Greetings birders -
The unforgettable Phil Chaon, home on a brief furlough from bird-tour guiding in foreign lands, myself, and the distinctive Gabe Leidy bombarded the lakefront today in hopes of turning up some grand birds in the bitter weather. Hopes proved true. Ridiculously strong, nearly sustained NNW to NW winds ripped across the lakefront from Mentor to Lorain, maxing out at upwards of 25-28 mph. The whole kit-and-kaboodle northern weather gift basket was unloaded in all manner of precipitation, from solid snow to sleet, rain, and stinging balls of ice. It was interesting to say the least. Roads were mostly clear - save for a two-mile stretch of slick, half-inch snow/ice on 90 west out of Willoughby. Birding in frigid, gross weather tends to do wonders for the day's rare bird list...
Highlights include a single 1st winter BLACK-HEADED GULL and several LITTLE GULLS at Headlands, a single subadult NORTHERN GANNET off of Avon Lake Powerplant, a Red-throated Loon at Eastlake, a handful of scoters, and the sheer numbers of Bonaparte's Gulls and Red-breasted Mergansers - and feeding frenzies - on the lake today. No jaegers observed by our group today; but others reported multiple jaegers (Parasitics)today from Huron Harbor and the Mentor area.
HEADLAND'S BEACH STATE PARK 7:30 am - 10:30 am
Little Gull - at least 4 individual birds in the harbor
BLACK-HEADED GULL - a single 1st winter bird is possibly Ohio's 1st recorded individual of this age/plumage.
Bonaparte's Gull - several thousand
Tundra Swan - two flocks totally 18 birds
Snow Bunting - several passing flocks
EASTLAKE POWER PLANT - absolutely jam-packed with gulls and thousands of Red-breasted Mergansers
Lesser Black-backed Gull - at least 3 individual birds; an adult and two 3rd year birds
Red-throated Loon - 1- good pull by Phil
EAST 55TH MARINA/EAST 72ND St Cleveland
A very brief stop to assess the situation. Yet again, many thousands of gulls with incredible numbers of Bonaparte's.
BURKE LAKEFRONT AIRPORT
Void of big white owls.
LORAIN HARBOR
Couldn't turn up any jaegers - the winds were brutal and made using the scope to scan just impossible.
A single Little Gull here amidst the yet-again-massive Bonaparte's Gull flock.
AVON LAKE POWERPLANT
Gull concentration not as large here, but definitely worth a stop. A single subadult NORTHERN GANNET observed flying east to west. Leidy sacrificed his nearly-immortal fleece Northface glove to take a documentation-only photo. If glove found on beach at Avon plus return immediately; as Gabe is now birding with only one glove.
HUNTINGTON RESERVATION
The massive groupings of Common Loons and Horned Grebes were not present today, likely driven to coves and other sheltered areas.
BRADSTREET'S LANDING
Surf Scoter - 8
Black Scoter - 2
distant scoter group - 4 or 5 birds
Green-winged Teal - 3 (with scaup flock in flight)
Northern Pintail - 2
Lesser Scaup - 80+
ROCKY RIVER PARK
Although we did not visit this location; we could see from Bradstreet's that yet another massive flock of Bonaparte's Gulls and Red-breasted Mergansers was staged nearly directly north/northeast of the park.
best of birding -
Jen
Jen Brumfield
[log in to unmask]
Sharon Center, OH
_________________________________________________________________
Windows Live Hotmail now works up to 70% faster.
http://windowslive.com/Explore/Hotmail?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_hotmail_acq_faster_112008
______________________________________________________________________
Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society.
Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list.
Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/.
You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at:
http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS
Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]
|
