The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
IN SEARCH OF WINGS AND WARBLES
Christmas Bird Count logs birds through Black River Audubon Society
The Wellington branch of the Black River Audubon Society held Dec. 29 an annual Christmas Bird Count.
The annual holiday tradition dating back to 1900 tracks bird wildlife in Lorain County with corresponding events across the United States.
Wellington team leader Paul Sherwood said the group tracked the area that included a 10 mile diameter circle in the area. Sherwood said the Wellington count was one of the first in the area.
“We’re going to count every bird,” Sherwood said. “We’re all volunteers and it’s just something that we do. Myself, I sleep with binoculars under my pillow. It’s just what I do.”
In collaboration with the National Audubon Society, the Bird Count compiles data across the country.
The count has contributed to comprehensive reports and research looking at the impact of climate change on the bird population and growing our understanding of what bird species could be threatened in the future.
"We’re all volunteers and it’s just something that we do. Myself, I sleep with binoculars under my pillow. It’s just what I do."
— Wellington team leader Paul Sherwood
In understanding bird population trends and migration patterns, Lorain County birders are contributing to a wider awareness of conservation efforts.
Armed with just a notepad,
a pair of binoculars and an adventurous spirit, virtually anyone can start birding.
“Don’t write that we started off on the wrong direction,” joked Sally Fox, second vice president of the Black River Audubon Society.”
Fox, of Vermilion has been birding seriously since
2003. She organizes field trips with the Audubon Society. Driving the backroads around Wellington by car, people were spotting and identifying as many bird species as they could.
Fox said hitting the brakes to go chase a bird wasn’t entirely unusual.
Todd Schoch of Ashland began birding a year ago
with his 13-year-old son Isaik.
“How many times have you been trying to ID a bird only to find out it’s a squirrel?” Schoch said.
Part of birding is an elusive search for the crown jewel of a birder’s life-list, the comprehensive list of every bird one has identified.
The roseate spoonbill
spotted in New Russia Township in June was the first sighting in more than a decade for the bird native to the Gulf Coast attracted a lot of attention with the local birding community.
Schoch said it was fascinating to learn what birds are unique and interesting to different people as he encounters birders from
around the United States and the world, with northwest Ohio being known as the “warbler capital of the world” and home to the “Biggest Week in American Birding.”
“It seemed so strange that people would do this and now I’m doing it. People will just jump on a plane for one bird,” Schoch added.