UltraBird & UltraWalk 2011
Species Count |
Report & Photos by Mary Anne Romito |
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Jason, Jason, & Stan. These fellows completed the UltraWalk, walking the entire 31.5 miles of the Rocky River IBA UltraWalkers walked the last five miles |
This was the best UltraBird yet. WCAS has been doing this now for
four years! Each year we have improved the concept and the birding
has been phenomenal. This year with the help of several of my birding buddies, I
walked many of the trails of the three reservations in the Cleveland
Metroparks within the Rocky River Important Bird Area. Thank you to Mary Lou Hura, Mike Pacek, and my husband Tom Romito
for joining me on Thursday and Friday. Thank you to Kit Birch, Tim
Colburn and Bill Deininger for birding with me on Saturday. A big
thank you to Penny O’Connor who came on Friday to help with Mill
Stream but also provided the Saturday birders with fabulous looks at
the Bald Eagle nest. As you can see from the list at the left we had a total of 91
species for the 3 days of birding. All totaled I walked 30.5 miles.
That was almost as much as Stan and his walking buddies for the
UltraWalk on Saturday. One of the surprises to me was that the number of species
increased quite a bit in Rocky River. It’s amazing how many bird
species you can find in your local park in an urban area. One of our
best areas was near Big and Little Met Golf Courses. We found 56
Cliff Swallow nests under the bridge by Little Met. We also found
Orchard Oriole and Wilson’s Warbler along the trail just south of
this bridge. Between the two golf courses is a wetland. In this
wetland we found 2 green herons sitting on nests. A Red-winged
Blackbird was nesting between them. There were several other surprises too. We found an Eastern
Meadowlark in Hinckley near a golf course. There was a singing
Black-throated Green Warbler at the Top ‘O the Ledges. The Louisana
Waterthrush was at it’s usual location in Hinckley by the horse
trail opposite Johnson’s Picnic Area, but we found one at Rocky
River Nature Center too. We had a Cerulean Warbler there too. The birds of prey did not disappoint us either. Bill pointed out
a Cooper’s Hawk nest off the trail behind the Nature Center. The
Pereguine Falcons at the Brookpark and Hilliard Road Bridges showed
up for the count too. But the nicest view we had was looking DOWN at
the Bald Eagles nest. Mom and chick were quite cooperative and we
did our utmost to not disturb them. Finding a Red-headed Woodpecker nest at 6:00 am in the Lagoon
Picnic Area was something I didn’t expect. Thanks to Bill’s
suggestion, I was able to push the count over 90 with the addition
of Northern Mockingbird and the last bird of the UltraBird, the
humble Rock Pigeon. I found both behind the Pearl of the Orient in
Rocky River (in the Rocky River IBA) I hope that next year more of you will come down and join me in
this fun event. You don’t have to walk all three days, any part of
it would be great. I’d love the company. Mark your calendars for
next year. (Thursday, Friday, Saturday of Memorial Day Weekend 2012)
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