As John mentioned earlier, the Lorain-Huron lakefront has long been a hot spot for peak Red-breasted concentrations within the state.  Emil Bacik  and I have been covering this stretch religiously over the past couple of months, and such concentrations have been virtually nonexistent.  We were, however, lucky enough to catch one decent movement a couple weeks ago at Lorain.  That particular day, a double-strand of mergs stretched from horizon to horizon for a total of eight minutes, totaling 9600 birds conservatively.  Interestingly, no such numbers were noted beforehand or since.  Where are going?  I think that there may be some truth to speculation that birds may be congregating far out on the lake.  With such mild weather this year, lakefront migration of other indicative species, Bonaparte's Gull for example, have been quite lackluster - preceding last weekend's northern blast.

This, of course, doesn't quite explain the long-term downturn in merg numbers.

- Gabe Leidy


--- On Mon, 11/30/09, Dave Hochadel <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> From: Dave Hochadel <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: [Ohio-birds] Red-breasted Merganser numbers
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Date: Monday, November 30, 2009, 7:15 PM
> I can remember observing flocks of
> Red-breasted Mergansers off of Lake
> County in November in the early eighties.  They were
> swimming and diving
> from west to east in flocks that numbered a few thousand
> each. Certainly
> many tens of thousands in total.  Their feeding
> behavior was very
> interesting. As each flock moved along the birds at the
> rear were constantly
> taking flight and landing at the front of the flock- 
> a strategy that allows
> all individuals an equal opportunity at the bounty.
> 
> Their primary prey species all fluctuate in numbers from
> year to year- shad,
> smelt, and alewives, and they are found at different
> distances from shore
> depending on conditions.  I also wonder if they are
> utilizing gobies as a
> food source. They are abundant now in Erie. What a mess
> invasives have made
> of Lake Erie's ecosystem.
> 
> Dave Hochadel
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "John Pogacnik" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Monday, November 30, 2009 9:21 AM
> Subject: [Ohio-birds] Red-breasted Merganser numbers
> 
> 
> I have a heard a lot of people discussing the decline in
> red-breasted
> merganser numbers over the years.  One of the most
> amazing sights I have
> ever had a chance to witness was watching approximately
> 250,000 red-breasted
> mergansers pass by the Vermilion area.  The following
> year ODOW surveys
> confirmed close to that number.  It was stated that
> the majority of the
> red-breasted merganser population was using Lake Erie as a
> staging area.
> What happened?
> 
> 
> 
> Those sightings were during the 1980's.  Since that
> time it seems that there
> has been a steady decline in red-breasted merganser numbers
> on Lake Erie.
> In the early 1990's I remember seeing flocks that probably
> exceeded 100,000
> birds.  November was the best time to see this and the
> Huron-Vermilion area
> was the best location.  Last weekend I was at Huron
> and didn't see a single
> red-breasted merganser.  There are decent flocks
> around especially east of
> Cleveland, but most of these flocks are 5,000 or
> less.  Where are the bigger
> flocks?
> 
> 
> 
> Should we be concerned with this decline.  Are the
> red-breasted merganser
> flocks spreading out over the Great Lakes, are they passing
> us by, or is
> there a major decline?  As far as waterfowl surveys
> go, they seem to lump
> all of the mergansers since thay are not as important to
> hunters.  Vic Fazio
> had numbers of Ohio red-breasted mergansers through the
> years.  Hopefully he
> is out there and can post them.  There appears to be
> something going on
> here.  Were the 1980's unusual that for some reason
> there was a massive
> increase in mergansers.  Maybe there is something to
> this.  If you go to the
> Christmas Bird Count website and create a graph for
> red-breasted merganser,
> from 1960- present for the United States, there is a large
> spike in numbers
> from about 1982-1993  Before and after the spike, the
> graph is pretty level.
> Interestingly, if you create a graph back to the 1930's,
> there was a shorter
> spike from approximately 1937-1942.  Maybe the
> question should be, what
> caused the spike in numbers in the 1940's and 1980's. 
> Also how do the last
> few years numbers locally compare with numbers in the past
> outside of the
> peeks.  The Christmas Bird Count data is limited in
> use for Ohio since most
> of the mergansers have departed by the time of the
> counts.  Although data
> shows there has been an increase over the last few years in
> Ohio.
> 
> 
> 
> If you want to play with the Christmas count graphs, here
> is the link.
> 
> 
> 
> http://audubon2.org/cbchist/graph.html
> 
> 
> 
> John Pogacnik
> 
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