Hi everyone,

 

Beth and I decided to try a little birding on the Lakeside Nature Preserve (still Dike 14 to us). We always like it there, whatever the season, but just now the foliage is particularly beautiful, the green is impressive.We enjoyed the walk and saw and heard some nice birds.

We started by hearing an Indigo Bunting singing—seemed like a good sign. Here’s what else we had, in no particular order (my phone lost its satellite link, so I didn’t record the distance we walked or the elapsed time, and so didn’t post to ebird):

 

Ring-billed Gull—about 25

Canada Goose— 21

Mallard—1 pair, and 4 bachelor males

Great Blue Heron—5 (well, 5 sightings; they were all flying, in different directions, seen from different places)

American Robin—many!! Everywhere we looked there seemed to be a bunch of robins. I can’t say how many we saw, but at least 50 or 60. Several were sub-adults. Lots of vocalizations

Red-winged Blackbird—probably about 20, also vocalizing a lot—as always.

Gray Catbird—about 8, some also making a lot of noise

Northern Cardinal—4

Baltimore Oriole—1

Common Grackles—about a dozen

Yellow Warbler—at least a dozen, some also calling

Common Yellowthroat— 1 male, 1 female

American Goldfinch—about 16

Downy Woodpecker—1

Northern Flicker—3

Song Sparrow—8 or 9, some just heard

Chipping Sparrow—1

House Finch—5

Eastern Phoebe—3

Eastern Kingbird—1

Tree Swallowa—5

Brown-headed Cowbird—1 male, 1 female

 

And then, two birds that would have made the visit worthwhile even if they had been the only thing we had seen:

 

Yellow-billed Cuckoo—2. One flew across the path and went deep into the woods. But the second one decided to pose for us for a while on nearby branches!

 

More about the flora: As aficionados of our native flora, we were happy to see nice stands of Canada Goldenrod, Wingstem, Ironweed, Butterfly Weed, Dogbane (Spreading Dogbane, I think), Common Milkweed, and others. But there were much larger stands of Fragmites, Mugwort, and others. One plant, which we fear is Poison Hemlock, has taken over huge areas (I’d love to hear from someone who knows it isn’t). Interestingly, the Poison Hemlock was not attracting any insects, while another attractive invasive species, Black Mustard was being visited by both bumblebees and butterflies—that mustard has also taken over pretty substantial areas. And near the entrance there was even a small stand of that evil Japanese Knotweed.

 

Of course, this is just a lament about what’s going on in our parks, not a criticism of anyone—clearing these invasives out would be a ridiculously huge project, and who knows if it could even succeed? At least the place isn’t yet overrun by Lesser Celandine and Ground Elder, like some of the parks closer to home.

 

There are some invasive “trees”—the most obvious one is Ailanthus, but that was countered by some great-looking Staghorn Sumac. The native willows and Cottonwoods are great to see, even if small birds disappear in their foliage. And to end on a cheerful note, there was a small but very beautiful Flowering Catalpa in full bloom.

 

Wishing you all good birding and good times on the trails,

Steve Cagan

Cuyahoga County

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