Thanks to all of our partners and the success of Lights Out. The growth of this important conservation program has created new challenges and opportunities. We are now seeking to expand our staff at OBCI (from 1 to 2!) to include an program coordinator to advance Ohio Lights Out. The position will be based at the Ohio State University, and work with the OBCI Program Coordinator to advance OBCI’s efforts.
I never moved very far from where I was born and raised. For my first twenty years I lived in Farmdale, Ohio. Farmdale is a rural farming area with mostly dairy farmers, full or part time, as some farmers worked other places to make ends meet. As a kid in the 50’s, we pretty much kept busy and entertained ourselves outside. Television was in its infancy and most families in the country didn’t have it yet. There was no such thing as cell phones or video games, and desktop computers were another 25 years away from even the simplest ones. In the summer we rode our bikes all over on the roads and walked through the fields, pastures, and woods. Crossing through private property was not a problem since most of the owners knew us and would often stop to talk. We were able to enjoy the outdoors and all of Mother Nature’s world (mammals, birds, reptiles, plants, insects, and features of the land).
Battelle Darby Creek Metro Park, which protects over 8000 acres of land in the Big and Little Darby Creek watershed, and 13 miles along the Big Darby Creek, is adding more wetland habitat. This is great news for the watershed, but also for the birds that call the area home for part or all of the year.
The Akron Zoo’s Grizzly Ridge Aviary is home to 27 species of North American songbirds native to Ohio, including passerines, waterfowl and gamebirds. The Mike and Mary Stark Grizzly Ridge area of the zoo highlights North America’s native species including grizzly bears, North American river otters, red wolves, coyotes, and one of AZA’s largest North American songbird aviaries, which was established in 2013.
Did you know that you can reduce or eliminate window strikes just by moving your feeders? Bird feeders should be either less than 3 feet from a window or more than 30 feet. Birds using feeders very close to a window don’t have the room to gather enough speed to cause harm if a strike occurs. And those feeding far away generally can recognize that your windows are a part of a building!
Practice what you preach. It’s likely we have all spoken these words from time to time. The Ohio Division of Wildlife northeast Ohio headquarters in Summit County brought this expression to life in order to protect our beloved birds -with bonus protections of a wide array of other species too. Three significant projects on our property launched us into the modern conservation trend of turning human-induced establishments into nature-friendlier formations.