While it has been a great danger elsewhere, all this rain has rarely
risen above the level of a major nuisance in Ohio. Many birders continue
to venture out into the daily downpour to look for the flashes of bright
colors among the warblers, but allow me to recommend some attention to
waterbirds as well.
        Here in central Ohio waterbirds have produced some surprises. A friend
just wrote to tell me she'd found a first county nesting of hooded
mergansers in a park wetland. Photos have been taken of another
successful sandhill crane nesting at a local county metro park. At
another park, large restored areas that were cornfields just last year
have produced an astonishing list of marsh/shorebirds and waterfowl. It
would be interesting to know how food for these birds is already
apparently available despite 125 years of farming, the last few decades
of which included potent insecticides, etc. Anyway, I suspect, and hope,
that other parts of the state have some interesting waterbird phenomena
for nonconformists who seek out birds of such habitats.
        An additional word about sandhill cranes. Our eastern population of
these birds has experienced explosive growth over the past few years,
with wintering populations moving farther north. This has encouraged
several nearby states, prominently Tennessee and Kentucky, to propose
allowing legal hunting of these birds. In both of these states
organizations of birders have opposed this, and the final decision has
yet to be made. I am not aware of any proposals of this kind for Ohio,
but perhaps in the future...
        One respected organization, which has no policy against crane hunting,
has weighed in on the Kentucky proposal, and in their opinion they
mention the small Ohio populations. You can read their assessment of the
KY hunting proposal at
http://kyc4sandhillcranes.wordpress.com/kyfws-and-usfws-documents/  .
Boots on,
Bill Whan
Columbus



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