Ohio Birders, Where can you find Rusty Blackbirds? Here's some ideas, below: Find what you need at eBird: log into eBird, select "Submit Observations", under "observation Type", highlight "other", select the last entry, "Rusty Blackbird Spring Migration Blitz", find links to form and protocol there! Please visit a Rusty Blackbird Hotspot near you. Complete the survey protocol data sheet at the link in eBird: http://rustyblackbird.org/wp-content/uploads/Rusty-Blackbird-Blitz-2014-data sheet.pdf. IMPORTANT: Negative results are important. If you visit a location with intent to search for RUBL and find none, this is important reportable information, please complete the form! Here's a number of hotspots where I find Rusty Blackbirds--these are not recent sighting locations, but I expect that you will be successful seeing RUBL's at these locations if you visit them repeatedly during the coming weeks. If you know of other hotspots, please visit them frequently and complete the Blitz protocol form when you find them. If you wish to share your hotspots with me with instructions on how to visit, I'll add them to a growing list for Ohio and make them available. Many of these areas and more are Ohio eBird Hotspots (already in the system, easy to search). You're going to love eBird! Many of these areas are described here: http://www.ohiobirds.org/site/library/sites/about.php My favorite hotspots for Rusty Blackbirds near central Ohio: Calamus Swamp, Pickaway County, a Columbus Audubon Preserve, wet in Spring (east side of Route 104, gravel lot, less than a mile south of Route 22 near Circleville) Island Road, Pickaway County (from the intersection of Island Road with S. Western Avenue in the City of Circleville, north to end on Route 23. Stages Pond State Nature Preserve, Pickaway County (off Hagerty Road. Find Hagerty road east of Route 23, just north of the end of Island Road, listed above Delaware State Wildlife Area, Delaware County (along Leonardsburg Road between Panhandle Road and 220 north of Delaware Ohio) Baker Swamp, a TNC Preserve, along Clay Banner Road and Antioch Rd, Jackson County, Ohio west of R93, south of Jackson, OH. Funk Bottoms Wildlife Area, Shreve, OH. (see OOS site library link for details) Killbuck Swamp area, drive Prairie Rd south from Wooster, OH to Messner Road, go east to Valley Rd., south along Valley Road to Willow Rd, and so on, large area (see details at OOS library link above.) The Western Basin of Lake Erie between Toledo and McGee Marsh is probably the most populous region in Ohio for migrating Rusty Blackbirds. I usually have luck at Pickerel Creek Wildlife Area. Search anywhere trees rise from shallow water, and nearby. Best of luck to all. If you are serious about repeat visits to any of these locations not described in the links above, I will email you a Google Earth link to assist your effort to get there (contact me offline please). Tom Bain OOS Bird Conservation Ohio Coordinator, Rusty Blackbird Blitz -----Original Message----- From: Tom Bain [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Friday, February 28, 2014 2:09 PM To: 'Tom Bain'; [log in to unmask] Subject: Official launch for Rusty Blackbird Spring Migration Blitz, March 1--please read Ohio birders, Rise to the challenge of Rusty Blackbird identification. Tomorrow, Saturday, March 1, 2014 is Ohio's official launch day (with 22 other states, additional states launch 3/15) for the Rusty Blackbird Blitz. This is important because eBird (eBird.org) will make available to you a special reporting protocol designed to make it easy for you to add needed data about your Rusty Blackbird sightings. If you have not used eBird in the past, now is a great time to start using this important free tool for citizen science. Beginning tomorrow, when you mouse-click the "Submit Observations" button along the top toolbar, you will have the option to choose the RUBL protocol. This is very similar to the past effort during fall migration a couple years ago. If you participated then, you are ready for tomorrow--just review your RUBL ID skills (I find them by sound, often). Rusty Blackbirds forage the feathered-edge of woodland pools (if salamanders like, rusties like it), mucky ground near shrubby wetlands, wetlands of all sorts, wet wooded flats, farm fields with waste corn, occasionally at feeders, and, like cowbirds, often with redwing and grackle flocks. Listen for their calls (tyuk) and soft gurgling, partial or even full songs (ending in high pitch ascending whistle) amid the raucous clatter of blackbird flocks. Russ Greenburg, champion for recognizing and acting upon the 90%+ decline in RUBL populations in the past forty years described Rusty Blackbirds as "champion leaf-tossers." Rusties walk along, ankle deep, and search sticks, leaves, logs and debris with deliberate intensity, often nudging and flipping debris in search of invertebrates, acorns, and the like. We lost Russ to illness recently, but his determined effort to resolve causes and solutions for the decline of rusties goes on through research by an excellent team of scientists and through your personal efforts. Let's go find rusties and get them reported using the new protocol. Good birding Tom Bain OOS Conservation -----Original Message----- From: Ohio birds [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Tom Bain Sent: Tuesday, February 25, 2014 7:16 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: [Ohio-birds] Rusty Blackbird 'Spring' Migration Blitz Calling all birders! They're baaack... a trickle of Rusty Blackbirds, our declining woodland "shorebird" is returning northward. The McNulty's report early arrivals below. I recorded my first individual bird yesterday calling with a duo of redwings in a backyard tree. You can help researchers better understand the poorly understood spring movement of this species by reporting you observations in detail using eBird. Please report all RUBL sightings. Researchers seek additional data about habitats, associations, group sizes, locations, etc. Online resources are available to assist you. Start here: http://rustyblackbird.org/outreach/migration-blitz/ You may need to type the location directly into your browser, or just search "Rusty Blackbird Spring Migration Blitz" More later... Tom Bain OOS Bird Conservation Chair -----Original Message----- From: Ohio birds [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Bob and Elaine McNulty Sent: Sunday, February 23, 2014 9:31 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: [Ohio-birds] Rusty blackbirds in Gahanna We had at least 8 rusty blackbirds in the field and in our tree line behind our house (a benefit of having a soggy, leafy natural area) They shared the field with a large number of robins, red winged blackbirds, starlings and flickers. We have also observed a pair of red shouldered hawks calling and circling above our subdivision for several days now. Mostly along Venetian Way or Riva Ridge Blvd. Bob and Elaine McNulty ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Please consider joining our Society, at www.ohiobirds.org/site/membership.php. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask] ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Please consider joining our Society, at www.ohiobirds.org/site/membership.php. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask] ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Please consider joining our Society, at www.ohiobirds.org/site/membership.php. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]