February Activity

DATE: SUNDAY, FEB. 18^th, 2007

ACTIVITY: Winter Hawks and Snowy

Buntings in Farm Country

TIME: 8:30 a.m.

PLACE: GEAUGA COUNTY

(we’ll meet at Best Lake)

Pease join us for our annual trek to Geauga County's Amish areas. We will meet at Best Lake main parking area just south of Chardon on Rt 44 at 8:30 A.M. From there we can carpool to the Amish country roads and will be on the lookout for Rough-legged Hawks as well as the other wintering raptors. Snow Buntings and Horned Larks are also generally seen on this outing. Sometimes we have found Lapland Longspurs and Wilson's Snipe. Dress for the weather, we hope to see you there. Need more info ? Call Jim McConnor at 440-257-2507.

March Activity

DATE: SUNDAY , MARCH 18^th, 2007

ACTIVITY: Killdeer Plains Wildlife Area

TIME: 9:00 a.m.

PLACE: Killdeer Plains Wildlife Area in

Wyandot County

Our first spring outing should be very exciting as we are going to Killdeer Plains Wildlife Area in Wyandot County past Mansfield Ohio.We expect to see wintering owls and hawks. In past years, 3 species of owls have been located, most reliably are Short-earred Owls, but Long-earred and Saw-whet have been seen most years. Red-tailed Hawks and Northern Harriers are also easly found. Plan to pack a lunch, or be willing to travel a few miles to an eatery, as this will be an all day trip if we want to see the Short-earred Owls. Restroom fascillities are available but are fairly rustic. Remember also that daylight savings time started the week before and sunset will be after 7 P.M. ( the best time to see the Short-ears) It takes approx. 2 hr 15 min to get home. The plan is to carpool so please contact Jim McConnor at 440-257-2507 if you plan to attend this outing BEFORE March 14th so we can make the appropriate arrangements. Registering is a MUST if we want to do this trip. Directions and further info will be made prior to the trip. Don't forget to register and we hope to see you for this exciting trip. For more information about Killdeer Plains go to the ODNR web site and click on wildlife at www.odnr.gov.

Advanced Notice of April Activity

One of Blackbrook's favorite speakers, Harvey Webster of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History (CMNH), will lead us on a tour of the Ralph Perkins II Wildlife Center and Woods Garden on Saturday, April 14th.We'll start at 9 AM (before the museum opens to the public), and after

our personal tour with Harvey, everyone is invited to spend the remainder of the day at the CMNH.

We can see the T rex Named Sue exhibit during its final weekend and visit John James Audubon: American Artist and Naturalist (which runs

through April 29th) as well as see the rest of the museum. If you've never been to the CMNH or the Perkins Garden, it will be a wonderful opportunity for you to come with our group. Unlike other Blackbrook field trips, we will need to pay parking and admission fees. We will get a discounted group rate, but we haven't yet worked out all the details. People may want to carpool to share the expense of parking. If you are interested, please send email to

blackbrookaud@aol.com or call Mary Ann Wagner after March 15th at 216-520-8800.

A Book Review

Rare Encounters with Ordinary Birds. Lyanda Lynn Haupt. Sasquatch Books. Seattle, Washington.

     While gracious (I hope), I was not real enthusiastic when friends gave me a copy of this book. Another bird book! It lay on my bedside table for weeks before I finally picked it up and read the first chapter. Then I read the second followed by the third. It became my evening ritual to read and often reread Chapters of “Rare Encounters” every evening.
     Lyanda Lynn Haupt was the creator and director of educational programs for the Seattle Audubon Society. She worked in raptor rehab in Vermont, falcon re-introduction in Minnesota, and seabird research in the remote Pacific. Her writing has appeared in nature, scientific, birding, and related publications throughout the US and Canada. It is not, therefore, surprising that she knows whereof she speaks. What I found so remarkably refreshing is the warmth and sensitivity she brings to her observations concerning the commonplace. She brings new insight and information in a way that makes you want more and to feel disappointed when you come to the end of this short volume.
     She speaks of starlings, owls, cormorants, and
sparrows, and others of the ordinary birds we see
every day. But her exhaustive research has produced wonderful facts, historical tidbits, and clues to identification that most of us haven’t thought about. Did you know that Mozart was extremely fond of his pet starling or that starling gender can be differentiated by the color at the base of the bill? Pink for girls and blue for boys - no kidding!
     Most bird books tell you where to find birds. Haupt tells us why we should be looking and new insights on what to be looking for. This is not a “where” book but a “why” book. How does this individual bird connect with my life? Haupt makes a very cogent connection between the “why bird” and “me” of each of us. She points out the too often overlooked beauty in the commonplace birds we see and ignore daily.
     Some parts are personal, so much so that I was
uncomfortable with the feeling of being too in on her life. Despite its relationship to her observations of sparrows, I don’t need to know how she decided to have a child. Yet her observations are so intuitively recorded that we become aware of what we may be missing by simply “twitching.”
     I have often thought that birding has taught me much about the humans about me. Lyanda Haupt enables one to see the “why” of this relationship between birds and people.
      A definite read - a great gift!

Reviewed by Stan Kaufman

Joe’s Tree

As you may have heard at one of our meetings, Blackbrook Audubon is donating a tree in Joe Pedone's memory to be planted at Chagrin River

Park. We've decided upon Amelanchier, also known as serviceberry, Juneberry or shadbush. This tree has beautiful white blossoms in the

spring and later provides bird-friendly "berries". This is an appropriate memorial for so many reasons.

Joe was a dedicated volunteer for both Blackbrook and Lake Metroparks (in addition to many other organizations). He was a driving influence behind our 2004 IBA dedication ceremonies. Joe was always at Chagrin River Park with or without wife Harriet and Gavin the dog in tow. When I told Harriet what Blackbrook is planning, she was overwhelmed. She said they always wanted to plant an Amelanchier in their front yard, but never got around to it.

We hope to have the tree planted this spring, in time for the IBA dedication ceremony at Chagrin River Park. (More details on that in the next Hushwing).

If you would like to combine your donation with Blackbrook's to plant a serviceberry in Joe Pedone's memory, please make your fully tax

deductible check payable to the Blackbrook Audubon Society. You can either mail it to our new address: P.O. Box 1306, Mentor, OH 44061-1306 or give it to any board member. Please designate that your check is for "Joe's memorial tree".

FROM the DESK of the PRESIDENT

by Mary Ann Wagner

maryannelizebeth@aol.com

Is your new year’s resolution to learn something new, become more active, or spend more time outdoors? Well, Blackbrook has many

opportunities to get you motivated!

The Geauga Bio-Centennial at the West Woods Nature Center continues through March. I’ve heard this is a wonderful display and well worth

taking your time to visit.

Blackbrook Audubon’s IBA bird walks at Chagrin River Park in Willoughby continue on the second and fourth Sundays of the month through March at 8 AM. We will walk the “short trail” at 6 pm on Wednesday, March 21st.

We appreciate your participation and observations as part of the group or on your own. We’ve gathered a lot of data since we began the walks in March 2006. Becky Thompson, Blackbrook’s education chair, has been

hard at work compiling the data. Please submit your information to Becky if you haven’t already done so.

We are planning IBA dedication ceremonies for Chagrin River Park and the Mentor Lagoons in the late spring. We need your help with planning, organizing and celebrating. Please contact me at

blackbrookaud@aol.com if you want to help make these dedications memorable.

Butterfly ID classes return to Lake Metroparks on February 11th. If you want to be able to identify the butterflies you’ve attracted to your garden, this is the best place to start. Contact Susan at swiedmann@lakemetroparks.com for more details.

The 10th Annual Great Backyard Bird Count takes place February 16th through 19th this year. You can count for as little or as long as you

want on those four days. If you are watching birds in different places, remember to keep separate checklists according to location or habitat. www.birdsource.org/gbbc has more advice on how you can take part in this year’s count.

Thank you to everyone who participated in the raffle at our November program. We raised $47 for Audubon Adventures. Audubon Adventures is the educational newsletter we supply to several grade school classrooms in the Lake and Geauga county area. Congratulations to Fred and Jean Dively, who went home with the $25 Honey Baked Ham gift certificate.

New Phone Number for the KBC Rare Bird Alert :

The Kirtland Bird Club ( the “KBC” in the above title ) has run, out of their own ‘pocket’, the local Phone Number that you can call to get the latest Rare Bird Sightings for the previous week or so in the seven county area in and around Cleveland. It wasn’t too many years ago that this was the main way that one got information about ’Rare Birds’ that showed up in our part of the world. Nowadays, most sightings are reported by e-mail and the Internet.

But some of us are old fashioned and still use the phone; and a dial phone at that! If you’re one of those people too, you can call this number regularly once or twice and week a keep up with the local Birds news. And the nice thing is that you don’t even have to be a member to call; although, if you’re interested in Birds and Birding, you might want to join this fine group! For more information about this group, whose mission is for the educational and scientific study of Birds for its individual members, go ‘high tech’ and visit their web site. Google the name in or go to www.KirtlandBirdClub.org ! Here, you’ll find all sorts of great information about Birding in Cleveland region and about their Meetings and Field Trips. It seems that they have as Field Trip in March at Killdeer Plains Wildlife Area, down near Marion, Ohio, the same day that we in Blackbrook have a Field Trip there!

The new Rare Bird Alert Phone Number is (216) 556-0700 !! When you call this number, you’ll go into an answering machine whose message lets you know about any “Rare Birds” seen lately. If an extremely “Rare Bird’ has been seen locally during the week, the message will usually be updated. At the end of the message you can leave your own sightings of any Rare Birds that you‘ve seen!

Kevin B. Clinton Wildlife Center

Blackbrook Audubon is pleased to sponsor Windan, a female peregrine falcon at the Kevin B. Clinton Wildlife Center. However, Windan and Noche (a great horned owl) and Kettle (a broad winged hawk) and the rest of the animals at the Wildlife Center always need more help.

Some animals at the Wildlife Center are permanent residents. Although recovered from their injuries, they could not survive on their own.

These animals make educational visits and we can see them in the outdoor courtyard at Penitentiary Glen. The public never sees the majority of the animals treated, rehabilitated and returned to the wild. As the various mating and nesting seasons get underway, Blackbrook is pleased to sponsor a collection drive for some of the items needed at

the Wildlife Center. You’ll note some of the items needed are as simple as one gallon zipper freezer bags or old bath and dish towels. (A great reason to treat yourself to new towels so you can donate your

old ones!)

The following is a partial list of items on the Wildlife Center “wish list”. For the complete list, please go to www.blackbrookaudubon.org

and follow the link to Lake Metroparks Wildlife Center. Gift certificates to PetSmart, True Value, Giant Eagle, Office Max and hardware stores are needed as well as one gallon zipper freezer bags,

dishwashing soap, Ensure (vanilla), acorns, unsalted nuts, Pedialyte (unflavored), suet, brine shrimp (frozen), senior cat food. Baby blankets, Lysol, paper towels, long handled scrub brushes, bleach,

sponges, big bath and dish towels. Lab and surgical equipment, gauze squares, rolled gauze (2” width), nail files and sterile syringes. Cloth netting, tarps, lumber/plywood, aquariums (10/15 gallon), tape

measure, duct tape, masking tape, and nylon leashes. All donations are tax deductible as allowed by law.

Please bring your items when you come to our February 20th Hummingbird program at Penitentiary Glen. It will be fun to see how much we can collect for Windan and her associates. You can also bring your donations to the Wildlife Center daily from 9 AM to 5 PM.

If you are interested in volunteering, contact Tammy O’Neil at toneil@lakemetroparks.com or call 440-256-2131.

DIRECTIONS TO PENETENTIARY GLEN: from the Lakeland College Exit of I-90 (SR 306//I-90); pass the college and GO SOUTH on SR 306 and down the hill; STOP at the Stop Light at the bottom; TURN LEFT (East) for ¼ mile to next Stop Light; then RIGHT (South) on Kirtland-Chardon Road; DRIVE UP the Hill and EAST for 3 miles “PG” is on your right!

ODNR Asks For Our Help

Blackbrook was recently contacted by ODNR to ask if we had any records for the Ashtabula river. Since we do not have any records for this area, we ask any readers who may be able to help, to contact ODNR directly. Here is a copy of the E-mail we received

“Thank you for getting back in touch with me. Below is my contact information. I am currently working on a Scenic River Designation

Study for the Ashtabula River and am looking for bird records for the Ashtabula River Watershed. We would like to document the diversity in the

watershed.

Matthew Smith

ODNR Div. Natural Areas & Preserves

NE Ohio Assistant Scenic River Manager

3441 North Ridge West

Ashtabula, Ohio 44004

Office: 440-992-5845

Fax: 440-992-2474

scenicrivers@suite224.net”

NEWS & VIEWS by A. Fjeldstad

Polar Bears & Ivory Gulls: Late last year, the ‘Gov’ment’ quietly announced their proposal to List the Polar Bear as Threatened under the Endangered Species Act. This surprise announcement was made in order to meet a deadline under a legal settlement with three environmental advocacy groups.

The current administration, long dormant on Global Warming, has been forced to recognize that the Northern latitudes are warming twice as fast as the rest of the globe. As a result, the ‘Summer Sea Ice’, which Polar Bears use to hunt for their main prey, the Ringed Seal, has been declining.

Polar Bears eat mostly in the summer and during this time have to fatten up enough to last through the winter, when they hardly eat at all. If the ice melts earlier, they have a harder time catching seals and thus they eat less. When they have a harder time putting on weight, its harder for them to last through the winter or even, for the females, to have cubs. And in Hudson Bay area, there has been a 21% population drop in just five years. With similar drops in the other 18 populations around the world and only about 20,000 Polar Bears worldwide (and less than 5,000 in Alaska), this is serious. To fully protect these Bears means a radical change in the Gov’ment’s efforts to limit Greenhouse Gases and slow down Global Warming!

But there is another creature that lives up there in the Arctic all year long just like the Polar Bear does and is, in many ways, dependent on the Polar Bear and thus on the Summer Ice. No one (except a few Birders and Auduboners) is talking about him. He’s the Ivory Gull, the most northerly Bird in the world. He lives in one of the most inhospitable places on Earth (along with the Polar Bear ). Now the Bear can’t leave and the Gull (even though he can fly) hardly ever leaves either. He lives on the ice following the Polar Bear around and scavenging on the Bear’s kills and whatever else Polar Bears, Wolves, Foxes, and Seals leave behind (errgh, you figure it out!). But he also does a little fishing as he follows the different Whales and Walruses and Seals as they swim near the surface of the water, scaring the fish. He’ll also eat garbage that we leave behind, as well as all the mollusks, insects, and crabs he can find. This beautiful bird is one tough little guy since, unlike the Polar Bear, he has to eat every day.

It’s simply amazing that this all white, pigeon-sized Bird (with black legs, feet, and bill) stays up here all year long with the Polar Bear. All the other ‘Arctic Gulls’ like Ross’s and Sabine’s, as well as all the Waterfowl and Shorebirds, leave for the winter. He stays. And like the Polar Bear, there are about 20,000 or so of these guys too; but we don’t know for sure since they are much harder to spot than Polar Bears! Hopefully, any help we give the Polar Bear will also help him.

When we said above that he hardly ever leaves, that’s basically true. But occasionally, a young bird (like young males everywhere are wont to do) will wander south and visit us on the Great Lakes. These 1^st year birds have a slightly different plumage than the adults and are very striking (check your Field Guide!). The last time one was in the Cleveland area was on December 17^th, 1975, near the Power Plant downtown. And last year, one was near Point Pelee for a few days in December. So when one shows up here again, be sure and go see him; you might not get another chance to see this beautiful and tough little gull!

Goose Music [ a Quotation ] :

Long ago, in Kentucky, I, a boy stood

By a dirt road, in first dark, and heard

The great geese hoot northward.

I could not see them, there being no moon

And the stars sparse. I heard them.

I did not know what was happening to my heart.

It was the season before the elderberry blooms,

Therefore, they were going north.

ROBERT PENN WARREN, usually considered a novelist, wrote this near the end of his life in a small book of poetry called “Audubon: A Vision” .

Where to Go Birding:

Over the years, as we led Field Trips for Blackbrook, we sometimes noticed that some of the people seemed unfamiliar with some of the other local ‘Birding Hotspots’ that we, as a group, were talking about. Sometimes we later had Field Trips to those Hotspots, but then only the regulars showed up, not the people who wanted to go there. So, we are now starting a new series of articles to address this issue. The first article is on the famous (at least to local Birders) Eastlake Power Plant and is available online at www.blackbrookaudubon.org

Why Do We Call Them That?

One of the nicest aspects of Birding is that it can lead you to do many other things. You could take up Photography or Painting or Sound Recording, just to make a ‘keepsake’ of the Birds you‘ve been seeing. Or perhaps, start a Diary or a Bird Journal just to write about your Birding experiences. Or perhaps to finally learn how to use a Computer to either keep track of hundreds and thousands of Sightings over the years or to send and to receive e-mails on local ‘Rare Birds’. Or perhaps you collect Bird stamps or watch Birding TV shows or read different Bird and Nature Books.

As for me, I do a lot of these things and also some weirder things -- like researching and finding out why Birds are called the names they are called. It all began a few years ago when a few people in the ‘Birding Gang’ we hang out with started pretending that Mallards ( which everyone else pronounces “MAL-erds” ) was actually a French name and pronounced them as “muh-LARDS”. It sort of looks like an old French name and since modern English is sort of a mixture of French and Anglo-Saxon, I wondered if it really was from the French.

So, in this article, we’re going to talk about the Mallards and the other Ducks and why we call them those names! Let’s start with the word Duck. It comes from an old English, old Angle-Saxon, old West Germanic verb “doukan” which means to dive in the water. Nowadays it has several other meanings in English, one of which is a Bird that dives in the water.

And Mallard -- it does come from the Old French “mallart”. But it gets even weirder. The latter comes from Latin “masculus” (think masculine) which eventually degenerated into “masle”, then “male” in Old French. Somehow, at this time, perhaps in Normandy, it acquired the Germanic suffix “ -ard ” which connotes strength in masculine names (just like drunkard and sluggard!). Thus the name moved into English when the Norman-French move in and took over in 1066. Now I wonder what the old Anglo-Saxon name for this Duck was that the name Mallard replaced. We’ll have to do the research on that later.

Teal isn’t French or Anglo-Saxon and has somewhat an obscure origin but seems to have come from the Dutch word for Teal “teling” sometime around 1400. It gets easier with Wood Duck (a Duck that nests in old Woodpecker holes in trees); and wood, that‘s comes from Old English and even older Anglo-Saxon “wudu” and meant the same thing then as it does now. Black Ducks aren’t really black, they just look darker and ’blacker’ than female Mallards and the other females of these closely related Ducks; they all seem to look like female Mallards. Black, too, comes from Old English and even further back from the Anglo-Saxon “blæc”. See how much fun you can have with this?

The name Pintail comes from the long, pointed tail of the male of this species of Duck, a feature a lot easier to see if you‘re holding one in your hand. . Shoveler, this name comes from their large, almost oversized bill (which really looks more like a large spoon than a shovel. Now Gadwall is really obscure (that is, no one knows where it really comes from!) and the name doesn’t seem to have been used before the late 1600’s. And finally we finally come to Wigeon. It, too, goes from Old French, to Norman-French, then to Middle English. Originally from the Latin “vipionem” (Pliny used this name for a small crane or heron), which became “vigeon“, then “wigeon”, apparently by then the meaning had shifted to a Duck. (Pigeon was derived in the same fashion from the Latin pipionem.) . I think we’ll stop now, but you can see how much fun you can have with a Dictionary, a few other books, and a few hours to kill.

AOU CHECKLIST UPDATE 2006

AOU has added a few Birds to the North American Checklist, Birds that now show up in North America only occasionally (not too “Important” for most of us!). Secondly, they changed the Latin (or ‘Scientific’) names of a few other Birds (again, not too “Important” for most of us!). Thirdly, they made two Splits --- one, they split the “Cory’s Shearwater” (found along the Atlantic coast ) into two species -- “Cory’s ” and “Cape Verde Shearwaters” ; and the other, they split the “Blue Grouse” (found out in states like Colorado ) into two species -- “Dusky Grouse” and “Sooty Grouse” ! Since none of these Birds are found in Ohio, it’s still not too “Important” for most of us.

Fourthly, they re-arranged the Phylogenetic Order (this is the order that the Names come in the Checklist). To elaborate on number four, it turns out (from DNA studies!) that the Jaegers are more closely related to the ‘Alcids’ (think of Puffins and their relatives) than to the Gulls and Terns (as we had always thought before! ) . Jaegers certainly look more like Gulls and Terns than Puffins! And I, for one, will be a little aggravated when newer Checklists list the Jaegers next to the Puffins rather than next to the Gulls (where they ‘belong’ !). But what can you do but go along with these annoying changes!

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BLACKBROOK AUDUBON SOCIETY

7573 Dahlia Drive

Mentor, OH 44060

Mary Ann Wagner - President

UPCOMING EVENTS

Bruce Roberts - Editor