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From: Chris Knoll [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Sunday, January 25, 2009 12:17 PM
To: [log in to unmask]; [log in to unmask]; [log in to unmask]
Subject: OYBC Outing
January 24th, 2009 - Looking for Gulls at E 72nd Street.
1. To start things off, we want to thank Jerry Talkington & Paula Lozano for
leading this outing. The wind chill was very cold to say the least, but we
all had a great time.
Saturday morning started at East 72nd Street with only a few birds close
enough to see well. 95 percent of the waterfowl was about 1,000 yards out in
open water.
They were as follows:
1. COMMON MERGANSER - 1 nice female up-close.
2. Canvasback ducks - a few
3. Redhead ducks - a few
4. Lesser Scaup - a few
5. Bufflehead - a few
6. GLAUCOUS GULL - 1 first winter bird sitting on the ice.
7. Great black-backed Gulls - a few fly-over's.
8. Ring-billed & Herring Gulls - flying overhead.
9. Bonaparte's Gulls a few birds only.
Way-out in the open water were lots of Canada Geese, Scaup, other ducks and
gulls.
2. Next some of us went with Paula Lozano to look for Snowy Owls at Burke
Lakefront Airport just up the road. Others went with Jerry Talkington to
Eastlake Power Plant. We didn't see any owls but Paula talked to someone
in-charge while we got warm in the airport terminal; still looking for owls
of course. Paula found-out that the 2 Snowy Owls have been gone since the
snow storms 2 weeks ago. The only bird we spotted out on the runway was an
American Kestrel that was identified by Paula. I tried to make it into a
Peregrine, Oh well.
3. Next we went to Eastlake Power Plant to look for more gulls and ducks. We
met-up with Jerry Talkington, members of the Kirtland's Birding Club, and
the some of the Ohio Young Birders from Amish Country. The ice jams here
were spectacular. It was if we were at the Arctic Ocean in the dead of
winter. Snow white, glowing green or dark blue at their bases, these ice
sheets were awesome to look at. Some of the birders jokingly said: Where are
the polar bears? Jerry along with some of the Kirtland's Bird Club members
found the following birds for all of us to look at through their scopes:
1. White-winged Scoter - 1 very dark bird with a raft of ducks mostly
sleeping. Once in a while you could see some white in the wings.
2. Canvasback ducks - nice looks with the sun at our backs.
3. Redhead ducks - good looks again.
4. Ring-necked ducks - nice males showing their bill patterns clearly.
5. Lesser & Greater Scaup - mostly sleeping in a raft of ducks.
6. Bufflehead - both males and females present.
7. Common Goldeneye - nice looks at males and females.
8. ICELAND GULLS - 1 adult and 1 first winter bird.
9. GLAUCOUS GULL - 1 adult.
10. Great black-backed Gulls - many great looks up-close of adults. The
most beautiful gulls seen that day in my opinion with those jet-black wings
and white bodies.
11. Ring-billed & Herring Gulls
12. Bonaparte's Gull - only a few seen all day.
13. American Coot - one found by Paula.
4. John Sawvel and I decided to try the Norwalk Reservoir for ducks and
geese on our way home to Toledo. We heard that Greater White-fronted Geese
were seen here the day before. By the way, to the birder that posted this,
thank you so much for putting that post on the listserv for all of us to
enjoy. Now, it took us awhile to find the right reservoir with open water
which is next to the water treatment plant on Old State Road just east of
Norwalk. While looking through the geese, some of the Ohio Young Birders
from Amish Country; Wooster area I believe, pulled-in and we all enjoyed an
incredible display right in front of us with the sun at our backs. It
actually felt warm for the first time today. The boys found the following
birds as they looked real hard through all the Canada Geese.
1. GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GEESE - 7 adults. At 4:07 pm, we watched all 7
flyaway together in the sun. Those black and white banded tails were
spectacular in the sun.
2. Canada Geese - 700 - 900. Two with orange neck collars and one with
a white neck collar. When they began to flyaway, the sound was astounding
and right-in front of us.
3. Ring-neck Duck - 1 nice male. Great views of head, bill, neck and
body color. The lighting was perfect.
4. American Black Duck - 2 adult males and when they flew-off with a
small group of mallards, the silvery-white under-wings showed-off the dark
body perfectly.
5. Mallard Ducks - about 40. The green coloration of the male's heads
in the sunlight was fantastic to say the least.
6. B.c Chickadee, W.b. Nuthatch, S.c. Junco, N. Cardinal singing, A.
Crows flying around, E. Starlings and one Northern Mockingbird just down the
street.
5. John and I said goodbye to the last Ohio Young Bird Club member from
Wooster, Ohio and started walking back to our car and noticed a cemetery
across from our car with evergreen trees. John said, hey lets look in their
before we leave and I said OK. Well, before we even got into the cemetery
which is called "WOODLAWN CEMETERY", we saw some birds moving up in the
spruce trees at the entrance. First we notice a pair of House Finches and
then we saw them, 7 WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILLS eating seeds from Blue & Norway
Spruce Trees. Then, we decided to go home; what a day.
PS. On Route 2 we saw 2 Bald Eagles, 3 Red-tailed Hawks, 1 Cooper's hawk,
and 1 Red-shouldered Hawk in the morning on our way to E 72nd Street meeting
place.
Good birding to you all,
Christopher J. Knoll
Education Director
Black Swamp Bird Observatory
13551 West State Route 2
Oak Harbor, Ohio 43449
Phone: 419-898-4070
Fax: 419-898-1363
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