Hi all,
I piled into a car today with Jen Sauter, Jay Lehman, Ben Warner, and Dan
Sanders, and took off to Lake Erie. We had one of those amazing days that
comes along only once in a blue moon. First stop was Perry Township Park in
Lake County, which offers a fantastic perspective of the open waters of Lake
Erie, perched as you are on a bluff. We ran into Jerry Talkington, Steve
(didn't get last name), and Anders Fjelstadt there. About 10:30, and almost
up to noon, things got really good. We had seven! jaegers - 5 Parasitic, and
2 Pomarines. Based on the movements of birds streaming by our point, and the
plumages of some of the jaegers, we feel pretty confident that they were all
different individuals. What an amazingly rare opportunity in Ohio to be able
to study multiple individuals of Stercorarius, and be able to directly
compare Parasitic and Pomarine. These warlike kleptoparasites are also great
fun to watch as they come shooting in, jabbing at a gull here and there and
getting in skirmishes with little groups of irate larids. They are certainly
the bar room brawlers of the waterbird world; a jaeger simply can't seem to
fly a couple hundred yards without mixing it up with someone or multiple
someones. We also had about 20 Black Scoters go by, counting some birds that
Jerry and Steve had seen just before we got there. A decently close flyby
Harlequin Duck and two Long-tailed Ducks were also fantastic. We also had a
flyby Red-throated Loon, and many Common Loons and Horned Grebes. Lots of
Bonaparte's Gulls moving by, too. An adult Bald Eagle was also present.
Then it was on to Eastlake, which had stupefying numbers of Red-breasted
Mergansers - well into the five figures, maybe 15-20,000+ birds in the area.
A great many Bonaparte's gulls here, too, and we had two adult Lesser
Black-backed Gulls. Three Peregrine Falcons were loafing around the towers
of the power plant, spooking the birds en masse from time to time. There was
also a young Bald Eagle here. It's hard to describe the clouds of birds
here, but I have photos.
After that we went to Sims Park, where the reliable scoters were found.
There were about 40; 9 Black and 31 Surf. We ran into Nancy Anderson there,
and she had seen one White-winged earlier, making for a Sims Park scoter
trifecta.
Finally, we made it over to Edgewater Park, and there was the Brant that
Paula Lozano had found yesterday, loitering in the expanse of lawns near the
lakeshore. To top it off, just as we were ready to leave, Ben spotted yet
another jaeger, and we were treated to great views of yet another Pomarine
Jaeger winging by offshore.
We witnessed an exceptional movement of jaegers. The number of Parasitic
Jaegers that we saw equals or exceeds the total number seen in some years in
Ohio. Likewise, three Poms in one day is also amazing. One has to wonder how
many jaegers are out on the lake right now, as shoreline observers certainly
only see a small fraction of any of the birds in passage through Lake Erie.
I also wonder if this really was an exceptional flight, or if jaeger
movements are just of such short duration that one must just have some real
luck to be present and watching the right place when they are visible.
I think I got some decent photos of a lot of these birds, and will post some
of them to my blog - http://www.ohiobirds.org/blog/blog.php - later tonight.
Jim McCormac
Columbus, Ohio
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