OHIO-BIRDS Archives

June 2012

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:
robert lane <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
robert lane <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Mon, 25 Jun 2012 16:12:57 -0400
Content-Type:
text/plain
Parts/Attachments:
text/plain (14 lines)
Yesterday, Sunday, about 10AM, on our return trip home from the Yellow Creek Area, Jeff Harvey and I decided to make a pass thru the reclaimed strip mine area northeast of the town of Elkton. When we arrived at the site, immediately, we heard an unfamiliar sound for this area. What a surprise we found; at least three male Dickcissels singing away, and one giving a visual show on a wooden post right on the edge of the road. Dickcissels are virtually unheard of in Columbiana County. This is definitely the very first year this species has been here. I know; because this location was in one of my wife Denise's and my Breeding Bird Atlas Blocks for the past six years. They would not have went undetected! This area had appeared to have lost its birding productivity, several years ago, when the coal company owner, leased the land to a Pennsylvania cattle company. The somewhat small patch where the Dickcissels are is a type of grass about three feet high, with tasselled seed heads. For these guys to be here is really an expansion of what would be considered their normal range. Most field guides show their eastern limit in Ohio as a north/south line thru Columbus. This location is in eastern Columbiana County about seven miles from the Pennsylvania state line, about as far east in Ohio as you can get. Some of the other bird species seen during our visit, all in good numbers, were:
Grasshopper Sparrow, Savannah Sparrow, Eastern Meadowlark, Horned Lark with juveniles, and American Kestrel. In the past Henslow's Sparrows have also been present. The location is on the east side of Lusk-Lock Road, a short distance south of intersection with Fairmont Road, just past a gated downhill field entrance. Hopefully this Dickcissel paradise does not get disturbed during the summer. This find was an example of how you just never know what you can find just wandering around.
 
Bob Lane / sent from a jobsite in Willow Island, West Virginia                                          
______________________________________________________________________

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