There's been an interesting discussion on the listserver about the spring departure dates of juncos. With warblers and other more interesting birds migrating through our area in the spring, I give little attention to juncos. I do, however, record my junco sightings in my notebook when I'm birding in Rossford, so I can have a record of their last spring appearance.

Last month I purchased the new edition of Peterjohn's book Birds of Ohio; it's loaded with information. According to Peterjohn, the average departure date of the dark-eyed junco (also called the slate-colored junco) from the lakeshore area of Ohio is early May. Lou Campbell in his 1968 book Birds of Toledo has the average departure date as May 8. There's agreement between the two sources.

This is only my third spring of birding in Rossford, so two years of data is not enough to qualify as valid research, but I was surprised at what I found when I checked my logs. My last junco sighting in Rossford two years ago was on April 18th and last year it was April 15th.

Here's something else to check. http://www.bsbobird.org/passbanding.html

This URL points to last year's BSBO passerine monitoring counts. It list the species and the number of birds banded.If I read this web page correctly, it says that from April 16th to May 21st, only six slate-colored juncos were netted. The peak day was on April 16th with a count of two. The BSBO started their netting and banding project last year on April 14th., so it seems they missed most of the juncos.

I birded Rossford yesterday morning and there was definitely more than 20 juncos. They were on the ground, in the trees, and many were singing. I recorded "a lot" of juncos last year in Rossford on April 8th. I don't count birds when I'm birding, but if I was in town this weekend, I would go to Rossford tomorrow and try to count the juncos.

Anyway, the above and the person's observations below makes me wonder how early May can be the average departure date for the junco. It almost seems to be a month off for this area. I will have to check the Peterjohn book again, because one thing he does, which I like, is give dates of peak movements with counts.

A junco was in our yard this morning, so now I guess I'll keep track of the last time I see one in our yard too. I also keep track of my favorite backyard bird this winter, the red-breasted nuthatch, which was last seen two days ago.

E-mail sent to Ohio Birds listserver
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Sent: Friday, April 05, 2002 6:34 AM
To: Ohio Birds
Subject: Juncos


Juncos have an interesting spring migration in Ohio. Having lived and
birded in northwest and northeast Ohio, I have noticed a big difference in
junco migration numbers between the two regions. Juncos are a lot less
numerous in the northwestern part of the state in spring. In the northeast
I have seen some huge spring flocks. This past weekend was no exception.
On Sunday and Monday I saw less than 10 juncos for each day. In the
northeast I continue to see flocks of 10-20 with a daily total Wednesday of
well over 100 birds.

Junco numbers begin declining in both regions around the beginning of April.
They are typically gone by the about 4/15-4/20. While early May migrant
juncos are not extremely rare in northeast Ohio, in northwest Ohio they are
an oddity. When I worked at Crane Creek there was about 1-2 May sightings a
year. I always considered a May junco at Crane Creek an exceptional
sighting. Here in northeast Ohio I don't really look twice.

In spring as Haans remarked earlier they tend to do a lot of singing and
chasing away from the breeding grounds. Here in Lake County on the breeding
grounds they are around but are just starting to get territorial. They
usually begin nesting by the end of the month and in typical years the young
are out by mid-June. I have seen young by the end of May though.

Its still early. They should be clearing out in the next week or two
depending on weather.

RIVP (4/4/2) I birded the park in Rossford this morning from 7:15 to 9:15. The skies were clear; the winds were calm; the temperatures were in the upper 20's. When I was in the sun, I was warm, but when I was in the shade for a while, my fingers got cold. I saw/heard: carolina wren, several golden-crowned kinglets, a couple white-throated sparrows, several fox sparrows, song sparrows, numerous juncos (on the ground, in the trees, singing everywhere), mallards, blue-winged teal, great egrets, common mergansers, dc cormorant, eastern phoebe, yellow-bellied sapsucker. I watched a red-bellied woodpecker excavate a hole in a tree along the trail. At one point I had five fox sparrows in the same field of view when they were sitting in a small tree. The fox sparrows were singing a lot too.

The sunny skies become cloudy by midday and there were snow flurries this afternoon.

Hawk Watch (3/30/2) It was probably my best day on the tower at Magee this past Saturday. I was there from 9:00 A.M. to 3:30. The birds started arriving about 9:45, and the activity shutdown at 2:15. There were five counters on the tower during the entire time. We counted about 370 turkey vultures, about 100 red-tailed hawks, about 50 red-shouldered hawks, about 40 sharp-shinned hawks, several American kestrels and nothern harriers, and a couple cooper's hawks. There were several kettles of turkey vultures containing 25-50 birds. At one point there was a group of 10-15 raptors overhead consisting primarily of red-tails and red-shoulders, but in the mix was an immature bald eagle, a northern harrier, and a sharpie. There were a lot of immature and adult bald eagle sightings, but I considered them to be local birds. One or two imms could have been migrating.

The weather at 9:00 A.M. was cloudy with temperatures in the upper 30's. By noon, the skies were mostly sunny with temps around 50. Winds were out of the southwest at 10-15 mph.

Round-up The juncos have been singing in our hood for a week or two. They have a trill similar to the chipping sparrow or pine warbler. Their average departure date from the lake shore is early May.

A pair of wood ducks landed in an oak tree along our property line this morning. The female was checking out a hole left by a broken-off limb, but I don't think the hole is big enough.

The pair of red-breasted nuthatches were at the feeders this morning. Since they don't appear to have any fear, I've taken a few pictures by standing three or four feet from the feeder. Their average departure date is also in early May.

Saturday was a good day on the tower. Along with several hundred raptors -- mainly turkey vultures -- I saw a flock of nine sandhill cranes, tree swallows, and a couple purple martins. No rare raptors were sighted such as a golden eagle, a peregrine falcon, or a goshawk. Duck numbers along the causeway were down compared to last week. I didn't walk the boardwalk, since I was on the tower all day.

In southern Ohio, there have been sightings of chipping sparrows, pine warblers, a lousiana waterthrush, an ovenbird, and black-throated green warblers.