June 30, 2010 A Special Guest

As it says on the side bar, I am fortunate to live in a beautiful place. However, I am often concerned my fellow Clevelanders have no clue about the beauty that surrounds them. So it is gratifying to have someone who is unfamiliar with our area recognize the unique beauty we have in our own backyard.

We have been attempting to confirm that Black-throated Blue Warblers are nesting in a remote part of the Holden Arboretum. For 3 years we have been finding multiple individuals of this species on the same site. This is the final year of the Ohio Breeding Bird Atlas 2 project and it would be great if we could confirm nesting before the project ends. So during June we have spent hours in this area watching these birds and monitoring their behavior. In early June it was males singing on territory. By mid June we spotted females moving in tandem with males. This is consistent with the male guarding the female during nest building. Then in the past week, the males singing intermittently and then diving back into the possible nesting areas. This behavior is consistent with incubation of eggs.

Everything we observe has been reported to Paul Rodewald, Director of the OBBA2 project. He has a few graduate students who work on the project and there was a hope one of them could come to the site and have a look.

Coordination and logistics are difficult. This is not like going to a metropark or even the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. You can’t just drive in, park, walk a bit down a trail and be there. As I have described earlier, this is more of and expedition requiring planning and a knowledge of the area.

On Monday and Tuesday a flurry of emails and phone tag. Dave Slager of the OBBA2 project is going to be in the area and he has experience finding Black-Throated Blue Warbler nests on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. He knows this species, its’ habitat, and behavior. We work out meeting late Wednesday afternoon.

My friend Frank Buck and I, meet Dave at the Holden Visitor Center and then we drive the 15 minutes down into the valley of the East Branch of the Chagrin and then along the river to the parking area where we will begin our hike to the deep woods site.

Dave is amazed to be in “Cleveland” and in such a pristine forest. He wonders how these large tracts of land were preserved. We explain some of the history of land conservancy in the region which lead to the Emerald Necklace, Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Holden Arboretum natural areas, and county metroparks systems. There is nothing like this in his home state of Michigan, nor in other parts of Ohio.

We spend roughly 3 hours on the Black-throated Blue site. We observe males foraging and singing intermittently. Again behavior consistent with incubation. The site is physically challenging. A hogback with steep slopes and 260 feet of elevation change. Dave feels there is a lot of appropriate habitat and that we just need to spend more time on site and get lucky.. He tells us the Black-throated Blues are a year bird for him. Serious birders keep a year list , a list of all the birds they see in a calendar year. This is the first time in 2010 Dave has seen this species.

We decide to take a loop along the south rim of Stebbins Gulch so Dave can see that spectacular feature. He is impressed by the Black-throated Green Warblers, Winter Wrens, and Dark-eyed Juncos. When we look the 200 feet down into the narrow gulch he is astonished. He had seen the feature on the maps, but maps do not convey the grandeur of a place.

Our walk is slower than usual. Dave is constantly falling behind listening to the birds. Species Frank and I take for granted. Dave wonders if he heard a Broad-winged Hawk? We explain the most common raptors in these woods are Sharp-shinned Hawks and Barred Owls. .We also describe the decline of Red-Shouldered Hawks.

As the evening wanes and we walk back along the seldom used trails, we hear a strange call high in the trees. Frank and I sometimes hear calls we don’t recognize. Sometimes you just don’t know. But Dave has an advantage. He has the complete Stokes’ Bird Songs, of North America, all 3 CDs, on his iPod. He plays Sharp-shinned Hawk. Yes! Sharp-shinned Hawk is what we just heard. Dave is thrilled, and so are we.

Farther along and near the end of our hike, we look over the valley of the East Branch at the southern end of Little Mountain. There is beauty here and the young graduate student sees it. He tries to take a picture. Digital photography allows us to see the picture does not come out. There is too much contrast for the camera to capture both the bright sky and the darkness of the forest. The picture is less important than the memory he will have of this beautiful place.