Cuyahoga Valley National Park
Spring Census

May 8, 2004
By Dwight Chasar

Again, the weather was just great and even the threat of rain wasn't that bad.  We ended with 129 species, the fifth highest.  We had 46 participants, second only to the high of 47.  At lunch, I missed the cormorant and blackburnian warbler on the lists.  Later another report came in by email that added a blackpoll warbler.  In the evening, Ann and I got 10 woodcocks at Jaite, which were calling and flying all over. 

The census was a little early in the month and for that reason we missed birds like pewee and a few warblers, which arrived the next day or two.  On the other hand, we got no owls, cuckoos, kestrel, or marsh or winter wren.  Interestingly, Canada geese numbers were down along with those of killdeer.  Red-tailed hawks were at an all time high, along with sora and woodcocks. 

An outstanding find was a pine siskin.  I looked back in the records and found that we had siskin on census dates that were May 11 or earlier and never after that date.  I checked the new  Field Book of Birds of the Cleveland Region and found that that is about the date that siskins are last seen in the area.  So our records are worth something!

The fall census is September 11.  I will try to handle the organization of it like we have done the last few times, by email, and assigned locations.  See you around birding.  Thanks for all the help once again.

Dwight Chasar
CVNP Volunteer

List of birds:  please excuse the taxonomic order.  With the new checklist, we should have this all corrected by next census, if I can find the time.