Winter bird-watching gets you out of the house into natural habitats and fresh air. This activity is fun, low tech, and relatively inexpensive. A pair of binoculars, a bird identification book, pencils and paper to write down your findings are all you need.
Located on the shore of Lake Erie with interwoven small lakes and marshlands, Northeast Ohio is rich with birdlife. You may spot a Black-capped Chickadee, a Dark-eyed Junco, an American Goldfinch, a Northern Cardinal, a Blue Jay, a Tufted Titmouse, a Red-tailed Hawk, a Northern Shrike, a Great Horned Owl, among others. Birdfeeders help welcome these delightful winged creatures to your backyard. Area places to go birding include the Nature Center at Shaker Lakes and the Headland Dunes Nature Preserve in Mentor.
In this exclusive Cool Cleveland video, Dr. Andy Jones, Ph.D., Curator of Ornithology at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History offers programs about birds. Outdoor birds live in the Perkins Wildlife Center at the Museum. For research purposes, there is an indoor collection of 30,000 bird specimens. One survey conducted in the U.S. in 2006 estimated 48 million people over 16 years of age were watching birds.
Visit http://www.CMNH.org, http://www.kirtlandbirdclub.org, http://clevelandaudubon.org/ and http://www.biggestweekinamericanbirding.com for more information.
Watch this exclusive Cool Cleveland video here.
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