I headed out around town with my birder-by association/eagle-eyed spotter boyfriend Brian this afternoon to try to find a few of the more interesting birds reported lately.

Lakewood Park failed to yield the Ross's Goose. This was my second attempt in about ten days. I think this one might have moved on.

Burke Lakefront Airport:
American Kestrel - 2
Rough-Legged Hawk - 1 dark morph (Spotted first flyng low over the field, then it crossed over to the other side of the Shoreway and flew beyond sight. We relocated it about 15 minutes later as we headed east on the Marginal, when it came to land on a cell phone tower across the freeway)
I also had a possible Harrier, but it was too far away and my glimpse too fleeting to count.

East 55th/East 72nd marina and power plant:
Herring and riing-billed gulls in uncountable thousands, of course
Several birders looking for the Gannet, we stuck around about half an hour, but failed to see it. Several folks we encountered thought they saw it waaay out by the breakwall

Calvary Cemetery
Merlin - 3
After rolling arond for a bit, Brian found a handsome little male feeding in a tree in section 83. The bird was absolutely unpreturbed by me, loud excavating equpment and the other birders that shortly joined us in admiring it. 

After an unsucussful detour to the Nickel Plate railroad bridge to look for another Merlin we had been tipped off about, we returned to find our original bird in section 85 at the very tip-top of a deciduous tree. He let us get close and fantasitc views in the waning sunlight, and then at 4:50, a second falcon flew in close and buzzed over him, landing on top of a pine in section 83. Mere seconds later a third Merlin appeared and buzzed the recent arrival. Both flew off in the direction of Miles Road. We failed to relocate the third bird, but the second Merlin found its way to a conspicuous perch near a maintenance building. For me, a raptor enthusiast, this was excellent, excellent stuff.

-Leslie Basalla
 Cleveland


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