OHIO-BIRDS Archives

July 2010

OHIO-BIRDS@LISTSERV.MIAMIOH.EDU

Options: Use Monospaced Font
Show Text Part by Default
Show All Mail Headers

Message: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Topic: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Author: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]

Print Reply
Subject:
From:
Bill Whan <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Bill Whan <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Mon, 5 Jul 2010 10:50:34 -0400
Content-Type:
text/plain
Parts/Attachments:
text/plain (53 lines)
        On July 4 I posted a query about natural nest sites for raptors
recently introduced/re-introduced to Ohio (by the way, this does not
include bald eagles, which to my knowledge have rebounded in Ohio
without active re-introduction efforts such as releases). I've gotten
twelve responses thus far, but only one of them appeared on Ohio-birds.
Seems to me this forum is a perfect setting for sharing requested
information, and for having actual discussions about birds, but it
doesn't seem to be working out that way. Ohio-birds has a sort of
solipsistic air--there's so little interaction, at least on the list!
What kind of forum is that? Does anyone have any idea about why this is
so, especially if he or she is willing to post it publicly???
        I at least learned a lot from the responses sent to me alone, and I'll
share a few details from them here, minus the names of the shy respondents.
        First, I made a mess of asking about wild settings for osprey nests. I
heard about a number of them in the state, two of which I should (in
Delaware & Erie counties) have remembered, one of which I myself had
seen twice! Also Allen and and Marion and Williams counties. So I'll say
the current osprey re-introduction project seems to be working, thank
goodness, and these birds are apparently able to branch out into trees
rather than constructed nest platforms. Eagles are quite intolerant of
the competition of ospreys (though of course they love to steal fish
from them), so we should keep an eye on instances where their
territories might overlap; maybe we shouldn't expect osprey nests in the
NW marshes, for example.
        As for peregrine falcons, I got not a whisper of news. This is not
surprising, for natural settings for peregrine nests seemingly don't
exist here. There is, I was told, some evidence from northern Europe
that peregrines may at times occupy vacant eagle nests at waterside
locations. There is no such Ohio evidence that I'm aware of, but it may
have happened long ago along the Lake Erie shore.
        Some knowledgeable correspondents were induced to share some
interesting observations about raptors' nests in Ohio, some of which I
ought to pass along. One opined that barn owls probably didn't have much
foraging area in pre-settlement Ohio, so they, like falcons and ospreys,
perhaps mostly benefited from human activities like deforestation; the
same may well have been the case for the American kestrel. Food for
thought, the kind of thing I think worth sharing with everyone. If I
hear other interesting information, I'll pass it along.
Bill Whan
p.s. I'm getting an avalanche of responses to my offer of copies of "The
Birds of Buckeye Lake"...that's great, and after I sort things out I'll
get back to respondents. Maybe I'll have to try to get more copies!

______________________________________________________________________

Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society.
Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list.
Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/.

You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at:
http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS
Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]

ATOM RSS1 RSS2