Red-winged blackbirds are back in Northeast Ohio. It means more bird species will soon follow for spring migration, a significant event for our region. We know bird watching is a popular pastime for many, so it is why we are following through on our previous reports about preventing bird strikes in Cleveland.
While the city of Akron still sleeps, volunteers are out armed with flashlights searching, no matter the weather.
This is Lights Out Akron – part of a statewide initiative that also includes Cleveland, Columbus, Toledo, Cincinnati and the Miami Valley. Lights Out does this every spring and fall as millions of birds migrate through Ohio during the night.
In Philadelphia, there were 1,500 in one day. In Chicago, there were 1,000 in one morning—victims of the McCormack Place convention center. And on one day in Cleveland last week, over 100 birds flying south over Lake Erie crashed into buildings downtown, a natural byproduct of the unavoidable mix of fall migration and glass skyscrapers.
Devin Mingesbruney, is a graduate student at Miami University studying conservation biology with a specific focus on birds. She is an avid birder and volunteer with Lights Out, Columbus. While walking or driving at night in downtown Columbus, it’s hard not to miss all the bright lights illuminating the streets, parking lots, and high-rise buildings.
Tim Jasinski, Wildlife Rehabilitation Specialist with the Lake Erie Nature & Science Center was recently on the ECO Speaks CLE podcast to talk about Lights Out Cleveland: Show Notes: What if there was a way to save thousands of innocent
Every spring, millions of migrating birds pass over Northeast Ohio on their way to breeding grounds in Canada. The epic journey has many hazards, including navigating the North Coast’s urban landscape.
Lights Out, a volunteer operation, is trying to expand their downtown patroller base and implore buildings to adopt bird-safe glass and turn lights out at night. Recently, at 4:30 in the morning, Michelle Manzo woke up in her west side apartment and drove downtown sporting a neon reflective safety vest and lugging a sea-foam green net a child might use to catch butterflies.
Lights Out Cleveland volunteers begin their day at five or six a.m. and their work is done by eight-thirty in the morning during migration season.
“The birds that live here know where the buildings are,” said volunteer Rich Nicholls, “but the ones that are migrating, they get confused.”
We’re entering the heart of spring migration season, when millions of birds travel north for feeding and breeding. Driving the news: Cleveland is an important pit stop, as species recharge and refuel before the aerial trek across Lake Erie. That makes Northeast Ohio both a mecca for birdwatching and…
This month marks the start of the spring migration season, when millions of songbirds travel through Central Ohio. Unfortunately, many won’t reach their destinations because they’ll collide with buildings — a deadly problem a group of volunteers wants to help solve.
