Strange bird sightings in Northeast Ohio are sparking debate about causes ...
On Friday, talented young birder Ryan Steiner found a sharp-tailed sparrow at the Funk Bottoms Wildlife Area in Wayne County. When other birders clamored to verify the bird they found two more sharp-tails – eye-popping discoveries in light of the fact no sharp-tailed sparrows had been previously recorded in the state prior to the first week of May, according to Bruce Peterjohn ’s ``The Birds of Ohio.”
``To have these birds in an inland marsh TWO MONTHS ahead of their normal schedule tests the limits of imagination,” remarked Columbus birder Bill Whan in a post to Ohio Birds, although he acknowledged the possibility that the birds had over-wintered at Funk.
Then on Sunday, my friend Jeff Grabmeier , Whan and two others were birding the Scioto Trail State Park, just about a three-hour drive south of Cleveland, when they found singing hooded and yellow-throated warblers -- another earliest Ohio record. Neither of these colorful
"This is black cohosh, which is a native medicinal plant that you hardly ever see out there." With fewer native plants outside the exclosure, there are fewer birds there that depend on them for nests and food, and there are also fewer mice and