Devoted to the Study and Appreciation of Ohio’s Birdlife • Vol. 42, No. 3, Spring 2019 While patrolling the Magee causeway on 10 May, Kathy Mock was pleased to see this Sandhill Crane up close along with its colts. On the cover: While looking for early migrants at one of his favorite patches in Greene, Sean Hollowell captured this Ruby-crowned Kinglet at incredibly close range at Spring Lakes Park on 12 Apr. Vol. 42 No. 3 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) Ron Canterbury Andy Jones (2008–2010 Tim Colborn Jill M. Russell (2010–2012) Bob Dudley Andrew France Stephan Gleissberg Rob Harlan Andy Jones Kent Miller Bill Whan Brian Wulker And the 27 eBird county reviewers ISSN 1534-1666 The Ohio Cardinal, Spring 2019 COMMENTS ON THE SEASON By Craig Caldwell the subject’s travels. The Columbus zoo monitors two receivers, one at the Zoo itself and anoth- The Ohio Birding community has lost another stal- er at The Wilds, and this spring the Zoo receiv- wart. Ed Pierce passed away on 31 July. Ed was the er marked the passage of a Kirtland’s Warbler publisher of the Cardinal for almost 30 years and its among other migrants. Elsewhere, the Black editor for the first third of that time. He was an early, and Swamp Bird Observatory (BSBO) has applied for major, financial supporter of OOS and deeded theCardi - a grant to fill gaps in the receiver network along nal to our organization at its founding. Ed led the monthly the southern Lake Erie shore. For more on Mo- bird census at ONWR from 1981 until this spring and tus, see https://motus.org/. And stay tuned for for many years led in- and out-of-state van trips for the a Motus article in a future issue if the Cardinal. Kirtland Bird Club. R.I.P. Even in an era of early arrivals, this spring stands out. Almost two-thirds of “our” war- Mar was cool, with an average temperature blers were first sighted earlier than their historic ranking only number 49 with number 125’s norms, some by as much as a month. All four of being the warmest. Rainfall overall was near its the thrushes which don’t overwinter here were long-term average, though a band from Cincin- ahead of schedule, as were about half of the fly- nati to Columbus had 150 to 200% of its nor- catchers, vireos, swallows, wrens, and sparrows. mal amount, and the Toledo area and parts of The last sightings of wintering species and pass- the southeast had less than 75% of their norms. through migrants were generally near their his- Apr and May, however, were both much hotter toric dates. and much wetter than usual. Apr’s average tem- This issue of the Cardinal contains reports of perature ranked at number 102 of the 125 years 310 species, down a bit from 2018’s 313 but high- with records and May’s was number 93. The er than the counts in the three years before that. two months’ rainfall totals came in at numbers The species accounts also include eight hybrids, 96 and 89 respectively. In Apr, the Grand Lake 11 reports below the species level, and one exotic, area received almost 10 inches of rain, triple its Chukar. The streak of reports from every county long-term average. That month only the Co- continues. A whopping 29 species were reported lumbus area received less than usual. In May, a in all 88 counties; 15 species were seen in 87 and few areas had as little as 75% of their norm, but 34 more were seen in at least 80. most of the state was wetter than usual and the Twenty-five review species were reported; Grand Lake area was again drenched with up to their names are underlined. Sightings of eight of 15 inches of rain. them generated 11 formal reports to the OBRC Due to much winter snow in the upper Great – thank you! Reports of some of those species Lakes watershed and spring rain there and here, and 14 of the others (from about 50 locations Lake Erie reached record high levels in May in all) were only posted to eBird or other media, which continued into summer. Over-topped fortunately with photos or descriptions which will roads in Lucas and Ottawa forced some shuf- allow review. Unfortunately, three reviews species fling of field trips during the Biggest Week in were reported with no supporting information at American Birding. all, so almost without question they will not enter Weather data are from the National Weather the official record, nor will they appear in eBird Service (http://water.weather.gov/precip/), the except to the observer. (These numbers don’t in- NOAA (http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/temp-and- clude Trumpeter Swans or the Chukars.) precip/maps.php and http://www.ncdc.noaa. The season produced over 1.6 million eBird gov/extremes/records/), and the Plain Dealer. entries, a substantial increase over last year’s 1.3 In this issue we introduce Motus, a wildlife million, which was itself a 30% increase over the tracking system managed by Bird Studies Cana- spring 2017 count. As usual, Lucas accounted da. (Though Motus is frequently fully capitalized, for more than a quarter of them, and Lucas and and looks like an acronym, it’s actually Latin for Ottawa combined contributed almost 35% of “movement”.) Animals, especially birds, are fit- the total. ted with small transmitters, each of which has a The OBRC and this editor continue to urge unique signal. Each receiver in the widespread birders to formally report all sightings of Review network captures the signal when the animal is List species, of Core List species found at unusual within a few miles of it, providing great detail of times, of nesting by birds previously not known 97 Vol. 42 No. 3 to nest in the state, and of course sightings of The Bowl = a limited-access area near the Har- birds never before found in Ohio. An easy-to-use rison airport on-line form is available at http://ohiobirds.org/ BRAS = Black River Audubon Society 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 59th Supplement ern 2/3 is in Hocking, the rest in Fairfield (2018). 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. Park, almost entirely in Franklin but with bits in other counties as well Deer Creek = the State Park is in Pickaway, the Abbreviations: Wildlife Area is in Fayette, and Deer Creek Lake is in both but mostly Pickaway Alum Creek = Alum Creek Reservoir, Dela- East Fork = East Fork State Park, Clermont ware, unless otherwise noted East Harbor = East Harbor State Park, Ottawa Armleder Park = a Cincinnati city park on the Edge Preserve = The Nature Conservancy’s Little Miami River, Hamilton Edge of Appalachia Preserve, multiple par- Audubon = the National Audubon Society cels mostly in Adams and extending a bit into (http://www.audubon.org) Scioto.