Delaware County Bird Club NEWSLETTER Vol. 35 No. 7 Delaware County Bird Club Newsletter March 2021 DELAWARE COUNTY BIRD brood parasitism of Brown-headed Cowbirds (Molothrus CLUB PROGRAMS ater) on Least Bell’s Vireos (Vireo bellii pusillus). Bryan also holds a Master’s in Educational For the Winter of 2021, the DCBC will continue Administration and has been a teacher or principal for 19 going virtual - Zoom meetings instead of in-person years. Other jobs he has held include banding birds of programs. We will hold them in the same time slot - on prey for a season in the Florida Keys, being a summer the fourth Monday of each month at 7:00 PM. If you camp counselor in North Carolina and Colorado, would be interested in joining such Zoom meetings, conducting point counts of birds in a riparian restoration please send an email message to Rich Bradley from the area, sequencing avian DNA and as a Park Ranger and account you would use for the Zoom registration. Your later a Naturalist with Franklin County Metro Parks in email will then be added to a list for use in sending Columbus, Ohio. He has also volunteered as an ecology Zoom links about the meetings. Please send your sign-up and bird guide at parks in San Diego, CA and Durango, message to Rich Bradley at his alternate email Mexico where he lived for five and 11 years, address under the name Alan Bradley respectively. He is the compiler of the Christmas Bird ([email protected]). Count for the latter city. Mr. Sharp currently teaches Our March 22nd Zoom meeting will feature our biology at Stanly Community College in Albemarle, NC. former bird club member Bryan Sharp. Bryan will present a program about the birds of the state of Durango, Mexico. For a long time when birders thought about birding south of the US border they immediately thought of places like Belize, Costa Rica or even further south Ecuador and Brazil. But in recent years they have been looking a bit closer to home – our southern neighbor Mexico. And they have been greatly rewarded for their efforts. Bryan will give an overview of the four major ecoregions of Durango, the main birds associated with each, a little bit of history/culture and some personal anecdotes from my adventures there. This mountainous state, located in central northwest Mexico (about the size of Mississippi), may have the second-lowest population density in Mexico but it has Tufted Jay, one of the most famous Durango specialties 432 species of birds. Many of ‘our’ birds spend winters (photo by Daniel Lopez Velasco). in the mountains and grasslands of this area. But the state has many of its own birds like the Eared Quetzal, COLUMBUS AUDUBON PROGRAMS Mountain Trogon, Military Macaw, White-striped Woodcreeper, and Black-throated Magpie-Jay. The Grange Insurance Audubon Center, host of Bryan Sharp is a biologist, educator, hiker and birder. Columbus Audubon programs, is currently open but at As an undergraduate, he studied the microflora of avian limited capacity. The next scheduled Tuesday night plumage and its effects on feather degradation under the program takes place on March 30th when they welcome guidance of Dr. Edward H. (Jed) Burtt, Jr. Those studies Debra Knapke, Ohio gardening and plant guru, who will included banding many songbirds, as did the MAPS tell us about Wildlife Gardening – Creating Places for (Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship) Them and Us. project on which he worked in San Diego, California while conducting research for his Master’s thesis on Garden trends come and go, but one that has secured involved, the 2021 Biggest Week In American Birding is a niche in the gardening world is caring for wildlife. In a going virtual! perfect world we would not need to create a place for Not only will they bring you the kind of outstanding insects, birds, and others, but humans have drastically workshops and keynotes you've come to expect during altered the natural landscape. Now we understand that Biggest Week, they're also going to bring you virtual the health of wildlife is connected with ours. Learn the experiences at some of your favorite birding hotspots in essentials of creating a place that supports both human northwest Ohio. For more information, visit and non-human needs in this virtual program. https://www.biggestweekinamericanbirding.com/. After two other careers, in 1992 Debra turned her avocation of plant study and gardening into her full-time The 2020 AMERICAN KESTREL career. Known as “The Garden Sage”, Debra is NESTING SEASON passionate about gardening, sustainable garden design Dick Tuttle and the natural world, and enjoys sharing knowledge through her writing, public speaking, and garden Monitoring 18 kestrel nestboxes and banding all consulting in the private and public sectors. She has nestlings provides a good hobby for Dick Phillips and me served on various local and national committees and and the 2020 nesting season did not disappoint. boards that focus on education, the environment, and The small falcons did their part by attempting fifteen sustainability. She has championed those passions during nests with eggs and thirteen (87.7%) families matured to her two-year term (2014-2016) as Honorary President of fledge young. The sparrow hawks laid 71 eggs, 57 the Herb Society of America and currently as the Chair (80.3%) hatched, and 56 (78.9%) fledged. Once eggs of the Sustainability Committee of GardenComm. In hatched, 98.2% grew to fly out of their nestboxes to addition, she has mentored the future of the landscape continue their quest to mature and raise future families of industry at Columbus State Community College for 24 their own. years. She loves being a gardener and has packed an Usually, fledged siblings form a flock for several amazing variety of perennials, trees, shrubs, and edibles weeks as their father mentors them. Sometimes, during onto the 2/3-acre lot surrounding her home. monitoring, we hear fledglings begging while hiding in This program is free and open to the public, but crop fields. This practice protects them from larger registration is required. Visit raptors that find the fledglings easy to harvest. https://columbusaudubon.org/upcoming-program- Dick and I did our part by traveling a nearly fifty-mile tuesday-march-30/ for more information. road trip ten times to monitor the boxes during the kestrel nesting season, and we revisited the boxes on MAGEE MARSH AND BOARDWALK UPDATE October 5 and 6 to clean nest chambers and add new white pine bedding. On October 5, we found Box-3 (K- Known as a prime spot for visitors to witness spring 3) missing, and a new pole had replaced the original migration, the wildlife area will remain open from mount. After several days of phone calls we were told sunrise to sunset. Currently, the Magee Marsh Wildlife that a crew from outside the area had traded poles and Area boardwalk is open and posted as one-way travel left Box-3 at the foot of the new pole. We used to have starting at the west entrance. laminated notes attached to the bottom panels that had However, due to the number of people who visit the contact phone numbers. Most of these messages have boardwalk each spring and the current social distancing aged to drop off. Apparently, a passerby snatched the guidelines, the Magee Marsh Wildlife Area boardwalk unattended kestrel box and I hope they offer it to their will be closed from April 17 to May 31, 2021. neighborhood raptors. We mounted a new K-3 on the The rest of the area will remain open, and during new pole five days after the disappearance. this time, a new trail will be open near the boardwalk to The kestrel nesting season was short compared to a provide more areas for birding. A map showing new standard that I compiled from 155 nests years ago. The birding trails on the area is coming soon. The first egg of 2020 was laid in K-7 on March 29 which is Sportsmen's Migratory Bird Center and Black Swamp 15 days later than the earliest egg laid on March 14. Only Bird Observatory center will also remain closed until ten-percent of first eggs are laid before March 29. further notice. Visit Then, the latest fledging took place on July 1, making https://ohiodnr.gov/wps/portal/gov/odnr/go-and-do/plan- the 2020 season 95 days long. The standard season a-visit/find-a-property/magee-marsh-wildlife-area for length set by 155 nests is 166 days long, from March 14 more information. through August 26, so the 2020 season was 42.8% shorter than the standard. When I did the calculations for THE BIGGEST WEEK IN AMERICAN BIRDING – 2020, I ignored what happened in K-15. MAY 6 – 10, 2021 K-15 held a second clutch of three eggs on July 5. We always monitor all of the boxes sometime after our With so much uncertainty surrounding the status of national holiday of July 4 so we won’t miss counting a travel and in order to ensure the safety of everyone second clutch of eggs. We checked K-15 again on July 2 23 and August 3 and the eggs had still not hatched. To be The thump on my head felt like a sock full of sand really safe, we did not remove the eggs until we were and she hit on the left side of the back of my skull. I cleaning and adding new white pine bedding to all boxes believe she made contact with one side of her breast in October.