Photo: Environmental Layers by Alice Merkel at Cleveland Metroparks, Rocky River Reservation, Valley Pkwy, North Olmsted, OH 44070.

Now more than ever, it is imperative Ohio conservation interests connect, communicate, and collaborate as a united front for nature and the environment.

In 2018 Year of the Bird, the Bald Eagle, Kirtland's Warbler, Least Tern, Piping Plover, Rufa Red Knot and the Whooping Crane have been Federally-listed as threatened, endangered, proposed, or candidate species' by the USFWS in 8 midwest states. Here are some simple ways to help protect birds in our area, perhaps your yard, neighborhood, and beyond.

Photo: Natural Landscape by Alice Merkel at Cleveland Metroparks, Rocky River Reservation, Valley Pkwy, North Olmsted, OH 44070

WCAS’s Carbon Offset Project, begun several years ago and modeled after an effort launched at the 2011 Midwest Birding Symposium, is a way for members to make contributions that offset their use of carbon while participating in birding activities (or any other activities) that requires travel. ​

A conversation about the new children's book, "Look, See the Farm!" with Bill Wilson (Author and Birds & Beans Founder) and Katie Fallon (Author). Learn about two girls who visit their grandparents' organic farm and discover the wild birds that live there too—meadowlark, wood thrush, barn swallow, screech-owl, and many more.

An early morning Spring visit to watch Rocky River Eagles and Eaglets feeding and parental nest-building activities. 

Photo: Irv Oslin, Ashland Times-Gazette.com

What it's all about: Bringing the community out to see nesting bobolinks and other natural phenomena at Byers Woods, which is designated an Important Birding Area. Photo by Irv Oslin.

Western Cuyahoga Audubon Society multimedia stories, news, and reports are shared far and wide across the web. We need your help right now to sustain web operations and continue chapter public outreach for birds and habitat conservation education.

Photo: Buff-breasted Sandpiper (Tryngites subruficollis) by Chuck Slusarczyk Jr.

The partnership between Black River Audubon and Lorain County Community College (LCCC) recognizes the 21-acre preserve as an important resource for the college ecological curriculum and serves as an example to the community of the need for conservation of meadow environments.

Squinting under a blazing sun and stiffened by cold air, 25 brave birders from Western Cuyahoga Audubon Society and Kirtland Bird Club teamed up at LaDue Reservoir in Geauga County for a joint field trip on Sunday, March 25, 2018.

Many of us found ourselves out in the frigid weather searching and hunting to get a glimpse of the rare and famed “Snowy Owl”.  The winter of 2017-2018 was exceptional with numerous sightings of this huge beautiful owl. Weighing 64 ounces, 23” in length, and having a wingspan of 52”, Snowy’s tower over other owls.

​Tom Romito of Western Cuyahoga Audubon Society discusses the fundraising efforts Western Cuyahoga Audubon Society is undertaking. "The reason that we raise funds at all is to sustain our organization and support the National Audubon Society’s strategic goal of protecting bird populations."

We undertook bird surveys on organic coffee farms in Nicaragua and on organic dairy farms in Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio and Vermont. These 2014 surveys turned up significant numbers of birds – both species and individuals – many more than were on the eco-deserts of sun/chemical coffee farms or on large scale mono-crop farms in the US.

At my home, the window with the view of the bird feeder is my favorite window. If you have one of these views in your home, I would imagine you delight in the surprises and tranquility it can bring. As the seasons change, the tiny feathered visitors change also. 

When March finds us, we can get truly excited both in the freedom that warmer temperatures bring and the beginning movements of birds back into and through the region.

Right now, the fifteen chapters in Ohio are essentially operating as independent islands without interaction with each other or the National Audubon Society. What we, Western Cuyahoga Audubon Society, wants to do is to spearhead an initiative to reinvigorate COAC and bring the chapters back together.

"Mary’s Journals" is a collection of work, bird, camping, and travel short stories of interest to anyone who is passionate about Nature and outdoor experiences.  ​

Fundraising for important communication projects, like Lights Out Cleveland, has gotten specific companies downtown to agree to turn out their lights during migration so that birds will not be hurt so much.

Above: Sunrise at San Juan del Rio Coco, Nicaragua. The highlands of northern Nicaragua, a productive shade coffee-growing region and refuge for migratory birds in winter. Photo by Scott Weidensaul.

Americans drink over a third of the world’s coffee. If we all buy and drink Bird Friendly certified coffee, songbirds, farmers and future generations of bird lovers will be sure that the birds return every year.

Image: The 117th Christmas Bird Count Map of Active Circles along the southern shores of Lake Erie. Image: National Audubon maps on ArcGIS

As this is being written, leaves, rather than snow, are falling. Before long we will be in the midst of Christmas Bird Count season with the Lakewood (west side) Christmas Bird Count, sponsored by Western Cuyahoga Audubon, taking place on Saturday, December 30, 2017. 

Poem about a bird-window collision that knocked this colorful feathered friend far from it's living life.

The first bird I ever knowingly saw was an American robin. It was the bird I was looking at when, to my mother’s astonishment, the first words to ever come out of my mouth besides “Mama” were uttered: “Look! See the bird!”

WCAS plays a role in future communications to bring together National Audubon and the hard-working, local grassroots chapters. 

​Beautiful Whimbrel (Numenius phaeopus) by Kathy Murphy, Member, Western Cuyahoga Audubon Society, on Sunday Sept 17, 2017. Just east of the Lorain boat docks, on the peninsula that goes into Lake Erie.

Butterflies and Dragonflies Photography Exhibit by Dave Lewis at the Carlisle Visitor Center (Main Office), 12882 Diagonal Road, LaGrange, Ohio from July 2 through July 31, 2017.

We had to start from the beginning to develop these methods but they are now becoming basic tools for seabird conservation. I know of at least fifty species of seabirds that have benefitted by the same methods that were pioneered in Maine. - Dr. Stephen Kress, Vice-President for Bird Conservation, National Audubon Society and Director, Seabird Restoration Program & Hog Island Camp.