Birds of a feather flock together
By DAVID M. GRIMES (dgrimes@reviewonline.com)
POSTED: June 15, 2008
ROGERS — To some, traipsing around the outdoors, getting sunburnt, scratched, exhausted and receiving insect bites would be, for a lack of a better expression, for the birds.
But to 23 avian enthusiasts who gathered at the Beaver Creek Wildlife Education Center last weekend, the meeting was extremely important, even though it was, indeed, for the birds.
The Region 53 Blockbuster for the second Ohio Breeding Bird Atlas Project kicked off last Friday with appearances by Senator Jason Wilson, ODNR Director Sean Logan, Atlas Coordinator Aaron Boone, Beaver Creek Naturalist Todd Metz, Region Coordinator Jim Dolan and ODNR Avian Education Specialist Jim McCormac. Ornithology experts, wildlife volunteers, County Commissioner Penny Traina and St. Clair Township Travel & Tourism Executive Director Lori Kline also welcomed the birders to one of the county’s great landmarks.
“This is a beautiful county,” McCormac said. “The biodiversity is unbelievable.”
The excursion also aimed to gain notoriety to, what some call, “Columbiana County’s best kept secret.”
“This is a fabulous resource with pristine rivers,” McCormac added, even documenting the Beaver Creek area in his authored book, “Birds of Ohio.” In the well-received field guide, McCormac gives background and history information on bird species and mentions that the state park is home to the Common Merganser, who make this place their only home in the state.
“We need some more dots on those maps,” the 46-year-old birder added, pointing out that Columbiana County, although rich in wildlife resources, is often forgotten on wildlife maps.
Wilson told the guests that word of mouth really helps attract visitors.
“It’s everyone’s job to tell about [Beaver Creek] and spread the word,” the state senator said.
By the end of first day on Saturday, it seemed that many people had an eventful weekend already.
After birding for the entire day, many gathered back at the pavilion area near the pioneer village in the park. As birders came in, they wrote down the species that were recorded by their groups on a large white board.
Towards the evening, the white board was a colorful array of handwritten words that signified the findings of many bird species in the county area.
Birders ventured down the Little Beaver Creek River, through the Egypt Road swamp in Salem and made their way down to Yellow Creek and the Salineville area as well.
To some birders, this was not their first state-wide Atlas’ project. Bob and Denise Lane, the husband and wife team from Damascus, participated in the first project some 25 years ago.
The birding duo are credited with the discovery of a pair of Black-billed Magpies that were seen near Stanley Road, just east of Alliance. These birds are commonly found only out west and in the northwestern parts of Canada.
Bob said that he had about 60 birders as far away as Ontario and Pennsylvania come out to the area where the black and white songbirds were seen.
The Lanes were two of the six people who visited the Salem swamp area with McCormac.
Early rough estimates show that around 117 different species were documented.
“It was a success,” Dolan said, after crunching the data and spending time first-hand out in the field. “We did real well.”
Boone, who is coordinating the Atlas project across the entire state, told Dolan that this event was the best one yet in the three years that the project has been going on.
To Dolan, those were kind and justified words as this was the first time the area has put together such a blockbuster.
The groups also discovered some rare species too. The Common Merganser, a large sized duck, was seen near Sprucevale on the Little Beaver Creek river. A Least Flycatcher, one of the smallest flycatchers, were also seen on the North Fork of the river as well.
The event was without its heart-breaks though. Dolan and Boone ventured near the Little Beaver Creek river that intersects state Route 170, north of Calcutta. They discovered a rare, Black Throated Blue Warbler, which has not been documented in Ohio since the 1930s.
Excitedly, the crew used their GPS system to coordinate the find, but realized they were about 100 yards into Pennsylvania, near the Fredericktown area. Boone and Dolan made separate trips back to the area this past week, after the event, hoping to find them on Ohio soil. But, so far, the warbler is always across the border.
But finds like the Virginia Rail, a usually hidden marsh bird, and the Alder Flycatcher, who had little published about them until the 1970s brought smiles to the bird enthusiasts faces. Many have already asked Dolan to hold another event next year.
“Columbiana County is fantastic,” McCormac said, who also named Beaver Creek one of the best 40 places to visit in Ohio in his upcoming book, “Wild Ohio: The Best of Our Natural Heritage.”
McCormac said it was very important to come out to this area to gather data and the information that everyone submitted was invaluable.
To find out more information on the Ohio Breeding Bird Atlas II can visit the official web site at http://www.ohiobirds.org/obba2/ .
