Following a report last week from the fine folks at Cleveland Metoparks, I hit North Chagrin Nature Center to see if I could spot the common redpolls that had reportedly been visiting the feeders there. After about 15 minutes of the usual feeder (chickadees, nuthatches, etc) birds, a trio showed up and flitted repeatedly between one of the feeders and limb in a nearby pine tree. Nice to finally add that check mark to my list. There were also a number of American Tree Sparrows hanging around and kicking up fallen seed.
 
Along N. Marginal near E. 55th Street:
American Kestrel - 1 (puffed up to the size of a softball against the cold - I wished I had a camera, it was nearly unrecognizable as the slender little falcon we're used to seeing)
 
Incidentally, Lake Erie is going gull crazy throughout Cleveland, numbers are incredibly, uncountably dense from Edgewater to Gordon Park. I don't know if I've ever seen so many all along the lake shore. It's pretty darned impressive.
 
Finally, when I got home, I found a Mourning Dove standing on the ice that was forming in my goldfish pond. It was using the ice as a platform to get a drink from the open water. That's a sight you don't see every day!
 
Leslie Basalla
Cleveland
 
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