev- Erie ice cover went from less than 10 percent to eral sparrows lingered into the late-Dec freeze. nearly 90 percent in that period. Feb flipped the The North American Classification Com- coin: It was the fourth-warmest of the 124 years mittee of the American Ornithological Society with data. has posted the suite of proposals they are con- Dec was exceptionally dry, ranking at number sidering. Only a few directly affect the Ohio list 15 of 123. Only Cleveland and the area to its east if passed: Some woodpeckers and sparrows will had more than the usual amount of precipita- have new genera, the hawks (family Accipitridae) tion, but at most it was about 1½ times the norm. will be shuffled, and “our” Yellow Warbler would Most of the state received from 50 to 90 percent become American Yellow Warbler with the rec- of the usual amount though the far northwest ognition of some more southerly subspecies as had less than half its historic average. Jan was a full species. Lumps of the two bean-geese, the little dryer than usual overall, though the eastern Yellow Warbler split, and splits of Red-eyed Vir- Ohio Valley had up to double its usual precipita- eo, LeConte’s Thrasher, Barn Owl, White-col- tion. And to go with its warmth, Feb was the sec- lared Seedeater, several Central American spe- ond-wettest on record. The Athens/Hocking/ cies, and of Mexican Duck from Mallard would Perry area got “only” double its usual precipita- change the life and country lists of those of us tion, much of the state got up to triple the usual fortunate enough to have birded far from home. amount, and the southwest and south-central We’ll know the decisions in July— I make no pre- parts got up to four times their norms. dictions, because I was so wrong with last year’s! Weather data are from the National Weather This issue of the Cardinal contains reports of Service (http://water.weather.gov/precip/), the 193 species, a little above the recent average but NOAA (http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/temp-and- 10 fewer than 2015’s banner season. The species precip/maps.php and http://www.ncdc.noaa. accounts also include six hybrids and six reports gov/extremes/records/), and the Plain Dealer. at the genus or family level. This issue continues The 118th Audubon Christmas Bird Count the streak of data from every county, though as (CBC) was held from 14 Dec to 04 Jan. Mike in fall, reports were scarce from Pike, Putnam, Busam has again provided us with an overview and Van Wert. Mourning Doves, Downy Wood- and highlights to accompany the table of data. peckers, European Starlings, Dark-eyed Juncos, In the species accounts which follow this “Com- and Northern Cardinals were reported in all 88 ments” section I note the highest number of a counties. Red-tailed Hawks, Red-bellied Wood- species found. Most of these values are those peckers, White-breasted Nuthatches, and Song of single birders or parties, usually birding in a Sparrows were seen in 87 counties and 22 more relatively small area, and often are the counts species were seen in at least 80. from a single route within a CBC. However, I This season produced reports of 11 review spe- seldom include counts from an entire CBC, each cies; their names are underlined. Sightings of five of which is the result of many parties’ efforts in species generated formal reports to the OBRC, scattered locales within a 15-mile diameter circle; and at least some reports of all but one of the rest those data are in the table. were posted to eBird or other media with pho- Many species (and in some cases numbers) tos or descriptions which will allow review. Two of shorebirds and warblers remained into Dec, of the species with formal submissions also had which we can easily attribute to the unusual posted reports from other locations. Regrettably, warmth of fall and early winter. Remarkably, a report of a White-winged Dove had no sup- some warblers which are usually far to the porting information, as did one of the California south were still around during the CBC peri- Gull reports. The OBRC and this editor continue 49 Vol. 41 No. 2 to urge birders to formally report all sightings of Big Island = Big Island Wildlife Area, Marion Review List species, of Core List species found at Blendon Woods = Blendon Woods Metro Park, unusual times, of nesting by birds previously not Franklin known to nest in the state, and of course sightings The Bowl = a limited-access area near the Har- of birds never before found in Ohio. An easy-to- rison airport use on-line form is available at http://ohiobirds. BRAS = Black River Audubon Society org/rare-birds/report-a-rare-bird-sighting/. BSBO = Black Swamp Bird Observatory, Otta- Data for the following Species Accounts come wa (http://www.bsbo.org) from reports submitted directly to The Cardinal Buck Creek = Buck Creek State Park, Clark and The Bobolink (the latter courtesy of its pub- Burke Airport = Cleveland Burke Lakefront Air- lisher, Robert Hershberger), eBird (http://ebird. port, Cuyahoga org/content/ebird), and the Ohio-birds listserv Caesar Creek = Caesar Creek State Park, War- (http://birding.aba.org/maillist/OH). In the ren, unless the lake is specified; a bit of the species accounts, “normal” departure and arrival lake is also in Clinton dates are from Harlan et al., Ohio Bird Records Com- CBC = Audubon’s Christmas Bird Count mittee Annotated Checklist of the Birds of Ohio, 2008. CCE = Crane Creek Estuary, Lucas and Otta- Mentions of breeding locations are from Rode- wa, viewable from both ONWR and the CCE wald et al., The Second Atlas of Breeding Birds in Ohio Trail which originates at Magee (“OBBA II”, 2016). Chapel Drive = a road off Ohio 83 south of Cum- Taxonomic order and nomenclature follow berland in Noble which traverses grasslands the Check-List of North American Birds, 7th Edition Clear Creek = Clear Creek Metro Park; the east- (1998) as updated through the 58th Supplement ern 2/3 is in Hocking, the rest in Fairfield (2017). These documents are produced by the Clear Fork = Clear Fork Reservoir (or Lake), North American Classification Committee of the partly in Morrow but most of the birding is American Ornithological Society and are avail- done in the larger Richland Section. able at http://www.checklist.aou.org/. CLNP = Cleveland Lakefront Nature Preserve County names are in bold italics. Locations (the former Dike 14), Cuyahoga whose counties are of the same name, for ex- CNC = Cincinnati Nature Center, a non-govern- ample Ashtabula (city) and Delaware Wildlife mental entity whose Long Branch Farm and Area, usually do not have the counties repeated. Rowe Woods units are in Clermont County names for sites described in Cincinnati Conneaut = the mudflats to the west of Con- (Hamilton), Cleveland (Cuyahoga), Columbus neaut Harbor, Ashtabula (Franklin), Dayton (Montgomery), and Tole- CP = County Park do (Lucas) are also omitted. Shortened names CPNWR = Cedar Point National Wildlife Ref- and a few sets of initials are used for locations uge, Lucas and organizations which occur repeatedly; these CVNP = Cuyahoga Valley National Park, abbreviations are listed here. The term “fide” is Cuyahoga and (mostly) Summit used in some citations; it means “in trust of ” and Darby Creek = Battelle Darby Creek Metro is used where the reporter was not the observer.