Happy 25th Anniversary to the Magee Marsh Wildlife Area Boardwalk!

Happy 25th Anniversary to the MAGEE MARSH WILDLIFE AREA BOARDWALK! This 2010 throng was watching a Connecticut Warbler! The latest issue of The Cerulean, the quarterly newsletter of the Ohio Ornithological Society, is online! Read the history of the boardwalk, see a dazzling array of Cerulean Warbler photos, lawn alternatives for BIRD-FRIENDLY zones in YOUR YARD, plus reports about the many recent OOS field trips across the state!
http://www.ohiobirds.org/publications/cerulean/13-05.pdf

Updates to the Ohio Bird Checklist

The American Ornithologists' Union recently published its Fifty-Fourth Supplement to its Check-list of North American Birds. There are no lumps or splits that affect the Ohio list, but there are several changes to scientific names, and to the order that species appear in the list.

The actual supplement is not yet available online, but a summary of the changes is available at http://blog.aba.org/2013/08/2013-aou-check-list-changes.html.

The new official Ohio list, reflecting those changes, is now online at http://ohiobirds.org/site/library/checklist/official.php.

Call For Wilderness Designation to the Backcounrty Area in Shawnee State Forest!

Our State Parks and Forests - fracked, timbered and burned. 
When will we say, "Enough"? 

Biodiversity Must Be Protected for Future Generations!  Ohio Division of Forestry should strengthen the habitat protections for the 8,000 acres of Backcountry Area of Shawnee State Forest in Scioto and Adams counties.  The best way to protect State designated “Endangered” and “Threatened” species is to permit no timbering, burning or vehicle access in large, un-fragmented areas.  As Ohio continues to commit its forest and park areas to fracking and timbering, we call for equal acre-for-acre set-asides to be converted to Wilderness designation.

As a member of the Ohio Ornithological Society and resident of Ohio, I want the Backcountry Management Area of Shawnee State Forest given the designation of a protected Wilderness. It’s my belief that Ohio needs to do more to create areas for rare species to thrive. I want more protected land in Ohio for our future generations to enjoy!  Please take a minute to print and send this letter to the Ohio Division of Forestry. Our voices must be heard, and time is running out.

                  

       Mail To: Nate Jester, Ohio Division of Forestry 345 Allen Avenue Chillicothe OH 45601

The public has a limited time to respond! Please submit by August 30, 2013.

www.ohiobirds.org

For updates and more information on this issue, visit the Buckeye Forest Council at:  (http://buckeyeforestcouncil.org/) and the Ohio Environmental Council at: http://www.theoec.org/press-releases/odnr-proposes-eliminate-habitat-protections-shawnee-forest

The Ohio Cardinal-Call for Sightings

On August 1st, "Summer" is over, at least for The Ohio Cardinal. Please send your June and July sightings to Craig Caldwell, 1270 W. Melrose Dr., Westlake, OH, 44145 or email craig_caldwell@sbcglobal.net.

In addition to sightings, we welcome photos, anecdotes, book/e-media/app reviews, general interest articles, and research papers. If you enter your sightings into eBird, you do not need to send a report – we download all the entries directly from Cornell. Feel free, however, to expand on items in your eBird list in a separate note to me, because I can’t look at every note in eBird.

Digital photo files, please; send prints only with prior approval. If you post photos to FaceBook, Flickr, or the like, you can send links to them rather than the photo files themselves. Photos and links go to Laura Keene, laurakeene@cinci.rr.com. The deadline is August 15.

We continue to reduce the backlog of Cardinal issues. The Spring 2012 issue has probably reached many of you by now and we expect to have Summer 2012 out in about a month.

Speaking of Spring 2012... Who remembers Ohio's Least Tern discovered by Sherrie Duris at Maumee Bay State Park last year at Lake Erie? Read about this accidental visitor, and more, in the SPRING 2012 OHIO CARDINAL featuring a fantastic Brian Zwiebel cover photo!

Craig Caldwell
Editor, The Ohio Cardinal
The Ohio Ornithological Society

Least Tern photo by Brian Zweibel

OOS Offers Scholarships to Youths

OOS Offers Scholarship to Youths

The American Ornithologists’ Union and Cooper Ornithological Society have extended an invitation to high schools students to attend their joint meeting and symposium being held in Chicago, Illinois, Wednesday, August 14 through Saturday, August 17, 2013, hosted by the Field Museum of Natural History.  The Ohio Ornithological Society will be offering two deserving high school students a registration scholarship to attend.  Cost of transportation and lodging is not included.  The recipients will be chosen for their interest in birding and bird conservation and hopefully their desire to go into the field of ornithology. Candidates must complete an OOS Scholarship Application  and submit the Board of Directors of the Ohio Ornithological Society.  Candidates must be an Ohio resident and be enrolled in an Ohio high school.
 

The Thompson Family Youth Scholarship Fund was created in 2007, when a “one of a kind” baseball hat was auctioned off at our Third Annual Conference.  We raised over $250 and earmarked the proceeds towards a Young Scholarship Fund.  The Board of Directors dedicated the fund to the Thompson Family in 2010 in honor of the family that has devoted their lives to the birds and to the birding community.  In 1978, the Thompson family embarked on an incredible journey when Bill Sr. and his wife Elsa founded Bird Watcher's Digest, which was based in the living room of their Marietta home for the first five years. They launched the magazine by sending out 35,000 copies, which garnered about 2,500 - 2,800 initial subscriptions. The first issue was printed in black and white, and featured almost all reprints of bird-watching articles obtained from a clipping service, but immediately the magazine began receiving submissions of original material.

Over the years the Thompsons have been actively involved in the birding community across the country and around the globe.  This scholarship fund will help the Ohio Ornithological Society foster young people who are interested in birds to attend summer camps, workshops, training programs, conventions and other bird-related activities.  Funds will be used in honor of the entire Thompson family for their dedication in sharing the joy and amazement of birds.

The joint meeting will include symposia and plenary talks that look at exciting new approaches and results across the entire history of the avian tree and how that may project ahead in time. Chicago lies at the crossroads of the continent and the meetings take place at a watershed time for North American ornithology.

- See more at: http://www.ohiobirds.org/site/news.php?News_ID=59#sthash.RUgkPV1P.dpuf