Snowy greetings- 
With the excitement of big pushes of Bonaparte's into the region, finally, comes the excitement of seeking rare Little Gulls and doubly-as-rare Black-headed Gull. The sheer spectacle of mass flocks of frenzying Bonaparte's can be quite dizzying. These small gulls are highly active, constantly on the move, and more tern-like than the "standard" Ring-billed and Herrings we see year-round. Bonies are highly social and form tight-knit feeding lines and packs. 
On days with WNW or NW winds, Bonaparte's, which are typically more of a deep-water feeding bird, will move into harbors and feed in lines and elongated wheels. For instance, they'll choose, say, the west breakwall of Lorain Harbor to "run." The feeding flock will form a line parallel with the breakwall, run it for several hundred feet, and individually birds will peel back and around to the end of the line, so that there's a constant line of birds in line and wheeling back around. Classic Bonaparte's feeding strategy. Setting up your spotting scope on a part of this line will allow you to watch birds streaming through. Otherwise it's quite dizzying to scan back and forth along a flock. Picking one general area of the feeding line to watch, and allowing the birds to filter through your view, helps to concentrate on what birds are coming up next. 
Should a Little Gull work through the line, you'll see NO white wedge on the upperwing as in Bonaparte's. Instead: the jet-black-underwings of the adult winter bird, or the dusky underwings of a 2nd year bird, or the _thick_ black "M" of a first-year bird. Black-headed Gull is trickier since it has the upperwing white wedge, and the black on the underwing doesn't extend fully throughout as it does on adult Little Gull. The black "flash" on Black-headed resides on the underside of the outer primaries. Shadows on the underwings of Bonaparte's Gulls still cannot meet this BLACK located strictly on the under-primaries of Black-headed. Then tie this into this the slightly larger size (not always immediately evident) and different build and feeding style (Black-headed glides more and is slightly slower than Bonaparte's), plus the addition, when seen well, of the red bill and rich-red legs/feet. 
Again, on WEATHER. Oftentimes, this time of the year, the harsher the weather the better for birding. 
Waterbirds make larger movements on days with WNW, NW winds. The ultimate goal for many of these birds is to push east. Surely you'll see Red-breasted Mergansers and gulls pushing west, in order to stage on Sandusky Bay, for instance, but many of the birds that we see on the Cleveland front are eastbound, in general. These tough-weather days are PERFECT for posting up at harbors. The winds often push mass groupings of gulls to areas with lighter wind/wave action. Thus, Bonaparte's on a calm day will feed a mile off shore. In heavier weather, they'll move in, off breakwalls and into harbors. Such is the case with jaegers and waterfowl. 
Sure, almost any day on the lake, no matter the weather, you're going to witness some sort of movement. But there's a specific set of elements that tend to outline the bigger movement days. Getting familliar with where birds stage, too, is key. Lorain and Huron Harbors, Avon Lake Powerplant, Rocky River Park, Wendy Park in Cleveland, Headlands Beach/Fairport Harbor, Conneaut... are a few of the main harbors/bluffs/coves where there tends to be a massing of a wide diversity of species. 
As far as the adult winter Black-headed sticking at Lorain... there's a fair outlook that the Bonaparte's flock currently working the harbor will stick for several more days. There's certainly turn-over. The good news is that the Black-headed has been refound almost daily, AS has a leucistic Bonaparte's Gull that was also part of the original flock that appeared on the 27th...
best of birding - jen




Jen Brumfield 
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Cleveland, Ohio
330-701-6452




                                          
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