Greetings... Bob Lacker and I decided to walk essentially the entire VOA
property to see if there were any birds hiding in places hitherto unknown.
My sense so far this year is that the numbers of all the grassland birds
that have used the VOA the past two to three years--bobolink, eastern
meadowlark, savannah sparrow, and Henslow's sparrow--are down. I still think
that's the case, but in contrast to the past two weeks where I've had zero
and one Henslow's sparrow respectively at the VOA during my weekly trips,
there were at least a few singing in the fields on Sunday. Here are some
highlights of the walk:

 4-5 HENSLOW'S sparrows. All but one were in the short grass field on the
east end of the park along Butler-Warren Road, east of the narrow gravel
road. SAVANNAH sparrows: 12-15, scattered throughout the park, with the
exception of the northwest corner where there were none. BOBOLINKS: fairly
numerous in all sections of the park except the southwest corner. EASTERN
MEADOWLARK: present in all areas of the park; one nest found in the
southwest corner of the park. GRASSHOPPER SPARROW: a surprise bird. One lone
male singing from an autumn olive tree on the southeast edge of the
MetroParks lake. There's a flattened area just beyond the lake that consists
of exposed, compacted soil and short vegetation. The grasshopper sparrow was
singing from the ground and in the tree where it was joined by a savannah
sparrow for a time, which made for a comical size comparison between the two
species. BOBWHITE QUAIL: 3 in MetroPark's property on the south edge of the
lake. WILLOW FLYCATCHER: 2 on the west edge of the lake. FIELD SPARROW: 1
atop the earthen berm between Target and the VOA. EASTERN BLUEBIRD: 1 male
in the southwestern corner of the park. HORNED LARK: 1+ wandering around the
backside of the VOA building.

It's interesting that the Henslow's sparrows seem to have left the area in
the center of the VOA they used the last two summers, and seem to prefer
instead the short grass field. The center area looks to my eyes to be more
what Henslow's sparrows are said to prefer: weedy, a few scattered shrubs, a
bit of thatch and thick grass. In the field they're using now, the dominant
plants are cool-season grasses, and there's not a single singing
perch--usually a weed such as teasel or some other forb--that is above the
height of the grass, which is currently only around a foot or so tall--this
area was cut very low late last fall. At this time last year, my weekly VOA
trips were averaging ten singing Henslow's each visit.

The savannah sparrow numbers at the VOA still seem low, compared to past
years. In 2001 and 2002 one could get 12-15 savannahs easily just in the
center of the property. We had to walk approximately 4-1/2 miles to record
that many today. I really don't know why exactly the numbers of the
grassland birds seem to be decreasing at the VOA, both when this year's
numbers are compared to last year's and when I look at the numbers I've
recorded since 2001. There seem to be so many different possible factors
involved, and since I'm usually dead wrong about most things, I hesitate to
create a theory about what is going on at the VOA . . .

Butterfly enthusiasts might like checking out the wetlands and planted
earthen berms between Target and the VOA along Tylersville Road. We saw a
bronze copper, a number of least skippers, a tawny-edged skipper, and a few
UFO skippers (to our unskilled eyes at least!) around the wetland area.

I enjoy hearing all the reports of local grassland birds that people on the
list have been posting.

Take care,
---Mike Busam
West Chester, OH