I was reading other folks' remarks on ovenbirds this morning when I
heard one singing outside my window. One in inadequate habitat (this
side yard is less than 400 sq ft under dense yews) is pretty late on 30
May, but this is for some reason the warbler species I most often find
in this little spot; I wouldn't be shocked to learn it has been the same
bird(s) year after year. Ovenbirds can linger very late: one visited a
feeder earlier this year in a Columbus suburb 12/2/2011-1/14/2012, and
some arrive early in April. There are Ohio records for every month of
the year, in fact.
        Our discussion of the effects of effects of exotic earthworms (many
thanks to John Pogacnik for his remarks) caused me to look into another
scarce ground-nesting warbler of deep forests, the worm-eating warbler.
This species, I learned, apparently does not especially favor worms--for
which its neighbor the ovenbird would otherwise owe it a favor--but
rather shares its appetite for insects. Ovenbirds, however, have been
witnessed resorting to eating worms. Here in Columbus we have a small
and diminishing number of nesting ovenbirds, plus a few nesting records
of worm-eating warblers, which are mostly birds of the unglaciated
counties (where native worms presumably persist; otherwise imagine being
buried for thousands of years underneath a mile-thick layer of ice!).
Because the unglaciated areas of Ohio are better preserved, the scarcer
worm-eating warbler has a future more nearly as bright as its past, but
in glaciated areas only the best stands of trees now harbor ovenbirds.
Bill Whan
Columbus



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