Five years ago, a Northern wheatear – a type of Arctic thrush – made an unexpected appearance at an Amish farm in Holmes County.

Almost as memorable as the rare bird itself was the crowd it attracted to Emery Yoder's farm west of Winesburg. Bearded farmers and carpenters, families with toddlers and infants in tow, and dozens of clean-shaven youths were there, all lined up with their expensive optics waiting for a look at the buffy brown bird.

I remember walking up the dirt road to the farm and seeing dozens of bicycles, all arranged in neat rows, lying in the grassy swale. These were the standard modes of transportation for the plain people of this rural land.

Anyone who has birded the productive back roads of Wayne, Geauga and Holmes counties likely has encountered similar scenes of Amish men and boys pedaling with binoculars dangling around their necks.

I've joined the Birders-on-Bikes club this summer, and have found that it has its advantages. Obviously, as fellow club-member Chris Pierce knows well, we can cover more ground this way than on foot. It's also great exercise and a way to beat the heat, air-conditioned by the cool breeze as we leisurely pedal through the outdoors habitat.

Common yellowthroats continue to be reliable singing warblers in Northeast Ohio.

The disadvantages: I'm likely missing lots of birds. If they don't sing, call, fly in front of me, or overhead, chances are I'm not going to see them.

But I am still able to see and hear a lot of birds. Knowing their songs and chip notes makes the ride far more enjoyable.

Over the course of 60 miles traversed during the past two weekends, I have made what, for me, is a startling discovery: there are an amazing number of indigo buntings in Northeast Ohio!

Before I became a birder about 30 years ago, I could have counted the number of indigo buntings I had seen on one hand. I don't think there are necessarily more buntings these days. It's just a matter of knowing their songs, their flight patterns, and their favored habitat: brushy, overgrown woodland edges such as are found along biking and hiking trails.

Red-shouldered hawks often screech when they fly overhead.

In flight or perched on a snag, indigo buntings appear almost black – thus are easily miscalled as black birds or sparrows. But their songs give them away.

"Their song is a bright, cheery, light-hearted incantation," says Pete Dunne in his "Essential Field Guide Companion."

The song sounds like a succession of "sweet, sweet, sweets," or mnemonically as "what! what! where? where? see it! see it!"

Not the most melodic of avian melodies, but there are plenty of other songs to be heard along the biking paths around here to satisfy the aural birder.

Song sparrows and common yellowthroats are among the most recognizable species heard. Wood thrush always bring a thrill to this city boy. Warbling and red-eyed vireos are still vocal this time of year, as are rose-breasted grosbeaks, scarlet tanagers, great crested flycatchers, house and Carolina wrens, and sparrows: swamp, field and chipping.

Swamp sparrows have a trilling song often heard in the marshes of the Towpath Trail.

Pedaling along the Towpath Trail through the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, and the Stow Hike-and-Bike Trail in the Summit County Metro Parks, the milkweed and elderberry bushes are in full bloom. Butterflies, dragonflies, swallows and swifts dart by my whizzing cycle. And hawks – red-shouldered, red-tailed and Cooper's – screech from above.

Notable also are the songs I DON'T hear in July, such as Baltimore orioles and yellow warblers. They're still here, but won't be for much longer, with the majority leaving by September.

The Eastern phoebes are silent, as are the cerulean and yellow-throated warblers at Station Road Bridge Trailhead in the CVNP. But they'll remain here until fall.

BIRD WALKS

Thursday, July 10, 6:30-8:30 p.m., at the Shaker Lakes Parklands. Meet at the Nature Center parking lot, 2600 South Park Boulevard, Cleveland.