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.
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.
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.
The Mentor Public Library is hosting a program about the team that’s making Northeast Ohio safer for migrating birds. Every spring and fall, millions of birds migrate through Ohio on the way to their breeding and overwintering grounds. Most species migrate at night, so the lights on tall buildings can disorient them and even cause them to crash and die.
Like moths to a flame, migrating birds looking to rest and refuel are drawn to the bright lights of downtown Cleveland. For many it will be their last stop. Each year, thousands of birds heading to and from Canada and the tropics plow into downtown buildings, leaving many of the tiny, feathered visitors dead or wounded on sidewalks and windowsills.
In this episode I sit down with Tim Jasinski who is a Wildlife Rehab Specialist at the Lake Erie Nature and Science Center in Bay Village, Ohio. Tim has been a life long birder and loves animals more than you know. Join us as he details a lot about the Cleveland Lights Out program and what they’re doing to help save birds from window strikes in an urban downtown.
As we enjoy the beauty of fall in Ohio, bird migration is well underway in our state. Ohio is blessed as one of the best places to witness one of nature’s greatest spectacles. Warblers, shorebirds, hawks, and waterfowl are moving through our state in vast numbers, following age-old routes from northern nesting grounds to warmer winter hideaways. There are countless places to enjoy this phenomenon, from your own backyard, to the local park, and to our great state parks, national wildlife refuges, and national park sites.
A crowded classroom greeted SaraJane Kukawka, seasonal naturalist at the Rocky River Nature Center, on Sunday afternoon as she educated visitors about methods for lowering migratory bird losses from collisions with buildings.
After two hours of active scouting for dead or injured birds in the dark, a group with Lights Out Cleveland early Thursday morning was delighted to come up empty-handed, to find not one fragile flyer that had collided with a building and dropped to the ground.
