Yesterday I took a walk about the bulk of the Shaker Lakes park area, the upper reaches of what is now the Doan Brook IBA. It was 30 years ago this week that I initiated my first formal bird survey... ever. It was part of a Fall /Spring migration survey attempting to answer how well a small park may reflect the bird diversity and phenology of the greater region. This was a hot topic at the time in the wake of the raging SLOSS debate ... the heated sometimes vitriolic debate over whether a Single Large or Several Small Sites would better preserve biodiversity (relevant to the structuring of wildlife refuge systems, etc.). So yesterday, mindful of the route I took 13 Aug 1978, I repeated that first census. The weather was cooperative as with regard to temperature, wind, cloud conditions were close to those of 30 years ago. Unfortunately, I must be on the road the 13th or I would have otherwise waited until Wednesday. Here is yesterday 9 Aug followed by (13 Aug 1978) Canada Goose - 1 (0) Wood Duck - 30 (8) [American Black Duck - 0 (18)] Mallard - 59 (43) Great Blue Heron - 8 (5) Green Heron - 2 (1) [Black-crowned Night-Heron - 0 (4)] [Northern Harrier - 0 (1)] [Red-tailed Hawk - 0 (2)] Cooper's Hawk - 2 (0) Killdeer - 3 (2) Spotted Sandpiper - 4 (5) Solitary Sandpiper - 5 (3) [Greater Yellowlegs - 0 (5)] [Lesser Yellowlegs - 0 (2)] Ring-billed Gull - 1 (26) Rock Pigeon - 23 (125) Mourning Dove - 18 (8) [Black-billed Cuckoo - 0 (1)] [Common Nighthawk - 0 (4)] Chimney Swift - 24 (24) Ruby-throated Hummingbird - 1 (0) Belted Kingfisher - 2 (5) [Red-headed Woodpecker - 0 (1)] Red-bellied Woodpecker - 7 (0) Downy Woodpecker - 7 (4) [Hairy Woodpecker - 0 (2)] Northern Flicker - 7 (3) Eastern Wood-Pewee - 15 (1) Eastern Phoebe - 7 (1) Eastern Kingbird - 8 (1) Red-eyed Vireo - 3 (1) Warbling Vireo - 3 (0) Blue Jay - 7 (43) [American Crow - 0 (4)] Purple Martin - 0 (6) Barn Swallow - 6 (10) Black-capped Chickadee - 13 (24) Tufted Titmouse - 11 (14) White-breasted Nuthatch - 10 (0) Blue-gray Gnatcatcher - 6 (0) House Wren - 1 (2) Carolina Wren - 1 (0) Wood Thrush - 1 (1) American Robin - 91 (82) Gray Catbird - 34 (31) [Brown Thrasher - 0 (3)] European Starling - 21 (5) Cedar Waxwing - 63 (24) [Blue-winged Warbler - 1] Yellow Warbler - 7 (1) [Blackburnian Warbler - 0 (1)] [Bay-breasted Warbler - 0 (1)] [Black-and-white Warbler - 0 (1)] [Northern Waterthrush - 0 (3)] American Redstart - 1 (0) [Wilson's Warbler - 0 (1)] [Canada Warbler -0 (1)] Indigo Bunting - 3 (0) Song Sparrow - 15 (9) Chipping Sparrow - 2 (0) Northern Cardinal - 30 (33) Rose-breasted Grosbeak - 1 (0) Red-winged Blackbird - 3 (10) Common Grackle - 58 (14) Baltimore Oriole - 3 (1) House Finch - 5 (1) American Goldfinch - 34 (14) House Sparrow - 31 (68) some observations to be drawn from the list ... evidence of the maturation of the forest around Shaker can be seen in the pewees, nuthatches, gnatcatchers, and woodpeckers such as Red-bellied ... first breeding in 1981 the species has largely supplanted the Red-headed Woodpecker locally. The warbler variety of '78 as well as the harrier indicate the early fall season that year, one possibly matched this season were I out again later in the week. Canada Goose and Carolina Wren were not breeding locally in 1978 and House Finch arrived on the scene only the year before. The drop in corvid numbers is interesting. The loss of Purple Martins and American Black Ducks (both local breeders in 1978) reflects the broader declines in these species. I was pleasantly surprised by the 3 territorial Warbling Vireos as I don't recall ever having the species summer here let alone breeding. cheers Vic Fazio briefly in Shaker Heights, OH ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]