Bill Osborne’s love of the red-headed woodpecker started when he was a young boy. Every spring the telephone pole at his parents’ house was visited by the striking, red-topped bird.
“That sure garnered my interest,” Osborne said as he sat in his dining room surrounded by red-headed woodpecker paraphernalia. In 1976, he joined the Greater Akron Audubon Society (GAAS).
The GAAS, founded April 2, 1934, celebrates its 90th year this month. At its inception, the group was dubbed The Cuyahoga Falls Audubon Club by the nine people who attended the first meeting. It was more than 40 years later when the group was officially accepted as a chapter of the National Audubon Society on March 1, 1976.
Over the years, the GAAS has been an outlet for birders to get involved locally in conservation efforts. Wolfgang Pelz, who has been an active member since around 1986, stumbled upon the group with his wife, Joyce, when they were visiting a hunting and fishing show at Chapel Hill Mall. The two already had an interest in nature and wildlife, but meeting Osborne, who was tending the GAAS table, sealed the deal, Pelz said.
For the love of birds
Pelz and Osborne were “chasers,” traveling on weekends to search for the birds on their lists. The two reminisced together on their 22-hour driving excursion to Austin, Texas, to see a Blue-Footed Booby in the flesh.
“And we actually did get to see it,” Pelz said, looking at Osborne. “We were standing on the dock and it was across the lake … and it flew over and landed on the dock within like four feet of you [Osborne]. So mission accomplished day one.”
“Wolfgang keeps us going,” said Marie Morgan of her friend and fellow birder. Morgan, who joined in 1972, was an active member of the organization until about 2000 and served as president from 1980 to 1986.
While Osborne and Pelz “chase” the birds on their lists, Morgan lets the birds come to her. She spent a number of years working at the F.A. Seiberling Nature Realm, catching and banding birds. Banding birds, which includes putting a small silver bracelet on a bird’s leg with an identification number, is a way to gather information about the bird if it is ever recovered – information such as distance traveled and longevity.
Morgan took a class at the University of Akron and worked under a master bird-bander in Pennsylvania. She recalled a particular chickadee she had caught and banded that was identified as staying in the area of the nature realm and living nine and a half years.
“That was really quite a privilege to be able to trap the birds, be able to handle them [and] band them,” Morgan said.
90 years of ebb and flow
The 90 years of the Audubon organization hasn’t been without its ups and downs. One of its biggest challenges is the lack of new members joining the organization.
There was a 20-year or so hiatus, Pelz said, where activity declined, but the group has enjoyed a resurgence in the last four years thanks to new outreach efforts. Currently, there are more than 200 actively participating members, if monthly chapter meetings, the group’s Christmas bird count and its summer bird census are all counted.
The Christmas bird count, which dates back to the 1900s, is “the nation’s longest-running community science bird project,” according to the National Audubon Society’s website. This annual count, scheduled for Dec. 15, takes place over 24 hours, utilizing field and feeder counting and requiring a picture or sound recording to verify the sighting.
The Summer Breeding Bird Census is a homegrown bird count started in 1978 that’s aimed at counting all the birds in Summit County over a 10-day period. The census, which will take place June 7 through June 16, operates under the assumption that any bird found in the county over the summer is nesting in the county. To make the counting a bit more bite-sized, the county is broken up into 19 territories for volunteers to cover.
Bringing conservation efforts to the frontline of the community
Habitat loss, pollution, feral cats, light pollution, climate change and the indiscriminate use of poisons are just a few of the environmental and conservation concerns for feathered friends in the area.
“We historically have been concerned with the environment here locally,” Pelz said.
The Portage Lakes area is known as the “Purple Martin Capital of Ohio,” Pelz said. The timing of the migration of these birds is crucial, and is affected by climate change and other negative factors in the environment.
“They’re insect eaters, so if they show up before there are enough insects, then they’re gonna starve,” he said. “Or if it gets cold – one of the things that we’ve seen with climate change is the variability and the weather is quite miserable – so if it gets cold and wet, they can have problems as well.”
Pelz described seeing folks from the Portage Lakes Purple Martin Association helping to feed the purple martins in these challenging years by flipping little bits of scrambled eggs up in the air for the purple martins to catch, since they feed while flying.
These birds will also be celebrated June 30 at the 20th Annual Buckeye Martinfest, 803 State Mill Rd. near the Portage Lakes’ North Reservoir boat ramp, where a thousand or so nestlings will be banded. One of the ways community members are brought into the process is by having a child carry one of the baby birds over to the person doing the banding, before the babies are released.
There are lots of ways for area residents to help the more than 300 bird species of Summit County, Pelz said.
Planting native plants and maintaining a natural yard – rather than a green grass lawn – is one way to help promote the natural environment that birds can thrive in, he said. It’s better for the birds and the environment if a native oak tree is planted rather than an invasive Bradford pear. And residents should garden with birds in mind by selecting plants that are useful to them and that bring other cultivars to the ecosystem, such as pollinators.
“When you’re out, leave no trace,” Pelz said. “Make the environment look better.”
Those interested in getting involved can reach out to the organization via their contact page, by phone at (330) 645-0953 or by email at info@akronaudubon.org, to learn more about joining and upcoming events.