Dan Sanders, Ben Warner, Bill Whan and I made a foray
northward yesterday. We arrived at the Harris's
sparrow location in Holmes County about 8 AM to find a
birdless yard. Two young Amish birders immediately
came out to greet us and talk about their bird. Within
five minutes a small flock of white-crowned sparrows
flew in from behind the house accompanied by the
Harris's sparrow. Everyone got great looks. We spent
some time chatting with the young birders, then pushed
north to the lake.

At Sims Park, Euclid, OH, we failed to find the king
eider. We did have all three scoters and both scaup.
Common goldeneye remain abundant. As we were leaving
Jay Lehman arrived and reported a glaucous gull and a
possible Thayer's gull at Eastlake, so we went there.

Conditions were starting to deteriorate by the time we
arrived, with a strong west wind and the beginnings of
snow. We located a first-year glaucous gull and at
least three lesser black-backed gulls but could not
find a Thayer's. The gulls were mostly resting on the
distant jetty, and ironically, heat distortion from
the relatively warmer waters of the lake made careful
scrutiny impossible. Dan spotted a peregrine falcon
perched on a strobe light near the nest box on the
power plant stack.

At East 72nd Street, there were countless gulls, but
almost all were ring-bills with some herring gulls and
greater black-backed among them. We did not spend much
time trying to sort the flock carefully.

At Lorain we failed to find the harlequin ducks amid
the very minimal conditions for viewing allowed by
high winds and blowing snow. There was a sizable
concentration of gulls along the only open water of
the marina, which was located at the maximal distance
from the parking area. We decided not to make the hike
to examine them.

We turned south and visited Wellington Reservoir,
which had little ice.  There were about 3000 Canada
geese resting along the far shore and more arrived
continually. We could spot no rarities among them
other than a feral barnyard goose. There were about
300 American coots and sizable numbers of ring-necked
ducks, along with smaller numbers of redheads,
canvasbacks, and buffleheads.

Our notable misses were the Sims Park king eider, the
Lorain harlequin ducks, and Bonaparte's gulls, of
which we saw none.

Highlights include:

Holmes County
Harris's sparrow

Eastlake
Peregrine falcon
Lesser black-backed gull
Glaucous gull

Sims Park
Greater scaup
Lesser scaup
Surf scoter
White-winged scoter
Black scoter
Common goldeneye
Common merganser
Red-breasted merganser

East 72nd Street
Ring-billed gull
Herring gull
Great black-backed gull

Wellington Reservoir
Canvasback
Redhead
Ring-necked duck
Bufflehead

Information of the locations can be found at

The OOS website: www.ohiobirds.org

The Western Cuyahoga Audubon Society website:
http://www.wcasohio.org/birding_hotspots.htm

Cheers,









Paul Gardner
Columbus, OH

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