VERMILLION TOWNSHIP — For the first six months of the year, bobolinks dominated my life.
As a member of Greater Mohican Audubon, I was obsessed with making their stay as comfortable and uneventful as possible. My duties included rallying public support and promoting the annual Bobolinks Festival at Byers Woods.
Ashland County closed its landfill between Ashland and Hayesville in the late ’90s and covered the methane-spewing, decaying trash with earthen mounds. The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency stipulated that the tops of the mounds be stabilized with grass. Which inadvertently created a perfect bobolink nesting habitat.
They wasted no time flocking to Byers Woods to set up housekeeping, a much needed boon for a species threatened by habitat loss. Bobolinks need vast expanses of undisturbed grassland in the late spring for breeding.
Birders flocked to Byers Woods off Ohio 60 South to witness this phenomenon. Greater Mohican Audubon responded by creating an annual Bobolinks Festival. Which was a one-day event the last Saturday in June, at the height of nesting season.
What Are Bobolinks?
Bobolinks are small songbirds, about seven inches long. They’re related to orioles and blackbirds. In their breeding plumage, the males are quite striking, with black and white plumage on their backs and a distinctive yellow patch atop their noggins. While some people find them striking, others describe them in less-flattering terms, saying that breeding males look like a guy in a blond toupee wearing a tuxedo backwards. Females are buff-colored with darker-colored stripes on their heads, cheeks and wings, blending in well with their grassland nesting habitat.
When it comes to family life, Bobolinks might be described as “nontraditional.” Both sexes mate freely. Within the context of their extended families, a male shares the feeding duty at his primary nest but might assist with feeding at the nests of his other mates.
Bobolinks breed in hayfields and meadows. To maintain habitat, it is recommended that mowing be done after the nestlings have fledged. They don’t breed at their wintering grounds.
Where to next? After nesting season is over, Bobolinks move on to freshwater marshes and coastal regions, where the male molts into more casual attire.
Bobolinks are quite the snowbirds; they winter in southern South America, which makes for a 12,500-mile round trip. During their lifetimes, the distance covered on migration would be the equivalent of orbiting the earth four or five times.
The Bobolink population has decreased significantly since the mid 1960s, mainly due to declining breeding habitat. Other factors have taken a toll. Their fondness for rice — from which they get their species name “oryzivorus” — has made them unpopular with rice growers, who have been known to shoot them. Bobolinks also are trapped for pets in Argentina and eaten by humans in Jamaica. Bobolinks, in turn, eat seeds and insects but apparently haven’t developed an appetite for Jamaicans.
Festival activities included guided tours around the mounds, where attendees could get a good look at bobolinks zipping about and perching atop vent pipes and perimeter fences. They could also spot meadowlarks, tree swallows, purple martins, northern harriers, and sweat-crested joggers.
Butterflies also tend to be active that time of year and are plentiful at Byers Woods. So the festival name was appended to include them. (The bobolinks didn’t object but demanded top billing.) The event was rebranded the Greater Mohican Bobolinks & Butterflies Festival. The name later reverted to the original Bobolinks Festival.
Speaking of top billing, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the Ashland County Park District, which has traditionally cosponsored the festival. In reality, they also hosted it; Byers Woods is one of their parks.
We’ve had a great working relationship even though the park district spoiled our fun by renovating the building that once served as a maintenance facility for the county landfill. Greater Mohican Audubon used the building during the festival to set up display booths and a food table, where guests could grab a bite to eat or get something to drink in between guided bird and butterfly walks.
Before the park district renovated the building, bats roosted in the rafters — which meant that Audubon volunteers had the pleasure of going in there on the evening before the festival and sweeping up the guano.
Festival preparation required long-term commitment. There was much to be done, including planning, lining up speakers and guides, inviting vendors, promoting the festival and buying bulk quantities of snacks, hot dogs, beverages and so forth. Festival preparation started in January.
There was another bit of business we had to deal with.
The county was obligated to keep the mounds mowed to prevent deep-rooting woody plants and trees from colonizing and compromising the earthen barrier atop the disused landfill. The commissioners would arrange for a local farmer to mow periodically. Every year we’d go before the commissioners early in the spring and formally request that they delay mowing till around the second week in July — after the bobolinks fledged.
Otherwise the fledglings would have ended up inside of the bales of mown grass.
For several years it was my duty to attend a meeting and throw myself at the commissioners mercy on behalf of the birds and Audubon. I’d typically give a presentation, complete with a spiel describing bobolinks and their nesting requirements.
I might have gone a bit over the top the year I appeared before the county commissioners dressed in a bobolink costume. Especially when I flapped my arms, jumped up on the commissioners’ desk and laid an egg right next to Mike Welch’s name plaque.
(In reality, it never really came to that. The commissioners were always good sports about it, gave us their blessings and held off on mowing.)
The one-day festival, now in its 19th year, continues to provide learning moments for adults and children and a great opportunity to get some exercise and enjoy nature close up. Plus, with scheduled walks and other activities, people can spend the whole day or just hang out for an hour or so. And it’s free!
