A few stray thoughts prompted by recent (and welcome) use of the listserv as a forum for discussions -

Re: humankind's tendency for the removal of dead trees - We don't do this (at least not indiscriminately) at our farm on Flint Ridge in western Muskingum County. As a result, we regularly see or hear five woodpecker species on our fifty seven acres, comprised of upland pastures and fields surrounded by forested ravines. Jane and I are celebrating the tenth anniversary of our rural experiment - we moved from the campus area of Columbus to rural Muskingum County in July of 2000. Shortly after that I read a couple of David Kline's books, Scratching the Woodchuck, and Great Possessions (I think that's the title.) For those who are unaware of these works, Kline is an Holmes County Amish farmer, a keen observer of nature, and a practitioner of traditional living with and within nature. His words steered me toward harvesting only dead ironwood (American hophornbeam) and slippery (red) elm, which are little used by birds, burn well, and are amply available on my property. Other species are left alone, unless they fall in the way of a trail or other function. Thus the assorted downy, hairy, red-bellied, and pileated woodpeckers, as well as the flickers have plenty of raw material for their lifestyle.

Bluebirds and tree swallows must use natural cavities for nesting and roosting. I've caught them at it a few times. I maintain (somewhat) a seven box "bluebird trail," although my frequent and repeated business travel makes this a challenge at times. The past couple years I have had to concede the boxes at the top of the horse-pasture hill to house sparrows. But this spring we had two bluebird nests and two tree swallow nests in the boxes. We have more tree swallows than this, so they must be nesting in woodpecker excavations somewhere. In 2006 I had a "natural" bluebird nest in a snag, now fallen due to the passage of time.

Barn swallows are also around this June-July in impressive numbers. I was mowing the pastures last week. For those of you who cringe about the evils of mowing, I will inform you that I thoroughly surveyed those portions of the pastures first, and I found no nesting activity. I maintain a number of wild acres in the fields that are not fenced for pasture, and the blade never finds them for successional management before late July or August. Anyway, when I was mowing I was repeatedly strafed by at least nine barn swallows and two tree swallows. We don't have barn swallows nesting in our horse barn this year, although we have had a single nest in that barn the previous two years. They must be using someone else's structure, but they sure came calling as soon as they heard the brush hog - easy pickings in its wake I reckon. I figure that the barn swallows were at least two adult pairs and some of their recent fledges.

I have long puzzled over the possibility of a hollow beech, sycamore or other tree hosting chimney swifts. I have swifts around my farm, but I don't know where they nest.

Comments about barn swallows nesting on the leftover highwalls of limestone quarries got me to thinking and reminiscing. There are few natural cliffs of any substantial size in Ohio. One such structure is Copperas Mountain, on the south "bank" of Paint Creek in western Ross County. Years ago (1981) I was doing a geological survey of the Ohio Shale (actually an eastern oil shale) for the Ohio Department of Energy (shortly thereafter absorbed by the Dept. of Development.) As part of that survey I recall spending a couple hours assessing and measuring the exposure of the shale at the Copperas Mountain location. I remember that there were "swallows" in some numbers on that cliff, although I don't recall what kind. I wasn't particularly tuned in to birds at that point in my life (for whatever reasons I don't know) but someone should check it out. Who has that block for OBBA? I know that Tom Bain will be familiar with the location.

As for the use of this listserv as a forum, I have never shied away from this as long as the subject of discussion pertains legitimately to Ohio birds. When the subject strays from this, and gets a little controversial or political, I resort to opening or participating in a thread of the Ohio Birding Forum reachable through the OOS website. In general I find discussions on the Ohio Birding Forum to be a little less satisfying because there are far fewer readers and participants than there are on this "forum," but at least it is available. If you care to read my thoughts on grassland mowing, or bag limits on rails you can read them there. The threads therein seem to stay available ad infinitum.

Bob Evans
Geologist, Historian, Curator
Hopewell Township, Muskingum County, and Lake Forest, CA

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