Hello all.  I hope you are enjoying the migration action as it heats up…or perhaps gets luke warm, as we have had very few days with any significant South winds and the days that have had South winds have been accompanied by rain.  Remind you of last spring at all?  

Anyway, here is the latest update on the 2016 survey effort in Carroll County by me, Kent Miller, and Ben Morrison.  

First of all, on April 25th, Kent and Ben heard a Western Meadowlark along Fargo Rd. in the agricultural fields that hold good numbers of Eastern Meadowlark, Grasshopper Sparrow, Henslow’s Sparrow, Bobolinks, and last year Dickcissel.  Kim Warner was able to locate the bird soon after that and reported that she both heard and saw it.  Recent efforts to relocate the bird have not been successful, but a combination of a large amount of potential habitat and the fact that whatever wind is blowing is exacerbated on that hilltop have made it difficult to listen effectively.  It will be interesting to see if more confirmed reports of this bird come in.  Also, in the same area at the bottom of Fargo Rd. where it intersects with Briar Rd., Su Snyder and Sue Evanoff found a Common Gallinule that has been lingering there for a week now, which was a great find this far east.

In terms of Warbler migration, we found 23 species of Warblers in Carroll across a wide area and diversity of habitats.  Of that 23 species, 18 were new in April.  As expected, we have found good numbers of nesting species such as Louisiana Waterthrush, Hooded Warbler, Blue-winged Warbler, Yellow Warbler, Pine Warbler, Yellow-throated Warbler, Prairie Warbler, American Redstart, Black-and-White Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, and Ovenbird.  Just this week, we found the first few Cerulean and Kentucky Warblers, which will nest here as well as Yellow-breasted Chat.  Not bad for a generally weak migration so far.

Shorebirds in this area are quite difficult to locate, but so far we have seen Greater & Lesser Yellowlegs, Killdeer, Pectoral Sandpiper, Solitary Sandpiper, Spotted Sandpiper, American Woodcock, and Wilson’s Snipe.  In fact, at several locations adjacent to Stillfork Swamp Nature Preserve, we heard Snipe winnowing for over the course of 2-3 weeks.  No recent winnowing has been heard.  We have also observed Sandhill Cranes in the area.  At first, it was just a pair foraging and flying in and around the Stillfork Creek area, but recently we saw 5 birds flying together in the same area.  We hope that they are breeding in the area as the habitat seems quite ideal.

Finally, for this month anyway, I wanted to take a moment to thank Bill Whan.  When Bill learned that we were doing this work in Carroll County, he was kind enough to send me a copy of Forest Buchanan’s ‘The Breeding Birds of Carroll and Northern Jefferson Counties, Ohio’ as well as a copy of Lawrence E. Hicks’ 1935 ‘Distribution of the Breeding Birds of Ohio’.  These important historical volumes provide essential context at understanding the changes that have occurred over the past 80+ years in Ohio.   The Buchanan work, in particular, is fascinating and has taught us not only about what was being seen during his field work in the 1940’s (he earned his M.S. from Cornell in Ornithology from this work), but also a good deal about the geology of Carroll County and it’s impact on what species are seen nesting in the area.  An escarpment exists running down the eastern edge of the county which demarcates whether creeks run west toward the Muskingum River or east toward the Ohio River.  This is extremely important as the gradation of the runoff is significantly different with the runoff toward the Ohio River being much steeper.   Thank you again Bill for your help in providing important historical context to our field work.  We sincerely appreciate it.

Summary so far:  173 species identified this year.  The total species in 2015 was 181 and has now increased to 211 species and moved Carroll from 82nd of 88 Counties to 71st.  The number of checklists generated in eBird was 435 in 2015 and is now at 914.


That’s it for now.  Thanks for hanging in this long if you are still reading and we will see you out on the trails soon!

Jon Cefus
Carroll County 


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