Four of us trod mostly untrodden tracks to day looking for birds.
Sheldon Marsh still harbored the American bittern in the aforementioned
spot. We had a common yellowthroat there as well. No owls in the woods
as far as we could tell. The Cedar Pt Chaussee nearby looked great for
birds that left two-three months ago, but otherwise had a few hundred
gulls, with Canada geese and a few dozen tundra swans.
        Medusa Marsh had the day's best waterfowl variety, where we added Am
wigeon, gadwall, black duck, mallard, n. shoveler, pintail, and hooded
and common mergansers in good numbers. The Bay View bridge hosted a
couple of snow buntings on the eastern stub, a sharp-shinned hawk, many
ruddy ducks, and thousands of actively feeding gulls.
        The weather grew colder than predicted at East Harbor St Park, and
birds were few. Rafts of beautiful common mergansers adorned the lagoons
here though, and several other inland impoundments later during the day.
Rafts of several thousand scaup sp. swirled and rested offshore.
        Not much was happening at Magee Marsh, but in the long 4+-mile hike to
the Crane Creek Estuary and back at Ottawa NWR we had our best birding.
Few intriguing birds were seen in the impoundments on the way out and
back, but in the less-confined waters of the estuary we found 519
talking tundra swans, 39 snow geese, four greater white-fronted geese,
perhaps 5000 Canada geese (no cackling geese discerned), and a few
ducks, mostly mallards, plus the usual gull spp. We arrived late enough
to hear only reports of northern shrikes at both Magee and Ottawa. With
sunny skies and temps in the 40s, the bird spectacle was a treat. These
swans and geese are likely to stick around, and it's a grand show.
Bill Whan
Columbus

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