Liz and I birded Bellevue Sky Ponds, Willow Point Wildlife Area and Medusa Marsh this afternoon.  The weather was sunny and warm and the birding was quite good.  Here are our highlights:

Bellevue:
Red-necked Phalarope (1)
Wilson's Phalarope (2)
Marbled Godwit (1)
Baird's Sandpiper (at least three)
American Golden Plover (we confirmed one but the other Pluvialis plovers were at too great a distance for us to call)
Stilt Sandpiper
Pectoral Sandpiper
Short-billed Dowitcher
Semipalmated Plover
Lesser Yellowlegs
Semipalmated Sandpiper
Least Sandpiper
Killdeer
Caspian Tern (2)
Great Egret (~80)
Bufflehead (1)
Belted Kingfisher
and a young Peregrine strafing the ponds at least three times over fifteen minutes without a kill and finally tiring to the point of having to land in a dry section of the pond in the SE corner to catch his/her breath

Willow Point:
Greater Yellowlegs
Lesser Yellowlegs
Semipalmated Sandpiper
Least Sandpiper
Bald Eagle (over the bay)
Blue-winged Teal (~8)
Wood Duck
plus a young Coyote with an adult that walked on to the flats just outside the cattails/phragmites - the adult hung back in the thick stuff without veturing fully into the open


Medusa Marsh (impoundment just northeast of Route 2:
TRI-COLORED HERON (terrific looks in late afternoon light - about 5:30pm)
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Bald Eagles (4 - two adults and two first-year birds)
Lesser Yellowlegs
Short-billed Dowitcher
Red-Winged Blackbird (several large mixed flocks with males, females and juvenile males moving north toward the lake)
a small dark brown mammal along the edge of the flats to the far east of the pond that may have been a Mink - definitely not a Muskrat

Medusa Marsh (open marsh visible further east on Barrett Road):
Great Egret (I counted at least 190 birds)
Great Blue Heron
Snowy Egret
Wood Duck
Caspian Tern

Good birding!

Tim and Liz Colborn
North Olmsted, OH
 



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