PASSENGER PIGEON. Program: Urban Merlins. Dues for 2017 Merlin. Photo by Bill Stanley. facebook CINCINNATI BIRD CLUB

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1 CINCINNATI BIRD CLUB PASSENGER PIGEON VOLUME 53, ISSUE 2 FEBRUARY 2017 Program: Urban Merlins Speaker: Bill Zimmerman Date: Thursday, Feb 16, :00pm Location: Sharon Centre in Sharon Woods Bill Zimmerman will be joining us for our February meeting to talk about Merlins and their occurrence in heavily urbanized areas like the Cincinnati west side. Bill is an expert on Merlins in our area and has been watching and finding them at both Saint Joseph s Cemeteries in Price Hill for years. Bill is also an organizer for the Cincinnati Merlin Census which is now in its second year. This is a Cincinnati Bird Club sponsored citizen science project to try to see how many Merlins have winter territories in the city, and how big these territories might be. Be sure to join this field trip on February 4 th, 2017! See the field trips section for more info. Bill plans to talk Dues for 2017 Merlin. Photo by Bill Stanley about Merlin identification, biology and occurrence in our area, as well as about the Merlin Census methods and results from the last two years. ~Brian Wulker Programs SPECIAL POINTS OF INTEREST Meeting Field Trips Field Trip Notes Quiz Birds Yard and Patch Birds INSIDE THIS ISSUE: Field Trip: Merlin Census Field Trip: Muscatatuck NWR Field Trip Notes: Great Miami River. February Quiz Bird 4 January Quiz Bird Answer CBC Dues Please check the last time you paid dues! This may be the last Passenger Pigeon issue you get direct into your E- mail. Anyone who has not paid dues since 2015 will be deleted from our CBC membership list in April. If you are not sure when you last paid dues you can check with Lois Shadix, Treasurer at lcshadix@fuse.net. Calendar 5 Photos from Great Miami River Field Trip Yard and Patch Birds 6 6 facebook The Cincinnati Bird Club is now on facebook at cincinnatibirdclub Like our page and follow it for information about upcoming meetings, field trips and other bird club information. Yard and Patch Birds 7 Yard and Patch Birds 8 Raptor Open House. Note: no open house in February 9

2 PAGE 2 Field trip: second annual Merlin census PASSENGER PIGEON Cincinnati Merlin Census Various Locations: See below Date: Saturday, February 4, 2016, 3:00pm-5:00pm (Tally at 5:30pm at Urban Artifact) Coordinators: Bill Zimmerman, Brian Wulker, Jack Stenger Leaders: Ned Keller, Josh Eastlake, Kathi Hutton, Gale Wulker, Bill Stanley, Steve Pelikan, Mark Gilsdorf, Jay Stenger, Rodney Crice, Jonathan Frodge, Michael Gertz, Mike Busam, Eric Burkholder, and Kirk Westendorf. Join the Cincinnati Bird Club for the 2 nd annual coordinated census of Merlins and other raptors in urban Cincinnati. It s early February, ducks are barely moving, songbird numbers have been mediocre, so why not try something a little different? We ve assembled a team of local birders to help survey known and potential Merlin hotspots. The idea is that having everyone out at different locations at the same time, we should get a good snapshot of the wintering populations of raptors in our area. Early February is the ideal time to do this because many birds have been on established territories for a few weeks or months and migration is still a few weeks away. In other words, everyone s had time to settle in, and migrants from further south are not likely. Late afternoon is the best time to find Merlins coming into evening roosting locations. If you d like to join a group, we ve got two of the historically better spots with leaders expecting participants. These spots have all been historically productive and had recent Merlin sightings: Old St. Joseph Cemetery, led by Kathi Hutton and Gale Wulker Meet inside the cemetery near the en- trance at the intersection of W. 8 th Street and Seaton Ave. 3pm. Spring Grove Cemetery, led by Steve Pelikan and Bill Stanley Meet at the intersection immediately after the arch near the entrance to the cemetery. 3pm. We will also have parties checking the following locations: Union Cemetery, Dunham Rec Area, Jewish Cemetery, Vine Street Hill Cemetery, St. John s German Cemetery, St. Mary s Cemetery, Avon Woods Golf Course, Calvary Cemetery, German Cemetery, Arlington Cemetery, Highland Cemetery (N. KY), California Woods Golf Merlin at Spring Grove Cemetery. Photo by Bill Stanley Course, Armleder Park, Newtown Gravel Pits, Camp Denison area, Evergreen Cemetery (N. KY), Mt. Storm Park, Wesleyan Cemetery, and Baltimore Pike Cemetery. If you would like to survey a location not yet listed above, Brian Wulker (bdwulker@gmail.com) and he ll send you a field data sheet. Following the survey, we will meet at Urban Artifact in Northside for an informal tally. This will begin around 5:30 pm. ~Brian Wulker Programs

3 VOLUME 53, ISSUE 2 Field trip: Muscatatuck national wildlife refuge PAGE 3 Date: February 11, 2017 Destination: Muscatatuck National Wildlife Refuge Leader: Darlena Graham Meeting Time: Meet at 7:30 a.m. UDF Lawrenceburg at 855 W Eads Parkway, Lawrenceburg, IN, The meeting site is at the intersection of Tanners Creek Drive and Eads Parkway (Route 50). GPS coordinates: , Estimated Return Time: 4:00 p.m. Questions?: Darlena can be reach via at darlena@fuse.net Join veteran birder and field trip leader Darlena Graham for a trip to Muscatatuck National Wildlife Refuge in Indiana. Graham has been birding Muscatatuck for years and has accumulated a great deal of knowledge about the refuge, including where to go, how to get around, and where to find the birds. This is an excellent opportunity to join some fellow birders and a knowledgeable leader for a full day in the field. This has been an interesting winter for waterfowl, between the warm weather, western storms, and rain, there are a number of interesting birds in our region, including unusually high numbers of Snow Geese, including dark morph Snow Goose, which is less common among the eastern population of Snow Goose. By mid-february, there is the possibility of early or even unusual migrants and vagrants, given the unpredictable nature of the weather this winter. If time allows, Darlena said a trip to Ewing Bottoms, which has been hosting large numbers of assorted geese and Sandhill Cranes, might be possible. Bring a lunch and dress for the weather. ~Mike Busam Field Trips Field Trip Notes: Great Miami river hamilton On January 28, 2017 eleven Cincinnati Bird Club members and guests met at the River Side Natural Area in Hamilton. Two people joining the club were from the River Side Natural Area and they showed us around and told us about some of the local history. The highlight of the morning was the many Black-crowned Night-Herons that we observed along with the groups of Gadwalls and Shovelers. All morning Bald Eagles were seen regularly overhead from all stops. Having not birded the area before I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of habitat and wildlife in a mostly urban area. Thanks Mike for showing the Cincinnati Bird Club around Hamilton. We look forward to birding the area again in the future. Here are link to the ebird lists from the trip: Riverside Natural Area Combs Park Here is what we saw with the high count from all locations Date Jan 28, 2017 Locations,Combs Park : Riverside Natural Area Total Species: 33 Canada Goose,40 Gadwall,23 Mallard,20 Northern Shoveler,11 Bufflehead,1 Hooded Merganser,1 Pied-billed Grebe,2 Great Blue Heron,6, Black-crowned Night-Heron,5 Northern Harrier,1 Bald Eagle,1 Red-tailed Hawk,1 Ring-billed Gull,10 Rock Pigeon,30 Mourning Dove,10 Belted Kingfisher,1 Red-bellied Woodpecker,1 Pileated Woodpecker,1 American Kestrel,2 Blue Jay,4 American Crow,1 Carolina Chickadee,3 Tufted Titmouse,2 White-breasted Nuthatch,1 Carolina Wren,3 American Robin,50 European Starling,75 American Tree Sparrow,4 Fox Sparrow,1 White-throated Sparrow,1 Song Sparrow,5 Northern Cardinal,3 American Goldfinch,10

4 PAGE 4 February Quiz bird Rules Rules: Anybody is welcome and all are encouraged to participate. However, only paying members (it s only $12 per year) are eligible for prizes and unadulterated bragging rights. To participate send your answers to me (jackstenger@gmail.com) by February 25. All responses must be the official common English names used by the American Ornithologists Union check-list (Link). This means they must be correctly spelled, capitalized, and hyphenated or else they are counted as wrong. Mind your plovers and quails. Also include any comments you have about the quiz bird, such as how you arrived at your ID, or how you felt about the picture. Venting is welcome. Any bird that is on the state list for Ohio, Indiana, or Kentucky is fair game. Whoever has the highest number of correct answers by the end of the Bird Club season (May) wins. Any public discussion of quiz birds will result in a trap door opening up beneath the violator. Prize: To be determined. PASSENGER PIGEON Answers: I will post the answer with a brief analysis in the next Bird Club newsletter. This will include a list of all those who guessed correctly. Don t worry, wrong guesses will not be published, so fire away: it s better to get a CBC quiz wrong than to have never participated. I think Alexander Wilson said that. ~Jack Stenger President This month Jack has given us several specie to identify. The photo on the right is a cropped version of the photo on the left to give you a better view. Good luck. January Quiz bird answer There is only one loser for January s bird quiz - me! The quiz photo was terrible; it did not merit inclusion in such an illustrious publication. I wanted to have a photo of a Merlin, in honor of this month s bird club field trip. What better time to review this raptor s identification? Unfortunately, I had left my camera in another birder s car so I only had access to photos I took on my phone, which, as you can see, are poor quality. I rationalized to myself that one could still make out the structure of this bird, but it s in such an awkward posture as it tears into a songbird that this was quite challenging. Fortunately, James Lundberg was able to keenly observed the one reliable field mark that is visible wing length and used it to arrive at the conclusion of Merlin when combined with plumage features. He noted that Accipiter tails extend farther beyond the wingtips when compared with Merlin and other falcons. Indeed, they do. Accipiter wings barely extend past the base of their tail. Their relatively shortwings and long tail allows them ma- (Continued on page 5)

5 VOLUME 53, ISSUE 2 PAGE 5 Birding Calendar February 4...Field Trip. Merlin Census February 11...Field Trip. Muscatatuck NWR February 11...Cincinnati Nature Center Bird Walk. CNC February 16...Meeting. Urban Merlins February 25...Oxbow Inc Field Trip. OXBOW February 25...Cincinnati Nature Center Bird Walk. CNC February 26...Audubon Society of Ohio Field Trip AUDUBON FEBRUARY 2017 Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat (Continued from page 4) neuver in the tight spaces of forests. On the other hand, Merlins forage in open spaces, like cemeteries, where they can sacrifice some maneuverability for flat-out speed. Their long, pointed wings accommodate this. I took this picture of a Merlin on January 1st, in a Greenlawn Cemetery in Chillicothe, Ohio. As Bill Zimmerman and Brian Wulker recently pointed out to me, Merlins seem to be most reliable in cemeteries after 4:00 p.m. because they use the ornamental evergreens to roost. This bird was no exception. I am thankful that these falcons now overwinter in small numbers; they definitely make our midwinters a little more intriguing. Please Note: There is no Raptor Inc open house in February. February 11. Cincinnati Nature Center Time: 8:00am Meet: In the Cincinnati Nature Center Parking Lot. Details can be found here: CNC February 25. Oxbow INC. Time: 8:00am Meet: In the upper Oxbow parking lot at the main entrance to the Oxbow. Leader: Jack Stenger, (513) , jackstenger@gmail.com Details can be found here. OXBOW OTHER BIRDING EVENTS February 25. Cincinnati Nature Center Time: 8:00am Meet: In the Cincinnati Nature Center Parking Lot. Details can be found here: CNC February 26. Audubon Society of Ohio Time: 8:00am Meet: Fernald Preserve Visitors Center Waterfowl and other water birds along the lower Great Miami River Details can be found here: AUDUBON March 4: 14th annual Adams County Amish Bird Symposium. Information and registration can be found here: BIRD SYMPOSIUM ~Jack Stenger President

6 P ASSENGER P IGEON P AGE 6 Photos from the Great Miami River, Hamilton trip Adult and Juvenile Black-crowned Night-herons at Riverside Natural Area. Photos by Karen Noel Yard and patch Birds Bacon Flat Road. (Adams County) Doesn t that photo get you thinking about Hooded and Wormeating Warblers. Tufted Titmouse. Photos by Bob Ireton

7 VOLUME 53, ISSUE 2 Yard and patch Birds PAGE 7 Horned Lark. Photo by Karen Noel American Kestrels and Northern Shovelers at Fernald Preserve. Belted Kingfisher at Armleder Park. Photos by Dennis Meyers Your photos from your yard or local patch can appear in the Passenger Pigeon too. If you have bird photos that you want to share send them to the Passenger Pigeon Editor at tyrannus58@gmail.com

8 PAGE 8 Yard and patch Birds PASSENGER PIGEON Tundra Swans at Fernald Preserve. Winter Wren, Swamp Sparrow and Whitethroated Sparrow at Armleder Park. Photos by Dennis Meyers Your photos from your yard or local patch can appear in the Passenger Pigeon too. If you have bird photos that you want to share send them to the Passenger Pigeon Editor at tyrannus58@gmail.com

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10 CINCINNATI BIRD CLUB c/o Newsletter Editor 3491 Bootjack Corner Rd Williamsburg, Ohio President Jack Stenger: Program Chair Brian Wulker: Treasurer Lois Shadix: Field Trips Mike Busam: Newsletter Editor Bill Stanley: Park VIP John Stewart: WE RE ON THE WEB! CINCINNATI BIRD CLUB FACEBOOK Bird Club Membership Name Address Phone Individual $12.00 Family $15.00 Student (under 18) FREE Make your check payable to Cincinnati Bird Club, and mail to our Treasurer: Lois Shadix 2928 Saddleback Dr, Cincinnati, OH DUES: IF YOU HAVEN T SENT IN YOUR DUES YET FOR THE SEPTEMBER MAY 2017 BIRDING SEASON, PLEASE FILL OUT THE FORM AND MAIL IT IN ALONG WITH YOUR MEMBERSHIP FEES