Greetings,

  John Watts and I ventured northeast today in search of whatever the wind would bring us. It was a pretty good day overall with a steady movement of birds in the morning at Perry Park (Lake Co.) and a nice build-up of Bonaparte's Gulls (1000+) at Eastlake Power Plant. Common Goldeneye are making appearances now and Red-breasted Merganser numbers are increasing. Here are the highlights:

  Perry Park:
  A nice little group of 9 American Black Ducks
  Surf Scoter - 2
  Scoter sp. - ~8
  LONG-TAILED DUCK - 7 flying east to west at about 9:45 a.m.
  Bonaparte's Gulls moved through the whole time we were there (about 1.5 hours) and the Red-breasted Merganser flight picked up at around 10:00 a.m.

  Headlands Beach SP:
  Not many ducks here, but we did have a couple of fly-by Common Loons. There was a nice aggregation of Bonaparte's Gulls at the lighthouse, but it contained nothing unusual.
  Phil kindly showed us the previously reported Northern Saw-whet Owl as well.

  Eastlake Power Plant:
  Almost zero ducks, save one small flock of Red-breasted Mergansers and two American Black Ducks. It was all gulls...clouds of gulls. Most of the closer birds were Bonaparte's, and most of the birds farther out and near the piers were Herring Gulls. Of course, the obligatory Ring-billed Gulls were in there as well.
  FRANKLIN'S GULL - 1 first-winter
  Great Black-backed Gull - 2

  Sims Park, Euclid:
  Quite a few ducks, but many were far out. A dozen or so Hooded Mergansers were in close, as was a single Surf Scoter. A couple of Common Loons and Horned Grebes were also in the mix. Several Common Goldeneye here.

  Lakewood Park:
  The star of the show here was a single COMMON REDPOLL that I managed to miss. It was hanging out with a group of about 8 Dark-eyed Juncos, 1 White-throated Sparrow, 1 American Tree Sparrow, and 3-4 Song Sparrows. This group was feeding on some "weed" seeds in the lawn near the paved path in the northeast corner of the park.
  Good numbers of gulls moved through here, but we spent most of our time looking for the redpoll.

  Good birding,

Joe Hammond
  Columbus, OH



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