I went up to Conneaut this morning with semi-high hopes of finding birds brought in by the Arctic blast. As soon as I reached the crest of the road down into the harbor, I realized Plan A was down the toilet---way too much ice close to shore and inside the breakwalls. After uttering some choice words, I noticed there were some diving ducks flying by within binocular range. A few more were within scope range offshore. There were scaup, buffleheads, goldeneyes, and mergansers present in small numbers. Between the ice cover and the southerly winds, I didn't expect much gull action. And there wasn't much. There were 2 bald eagles around though. I also saw a Cooper's hawk make a pass at someone's feeder in town on the way out. Plan B---head to Ashtabula harbor. The view from Lake Shore Park there was great....for more ice. But I could see mass quantities of birds to the east, behind the Ashtabula Power Plant. It had one smokestack
going, so it must be putting out at least a little warm water these days. Access is the problem there. The only way to get a decent view of the "hot waters" area is to park at the lot of an establishment just east of the plant on Rte. 531. This is The Rare Cherry. Since the exotic dancing doesn't begin until much later in the day, you have the whole lot to yourself in the morning. Nice plow job, too! From here, I saw LOTS of waterbirds: Canada geese, 25 tundra swans (before they flew off to the east), 150 mallards, 15 Am. black ducks, 30 canvasbacks, 40 redheads, 100 greater scaup, 25 lesser scaup, 25 buffleheads, 15 c. goldeneyes, 5 hooded mergansers, 875 common mergansers, 25 red-breasted mergansers, 15 double-crested cormorants, and great blue heron. There were only modest numbers of ring-billed, herring, and great black-backed gulls in close---most were likely farther offshore today. A scope is necessary here, and when it started
snowing hard (always a possibility in this part of the state except maybe during summer) visibility was quickly reduced to nil. So I headed over to the mouth of the Ashtabula River. As expected, more ice and only a few gulls. I managed to get my car stuck in a little parking lot...RATS. While walking for help nearby, I was rewarded with a flyover flock of 5 snow buntings. Life is good. After getting unstuck, I decided to go back south. I checked around the Comp Dairy Farm in Dorset Twp., but couldn't find any freshly-manured fields (or birds). I saw plenty of cows at the farm, so there must be manure somewhere nearby. I did manage to find a couple dozen wild turkeys a little bit south of there and in New Lyme Twp. On to Mosquito L. in a quest for open water. I found a decent-sized hole pretty close to the causeway, readily viewed (with a scope) from the parking lot on the north side. It held hundreds of Canada geese, 37 tundra
swans, 4 trumpeter swans (probably the local introduced birds), Am. black duck, 3 canvasbacks, 4 redheads, 10 c. goldeneyes, and a ruddy duck. There were only a few gulls there, but a bald eagle flew by to liven things up. Around Mosquito WA I found 2 red-shouldered hawks, Am. kestrel, n. flicker, 15 Am. tree sparrows, and juncos. Last stop was at the Mosquito Creek spillway. There were more Canada geese, 50 mallards, and 5 Am. black ducks there. High flow and murky water probably was not too good for diving ducks there. Farther downstream somewhere I would guess there were more ducks, but I'm not too familiar with that area. Later, Craig
______________________________________________________________________
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]
|
