Made a day of it today on the Cleveland Lakefront. Dan Sanders, Dave Slager, and I all hopped in the old car and hit Avon Lake Powerplant west of Cleveland first thing. There we were elated to find the dark phase POMARINE JAEGER still present as reported already at around 9 in the morning. The bird put on an amazing show; flying right in front of us on the pier west of the power plant. We watched as it gave chase to the other gulls and snatched their relented booty in mid air. The wind/water was calm today on the lake giving us easy viewing, the hazy conditions being the limiting factor for the day. But the Jaeger was mostly content to sit on the waters just to the east side of the pier for super close views. There were only moderate numbers of gulls in close, with many thousands of gulls out too far on the lake to really see well.
Next up we hit Bradstreet Landing Park and soon after stepping out of the car Dave said he had some scoters. There were about 6 birds total, not too far out, hanging with some Goldeneye and Greater Scaup. Through the scope we picked out a single BLACK SCOTER, several WHITE-WINGED SCOTER, and I counted two SURF SCOTER.
We then went by Burke Lakefront Airport on Marginal Road. We saw no owls this time. Then we hit E. 72nd street and 55th street for gulls. We also drove by the marina/boat ramp at Gordon Park next to Dike 14, where we had two female LONG-TAILED DUCKS, as had been reported in the Plain dealer or something. After
much fun watching gulls and freezing my feet we left E. 72nd we left after seeing a first year ICELAND GULL, first year AND adult THAYER'S GULL, juv. And adult GLAUCOUS GULL, several LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULLS, plus many hundreds of BONAPARTE'S GULLS and the other three in the thousands upon thousands. We looked hard for something rare in the Bonaparte's gulls, but all I could find was a couple birds who retained their dark hoods.
We then made one more swing through Burke, and then Another after taking a bit of a break and finally as light was beginning to fade I located the young SNOWY OWL east of its 'usual' area, perched on a post overlooking the harbor. It actively bobbed and swiveled and was fun to see! I also located a SHORT-EARED OWL on the bank behind the runways. A great success (nice to have, since last time I was at the lake I struck out big).
Hightlights reel:
Avon Lake:
Pomarine Jaeger
Great Black-backed Gulls - many
Bonaparte's
Ring-billeds and Herrings
Black Ducks
American Widgeon - 1 in with some Mallards
Bufflehead - 1 female
Red-breasted Merganser - a number of flybys
Bradstreet Landing:
White-winged Scoter
Black Scoter
Surf Scoter
Common Goldeneye
Greater Scaup
Bufflehead
Red-breasted Mergs
Burke:
Snowy Owl
Short-eared Owl
Northern Harrier - 1
American Kestrel - 1
Red-
tailed Hawk - 2
Cooper's Hawk - 1
E. 72nd/Gordon Park
Iceland Gull - 1
Thayer's Gull -2 (adult and Juv.)
Glaucous Gull - 2+ (adult and Juv.)
Lesser Black-backed - 4 or so, (two at 55th)
Bonapartes Gull - loads
Grt. Black-backed Gull - plenty
Long-tailed Duck - 2 female
Sorry for the long and un-organized post. I think my brain is slightly frozen still.
Good Birding.
- Ben Warner
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