John Habig and I birded a lot of the hotspots along Lake Erie this weekend
and found some of the awesome birds that have been reported recently like
Brant (Edgewater Park) and Black-legged Kittiwake (E. 72 Street).  We missed
a couple too and found other unexpected birds in other places.  Ranging from
Mosquito Lake, Trumbull County where we missed the Long-tailed Ducks to
Maumee Bay State Park where we missed Greater White-fronted Goose, we made
up for it in between.

Highlights include,

Cleveland Lakefront:
Brant - Edgewater Park
Black-legged Kittiwake - E. 72

Sims Park, Euclid:
Black Scoter - 4
Surf Scoter - 4
White-winged Scoter - 5
Lesser Scaup - 3
Goldeneye
Common Loon
Bufflehead

Eastlake Power Plant:
Peregrine Falcon - 2
RB Mergansers - hundreds if not more

Mentor Headlands SP and Fairport Harbor were very slow.

Sunday morning found us at Maumee Bay SP which had few birds as well.  We
did have Harrier, E. Meadowlark, Kestrel, Red-tailed Hawk and Belted
Kingfisher

Metzger Marsh:
Shoveler
Horned Larks (flyover)
Snow Bunting (flyover)


Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge:
We ran into a photographer at Ottawa who had also been there Saturday
morning and had taken pictures of the Bald Eagles carrying nesting materials
to the nest and apparently making attempts at mating.  Better yet, he had
already printed these photos out and had several of them with him.  He
showed us the pictures and they were fairly amazing.  The eagles would
return to the nest and it looked as if they had clumps of grass and small
sticks.  He also had photos of the mating attempts as well.  He was using a
Nikon D2X and had some gizmo that made his lens the equivalent of a 1600mm
lens.  Pretty cool.  The warm weather today also afforded us seeing a water
snake of some sort that was too covered in mud too identify and a Leopard
Frog I think.  BIRD HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:

Great Egret  -3
Bald Eagle - 2
GW Teal - 3
Hooded Merganser - 11
Wigeon - lots
Gadwall - 5
Black Duck - 7
Pintail - 5
Dunlin - 8
Snow Goose - 17 dark morph, 5 white adults
Tundra Swan - 10 adult, 7 juvenile
Trumpeter Swan - 250+
Pipit - flyover
GC Kinglet

Medusa Marsh: near Bay View
Mute Swan - 3
Dabblers galore

Wellington Reservoir, Lorain County:
Ruddy Duck - 400+
Canada Goose - 1000+
Ring-necked Duck - 3
Redhead - 2
Coot - 400+
Common Loon
Lesser Scaup - 3
Goldeneye - 7
Bufflehead  50+
Canvasback - 5
RB Nuthatch


I would like to thank everyone who posted about some of the above birds and
also John for driving and helping me to find these birds.

Glen Crippen
Burr Oak Lake

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