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Song Sparrow
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Dear Friends,
 
April is my favorite month of the year. Yes, May is technically the Biggest Week in American Birding and the peak of bird migration in our area, but April is when the light of spring really starts to shine through the cold gray of winter. April rains reinvigorate forests and wetlands and steady south winds begin to carry a rush of migrating birds we haven't seen since they trickled through in their relatively drab October plumages.

April is also when we environmentally minded folks tend to shake off the dust and get back outside to help the environment. Earth Day events are in no short supply, and whether you want to pick up litter with Green Columbus, remove invasive species with Friends of the Lower Olentangy Watershed or Friends of Alum Creek and Tributaries, or monitor bird strikes with Lights Out Columbus, opportunities abound! April is also Ohio Native Plant Month, a statewide effort to share the importance of native plants (And places where you can purchase some). No matter how you choose to celebrate April, I hope you are able to see through the mud and rain and find the warmth and color of spring! 
 
Happy birding,
Kori Sedmak, President

Events Calendar:
Monthly Program
April 25: Chris Brinkman, "Urban Owls: The story of a family of barred owls, and the community helping to protect them"
Field Trips:
April 20: Delaware Wildlife Area Rails at Sunset
April 29: Calamus Swamp Warbler Walk
May 4: Migrant Songbirds at Sawmill Wetlands
May 5: Whetsone Park Ravine Walk
Service in the Preserves:
Apr 22-23 - Hueston Woods – footbridge and trail work
May 20 - Rhododendron Cove – garlic mustard removal
Calamus Swamp Workdays:
  • April 15
  • May 13
  • June 24
  • September 23
  • October 21

Monthly Program:
Chris Brinkman

 
Urban Owls:
The story of a family of barred owls, and the community helping to protect them

Join us as we continue our in-person Monthly Program series at the Grange Insurance Audubon Center on Tuesday April 25, 2023. Distinguished guest speaker Chris Brinkman will be sharing the story of a family of barred owls, and the community helping to protect them. Arrive at 6:30pm to participate in the bird quiz, draw a door prize ticket, and enjoy refreshments. We will begin the April Monthly Program with a Conservation Spotlight by Matt Shumar of the Ohio Bird Conservation Initiative, who will be providing an update on the Ohio Lights Out program. The Featured Presentation will begin immediately following the Conservation Spotlight. Chris Brinkman’s talk will go from 7:00pm - 8:00pm and winners will be announced for the bird quiz and door prize at 8:00pm.

Chris Brinkman is a Columbus based conservation-oriented nature and wildlife photographer. His work has been featured internationally by numerous publications including Outdoor Photographer Magazine, U.S. Department of Interior, Canon USA, Africa Geographic, Think Tank, Shutterbug Magazine, Smithsonian magazine, National Geographic, Faerie magazine, and Princeton University press. Over the years, he has worked to promote ethical wildlife photography, and to educate through his images. His fly-on-the-wall approach to wildlife photography, and dedication to protecting the safety of the subject has earned him the respect of many of his peers. An active conservationist, he believes in promoting the protection of habitat on the local and individual level as well as internationally.
 

 
Date: April 25, 2023

Location: Grange Insurance Audubon Center 505 W Whittier St, Columbus, OH 43215

Time: 6:30pm - 8:00pm

Schedule:
6:30 - 7PM Bird Quiz, Door Prize Raffle Drawing and Refreshments
6:45 - 7PM Matt Shumar Conservation Spotlight Ohio Lights Out
7 - 8PM Chris Brinkman Featured Speaker
8PM Winners Announced for Door Prize and Bird Quiz

Registration Link: https://tickets.audubon.org/grange/events/01857ac2-9755-45fc-5664-9b5369bcd576

Service in the Preserves
2023 Schedule


 

SIP has a full calendar of outstanding Ohio Nature Preserves lined up for our work trips. Our next trip will be April 22-23 at Hueston Woods for footbridge and trailwork. Not only do we get to see these beautiful areas, but we have a lot of fun! If you are interested in volunteering to help SIP in its important conservation work, please contact us at this link: https://columbusaudubon.org/conservation-pages/service-in-the-preserves/service-preserves-contact/

We hope to see you there!
 
Apr 22-23 - Hueston Woods – footbridge and trail work
May 20 - Rhododendron Cove – garlic mustard removal

Field Trips

 
Delaware Wildlife Area Rails at Sunset

When: April 20, 7:30 -8:30 pm
What: Join in a sunset walk along the marsh at Delaware Wildlife Area to listen for Rails. With luck we’ll hear the whinnying of Sora, the bloonk-a-doonk of a Bittern, or the kiddick of Virginia rail!
Where: Meet at the parking area just north of the dike on Panhandle road (the first pull off on the right north of Main road).  
E-mail jrmuller12@gmail.com for more information.

Calamus Swamp Warbler Walk
When: April 29, 9:00-10:00 am
What: Join us at our Calamus Swamp property to look for migrant songbirds making a pit stop on their way north! This is a small park, but can hold a lot of birds. This will be a slow-paced walk on unimproved trails and boardwalk.
Where: Meet at the Calamus Swamp parking lot
E-mail Kori Sedmak at kori.sedmak@gmail.com for more information
 
Migrant Songbirds at Sawmill Wetlands
 
When: May 4, 7:30- 8:30 am
What: Start your day at the Sawmill Wetlands to see what migrants are stopping by to refuel on their way north! While this park is small, it's an oasis filled with native plants that support insects that support birds in the middle of the concrete jungle! 
Where: Meet at Sawmill State Wildlife Education Area
E-mail James Muller at jrmuller12@gmail.com for more information
 
Whetsone Park Ravine Walk 
When: Friday, May 5 at 8:30am
What: Join Lynn Wearsch and Donna Siple for a morning walk through Whetstone Park to explore a variety of bird habitats. We’ll visit the Adena Brook area as well as nearby wooded ravines. This walk is for all levels – beginners are welcome! We hope to see indigo buntings, orioles, tanagers, gnatcatchers, thrushes, vireos, waxwings, various warblers and maybe even nesting barred owls or wood ducks.

2023 Columbus Audubon Birdathon

Registration is open! It’s officially time to make a team and/or a donation for the Columbus Audubon Birdathon!
 
The Birdathon engages individuals and groups to raise support and awareness for Columbus Audubon's bird conservation and nature education work in Central Ohio. Anyone can participate by donating to a team or forming a team to count birds. It's like a walk-a-thon style fundraiser, but instead of logging miles, our participants are logging bird sightings!
 
Birdathon teams can participate any time in May 2023. How, when, and where you bird is up to you. Whether you're birding for a few hours in the backyard or planning a route to hit all your favorite hotspots in one day, it all counts! Participation is free and all skill levels are welcome to join! From beginning birders to seasoned scouters, the Birdathon is for everyone.
 
Register or donate at: charity.pledgeit.org/ColumbusAudubonBirdathon
 
For a video on how to register with ease using Pledgeit, follow this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lo0Nd2BuDik&t=26s

Calamus Swamp Workdays
 

We can use your help at Calamus this year, and work days are fast-approaching!  We have a lot to get done this year with clearing invasive plants, helping with boardwalk repair, and whatever else comes up.  Please consider joining us, and be sure to keep an eye on Facebook and future editions of the Song Sparrow for details and updates.      

Here’s are this year’s dates, all on Saturdays, from 10 AM – 2 PM:
  • April 15
  • May 13
  • June 24
  • September 23
  • October 21
To register for spring work days, visit the Calamus Swamp Spring Work Days registration page set up for us through Grange Insurance Audubon Center. 
 
We look forward to seeing you at Calamus Swamp!

 

Grange Insurance Audubon Center 
April & May 2023 Events, Programs & Activities


Experience Three Exhibitions
Through April 23
 Treewhispers, Tree Time & Silos and It Sounds Like Love
 
 Art at Audubon continues with one new exhibition and two extended art installations. Tree Time is a photographic documentation of the prehistoric and endangered species, The Metasequoia (or Dawn Redwoods). This exhibit by artist Amanda Love calls to mind changes that happen over time in different conditions to create one large symphony of trees. Silos is an outdoor art installation also inspired by the Dawn Redwood tree by artist Amanda Love coming soon. It Sounds Like Love is an immersive, walk-on art installation of etched glass produced by the sound vibrations of Ohio prairie seeds by artist Cadine Navarro.  This installation now includes an audio-guide inviting visitors to experience a short meditation session in the space and Treewhispers remains on site representing an international collaboration and art installation awakening a heartfelt connection to trees. A closing reception is planned for April 20, 6-8 pm.
 

 
Birdhouse Competition Display and People’s Choice Voting, now through April 30
Visitors are invited to view over 25 hand-made, original and very creative birdhouses and vote for their favorite!  The artist receiving the most votes will receive the People’s Choice award and a cash prize of $250.00.
 
First Fridays Let’s Do Yoga with Optional Hike, May 5
Let's Go Birding Together Yoga and Bird Walks return for the spring and summer. Start the evening with this outdoor yoga session intentionally welcoming of the LGBTQIA+ community and the people who support them, designed to be a space where people can be themselves without fear of judgment. After yoga, join us for an optional hike around the center grounds and Scioto Audubon Metro Park. Registration required at https://tickets.audubon.org/grange/events/9502add4-cba3-a21a-dc8e-8a43dd85e40e
 

Earth Day Event with Seeds of Caring, April 22, 10 am-2 pm

2023 Kids as Planet Protectors: An Earth Day Celebration at Grange Insurance Audubon Center
Join us for our FREE Earth Day celebration sponsored by Amazon Web Services, Grange Insurance, and Hexion! We will have multiple projects to help kids act in protecting our environment and investing in our planet’s future. Activities are geared toward kids ages 2-12 and will include: nature-themed art exhibits, wildflower seed balls, bird seed feeders for Ohio Wildlife Center, tree planting, learning about composting and renewable energy, upcycling activities, a scavenger hunt, window clings to prevent bird strikes, and more. Nonprofit partners will be on site to educate kids on a variety of environmental stewardship actions.
 

Audubon Adventure Summer Camp Registration is Open
Audubon has a long history of providing life-changing experiences in natural settings with over 30 summer camp programs in the U.S. Register your child to part of this amazing network of camps around the country right here at the Grange Insurance Audubon Center this summer! Join us this summer as we explore the grounds of the Grange Insurance Audubon Center and Scioto-Audubon Metro Park, where adventures are around every corner and beneath every stone. Campers are awakened to the beauty of the natural world and programs help campers make connections between their actions and their environment.  We have camps in June and July for Pre-K to 5th grade campers with full day and half day options available.  Sign up now at https://grange.audubon.org/programs/join-adventure-summer
 

Sanctuary: a Quilt Exhibition (May 4 to July 5) by artists Marty Kotter and Deb Baillieul
The exhibit will feature 50 pieces depicting safe places for wildlife in natural and human occupied settings.

From this exhibit, Marty and Deb hope visitors will experience beauty and encourage them to create and maintain sanctuaries for wildlife and plants so that all can thrive together.  Exhibition pieces are for sale with a portion of the proceeds benefitting the Grange Audubon Center. An opening reception is planned on Thursday, May 4, 6-8 pm.
 
Midwest Photo/Cannon Photo Walk, May 6, 10 am-12 pm
Midwest photo/Cannon will be on-site at the Center offering free photo walks with their instructors.  Advance registration is suggested but walk-ins are welcome. They will have a table with Cannon merchandise available for visitors to use, etc.  Cannon will also offer free prints of the photos taken during the photo walks. Registration information coming soon.
 
Native Plant Sale, May 7, 12 pm-1pm open to Native Plant Challenge participants only; 1-2 pm open to the public.
Exhibiting Artists’ Make & Take Pollinator Free Print Workshop, Sunday, May 7, 11am-1pm
Join artists Marty Kotter and Deb Baillieul to create prints of pollinators.  Prepared stamps will be available for the public to use and print on card stock folded into greeting card size. Perfect time to make your Mother’s Day card!

Creature Feature: Belted Kingfisher

by Rob Thorn
 
 
Many of you have had this experience: canoeing or walking the bank of a river or creek, we see a flash of blue and white and hear the dry rattle of a kingfisher.   More often than not, you’ll see or hear this kingfisher several times as you ‘chase’ it along the creek, the rattle becoming longer and more irritated.  Why doesn’t the darn bird fly back around you?   Kingfishers and watercourses are such a perfect match that the birds don’t like to stray too far from one, especially if they’re hunting for a meal.  Occasionally, though, you’ll see a Kingfisher flying quickly over some non-water habitat, likely making tracks for the nearest fishing ground.
 
We have only one Kingfisher species here in central Ohio, the Belted Kingfisher (Megaceryle alcion), but it shares some of the unique features of the family.   You know they love shallow water, preferring to dive on minnows swimming near the surface, but occasionally snagging crayfish and large bugs.  Most have an oversized head and a large beak with finely serrated edges for seizing and gripping such slippery prey.  As adults they often regurgitate the bones and exoskeletons of digested prey in pellets, much like a raptor, and these pellets can be thick underneath favored perches.  They even use them to line their nests, creating a soft, waterproof, but smelly, nest chamber.   Here’s a nice re-cap of Kingfishers by Animalogic, a Canadian video outfit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0b89JRFKWA
 
It’s in reproduction that the family starts to stray from the expected avian patterns.  Belted Kingfishers are one of the few birds where the female is larger and more colorful than the male, possessing an extra rusty-red belly band.  Females are more territorial during the breeding season, but the pair shares digging and brood-rearing, so it’s unclear why the females are more colorful (see https://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/why-do-female-belted-kingfishers-have-an-extra-rust-colored-belt-that-the-males-dont-have/ ).  There’s a sex-dimorphism in migration: most males stay on their territories for much of the year (unless the creeks totally freeze), while almost all females migrate further south.  Most individuals or pairs need around a half mile of natural stream for a territory, and the males may be loath to give up hard-won territories, whereas the females need more food during the off season to bulk up for egg-laying.  Most kingfishers don’t build nests, instead opting to dig a burrow into steep sand or gravel banks.   These are usually along stream or river banks, but not always, and they have the anti-flooding feature of an upward-slanting neck.   This way the nests can survive brief floods by trapping a big air pocket around the nest chamber. 
 
Belted Kingfishers appear to be the only kingfisher that has adapted to cold temperate North America, and many of them need to migrate south to persist here.  There are other Kingfisher species, the Ringed and the Green, in Texas, and still more in Central and South America, so year-round open shallow water seems necessary for lots of members of this family.   A similar pattern holds in the Old World, where the Eurasian Kingfisher (Alcedo atthis) has expanded into northern Europe and Russia, migrating in winter down to the Mediterranean and Middle East.  Africa and the Mediterranean have several more species.   Where and when should you be alert for Kingfishers here in central Ohio?   Pretty much any wooded creek or river at any time of year, provided it is not frozen or too turbid with mud, could host kingfishers.   Clear streams with wooded banks are the best habitat, which fortunately describes many of the creeks around Columbus.   In winter, the ice-free stretches below dams (like Hoover, Griggs, and O’Shaughnessy) are ideal for overwintering males.   In Spring, look for territorial birds along stretches of Big Darby Creek, the Olentangy River, or Big Walnut Creek where there are creekside bluffs into which they can burrow their nests.  Just try not to chase them around their riverfront domain too much.

Listening to Bird Songs Can Improve Your Mental Health

By Jeff Grabmeier 
 
April brings a rush of migrating birds and birdsong to Ohio, bringing joy to birders in the state. Research shows that it has another benefit: it can improve your mental health.
 
In a new study, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Germany examined how traffic noise and birdsong affected mood, paranoia, and cognitive functioning by carrying out a randomized online experiment with 295 people.

Participants heard six minutes of either typical traffic noise or birdsong with varying amounts and types of birdsong and traffic noises. Before and after hearing the sound clips, the participants completed questionnaires assessing their mental health.

Results showed that listening to birdsong reduced anxiety and paranoia in healthy participants. Birdsong did not appear to have an influence on depressive states in this experiment. Traffic noise, however, generally worsened depressive states, especially if the audio clip involved many different kinds of traffic sounds.
 
In the researchers’ view, the explanation for these effects is that birdsong is a subtle indication of an intact natural environment, and can take people’s mind off the stress they may be feeling.
 
Researchers said that listening to an audio CD of birdsongs would be a simple, easily accessible intervention for people feeling stress.  But they said it may be even better to listen to birds in nature.
 
“We were recently able to perform a study showing that a one-hour walk in nature reduces brain activity associated with stress,” said the research group’s head, Simone Kühn. “We cannot say yet which features of nature — smells, sounds, color, or a combination thereof — are responsible for the effect.”

What is clear that nature – especially the songs of birds – improves mental health and well-being.  So go out and enjoy migration!
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