Hi all,

Spent the day in Shawnee State Forest today, and wow! The birds really have
returned there, and based on other reports, I'd say most came in last night.
The northerners reading this can take hope; they're headed your way. Below
are some highlights, and rough estimates of numbers:

Green Heron - 1

Broad-winged Hawk - a few

White-eyed Vireo - 9

Yellow-throated Vireo - 20

Blue-headed Vireo - 15-20

Red-eyed Vireo - 5

Wood Thrush - 5

Blue-winged Warbler - 10

Northern Parula - 4

Yellow Warbler - 6

Yellow-rumped Warbler - only a few, surprisingly

Black-throated Green Warbler - 15

Yellow-throated Warbler - 45-60

Pine Warbler - 15

Prairie Warbler - 12

Cerulean Warbler - 7

Black-and-white Warbler - 30

American Redstart - 75

Worm-eating Warbler - 10-15

Ovenbird - 45

Louisiana Waterthrush - 50

Hooded Warbler - 20

Yellow-breasted Chat - 1

It's fascinating to watch the changes in the forest birds since a major
ice/wind storm ripped through much of the 65,000 acres of Shawnee back in
2003. Many areas that were old-growth timber are now very open, with thick
understories due to a 50% or more reduction in the canopy. Eastern Towhees
are incredibly abundant, in places there were none prior to '03. I might
have had over 200 today, it's hard to count.

Four years after that storm, a lot of large white oaks, tuliptrees and other
trees that were heavily damaged are dead or dying, yet still standing. This
has created an absolute bonanza for woodpeckers, and I wonder if any place
in the world currently has greater densities of both Pileated and Hairy
woodpeckers than Shawnee. They are everywhere; I probably saw or heard 25-30
Pileateds today, and many Hairys. It is also interesting to see all of the
trees that have had massive slabs of bark scaled off by the Pileated
Woodpeckers. Everywhere you go, there are several foot long swaths of bark
ripped from trees that are on their way out. If this were the swamps of
Arkansas, we'd have rumors of Ivory-billeds on our hands.

If you are interested in seeing Shawnee firsthand, with people who know its
flora and fauna well, check out Flora-Quest - http://www.flora-quest.com/

They can accommodate folks who just want to go for one day - Saturday or
Sunday, May 5 or 6, which is perhaps the peak spring weekend to be there.
Just contact Paula from that website if you are interested.

Jim McCormac

Columbus, Ohio






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