Butterfly Garden at The Holden Arboretum

Directly behind the Corning Visitor Center at The Holden Arboretum you will find the Arlene and Arthur S. Holden Jr. Butterfly Garden. This is a summer garden that begins peaking now. You will find a variety of plants that not only attract butterflies but are host plants to encourage egg laying.

Magee Marsh Field Trip

Today Blackbrook Audubon took a field trip to Magee Marsh. I went up on Friday afternoon with a few friends to scope things out. Our first bird on the beach was a life bird for me and my friends. A Kirtland Warbler as seen in the picture above. He was quite cooperative as many photographers surrounded him as he put on his show. Unfortunately he did not make an appearance on Saturday for the other Blackbrook birders who joined us.

Beaty Landing

This birding season May 2010 through April 2011 Blackbrook Audubon will be monitoring Lake Metro Parks Beaty Landing. We have monthly hikes on the 2nd and 4th Sundays of the month at 8:00 AM as well as the 3rd Wednesday at 7:00 PM. These hikes are free. Today was our first bird hike for the season on this cold and chilly day. Here are the results:
3 Canada Geese
7 Mallards
2 Great Blue Heron
7 Turkey Vultures
1 Solitary Sandpiper
1 Ring-billed Gull
2 Mourning Dove
1 Red-bellied Woodpecker
1 Downy Woodpecker
1 Hairy Woodpecker
2 Warbling Vireo
4 Blue Jay
5 American Crow
3 Northern Roughwinged Swallow
2 Bank Swallow
6 Cliff Swallow
1 Black-capped Chickadee
1 Tufted Titmouse
2 Carolina Wren
4 House Wren
3 Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
2 Eastern Bluebird
2 Wood Thrush
7 American Robin
5 Gray Catbird
2 Brown Thrasher
30 Yellow Warbler
1 Magnolia Warbler
3 Yellow-rumped Warbler
1 Scarlet Tanager
5 Song Sparrow
2 White-crowned Sparrow
15 Northern Cardinal
2 Rose-breasted Grosbeak
5 Red-winged Blackbird
2 Common Grackle
14 Brown-headed Cowbird
3 Baltimore Oriole
40 American Goldfinch

If you have the time, join us on one of the bird hikes. Beginners welcome.

Common Moorhen Sighting

At The Holden Arboretum this past week a Common Moorhen was sighted at Corning Lake. For a picture of the Common Moorhen and more information go to this website:

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Commom_Moorhen/id

Pymatuming field trip

On March 21st twenty Blackbrook Audubon members took a field trip to Pymatuming. Our first duck when we arrived at the bridge on the Ohio side was a long tailed duck.

Throughout the morning we traveled to a few places including the fish hatchery on the Pennsylvania side. We were able to see several bald eagles, bufflehead ducks, ring-necked ducks, wood ducks and several other species.

Plan on attending our next field trip on April 24th as we travel to Lakeview Cemetary in Cleveland.

Spring is in the air

I went for a walk with my dog Tucker who is a mixed breed of German short-haired pointer and black lab. I'm thinking it is the lab because we see water and he is in it. So today on our walk he chose to take a quick dip to "cool off" near the end of the walk. I'm so glad he chose to do it here because at the other end of the pond were hundreds of smelly dead fish. No doubt due to lack of oxygen while the pond was heavily ice covered this winter. On our walk we had an opportunity to see and hear a pileated woodpecker, nuthatches, chickadees, tufted titmice, crows, some turkey vultures in the sky (no doubt smelling the dead fish), cardinals and a few other birds whose songs I do not know. Some of the trails at Girdled Road Park South were still snow covered in the woods, the warm weather and sun made them a little soft. The open areas were clear but muddy. It was a really nice day today for a walk and it looks like the rest of the week will be the same. Go out and enjoy.

Bald Eagle Nest

A new nest is being constructed by this pair of bald eagles on Rt. 44 North near Mentor Headlands State park. It is not known at this time whether the eagles will actually nest at this site as they make more than one nest. Eagles will lay 2 to 3 eggs and hatch in about 35 days. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife would like individuals to know that state and federal laws protect bald eagles and their nest sites. Any type of disturbance around a nest could cause the birds to abandon the site or discourage them from using the nest in the future. Please do not do anything to disturb them by trying to get closer for a better picture by going into the marsh.

Robins in the holly bushes

Yesterday at noon I was able to break away from the visitor center at The Holden Arboretum and hike to the Holly collection hoping that maybe a long eared owl would be tucked away inside one of them. However, there were no signs of any owls in the dense bushes but there were lots of robins feasting on all of the holly berries. It is a little bit of a hike to see the Holly collection but they are beautiful to see this time of the year.

Chimney Swift Tower

The Chimney Swift Tower is now complete. At The Holden Arboretum located on the far edge of Foster's pond behind the Corning Visitor center a boy scout built the tower as part of his eagle scout project in conjuntion with our conservation staff. We shall see if this spring brings a nesting pair inside.

An American Robin feasting

The American Robin is a familiar bird in the winter time in northeast Ohio. People have called asking what to feed them. The robin's diet normally consists of fruit, seeds and insects. In the wintertime they feast on a variety of fruits such as crabapples. You can place fresh fruit (apples) cut up, soaked dried fruit like raisins on a low platform. If a robin is super hungry they may eat suet, grapes and peanuts. The best way of helping out robins and other fruit eating birds is to plant landscape to support them such as crabapples, holly, winterberry, etc. Thank you to Mary Ann from Blackbrook Audubon for this picture.