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August 2013

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Subject:
From:
Dean Sheldon <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Dean Sheldon <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Sun, 11 Aug 2013 09:11:13 -0400
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Bill Whan" <[log in to unmask]>
To: "Dean Sheldon" <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, August 11, 2013 7:54 AM
Subject: Re: [Ohio-birds] Black terns


> Dean--
> Thanks much for writing to share those observations. Relatively few Ohio
> birders, at least among those who read electronic communications, have any
> idea about black tern numbers in the old days, and I wish you'd posted
> your remarks to Ohio-birds so everyone could see them. Today only a few
> observers see black terns, even though they have to migrate over the state
> twice yearly. And apparently few of these folks wonder why. 'Twas not ever
> thus.
> Bill
>
> On 8/10/2013 4:55 PM, Dean Sheldon wrote:
>> BILL: Just to confirm your observations and....
>> going back to the late 1950s and early 1960s, when the Lake Erie water
>> levels were very low and many of the marshes had all but dried up
>>  >>>hundreds of Black Terns nested in the cattails at what is now
>> Sheldon Marsh SNP.
>> No scientific survey was made, but I can tell you that there were
>> hundreds of nesting Black Terns in the marshlands extending west from
>> the Old Cedar Point Roadway to the Willow Road [the Cedar Point Chaussee
>> Road not the "new causeway") leading out to the east end of the
>> resdential area.
>> The birds were THICK and swarmed continually throughout the dried-up
>> marsh area and were very much in evidence during the daylight hours. It
>> was just spectacular and a never-to-be-forgotten lifetime birding
>> experience of the first magnitude.
>> I hope that this adds to your Black Tern recollections. As
>> always.....Dean
>> Dean E Sheldon Jr
>> Greenwich (Huron County)
>>
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Bill Whan" <[log in to unmask]>
>> To: <[log in to unmask]>
>> Sent: Thursday, August 01, 2013 7:33 PM
>> Subject: [Ohio-birds] Black terns
>>
>>
>>> It is neat to hear reports of black terns around the state. This is the
>>> time of year these terns, almost certainly from nesting grounds north of
>>> Ohio, begin their fall movements south to salt-water winter habitats in
>>> central America. A century ago, they were regarded as very common summer
>>> residents and breeders in marshes up in northern Ohio, but it seems to
>>> have been human alterations of their habitat--especially aquatic
>>> vegetation--that drove them away. Trautman described draining of their
>>> marsh breeding grounds to allow crops to be grown and especially for
>>> waterfowl to be hunted in season. Now an Ohio tern nest is big news.
>>> Even farther north, they are hard to find; Michigan birders report that
>>> black terns are being harassed by alien introduced swans--mutes and
>>> trumpeters--in their ancestral breeding grounds. I can't imagine Ohio's
>>> introduced swans have helped, either. Anyway, this is prime time to see
>>> members of this remnant population on their way south, and if you're
>>> lucky you can still see these slinky black beauties over a variety of
>>> watery settings on their way.
>>> Bill Whan
>>> Columbus
>
>

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