Two pelagic trips were run out of Cleveland on Saturday 12/11.  The first
was from 7:00-11:00 and the second from 11:00-3:00.  The morning trip headed
east out of the Cuyahoga and ran as far east as White City.  Most of the
gulls were seen around the mouth of the river.  On the lake there were
scattered flocks of gulls and waterfowl.  The most numerous waterfowl were
red-breasted mergansers and Canada geese.  Ring-billed gulls were the most
common gull.  Very few Bonaparte's gulls were seen.  Highlights on this trip
were 1-2 purple sandpipers along the outer breakwall, glaucous gull, and
Nelson's gull (hybrid between glaucous and herring).  The glaucous put on a
nice show as it ripped into a dead red-breasted merganser.  The Nelson's
also joined it briefly for a nice comparison.  We also had peregrine falcon
and bald eagle.

On the second trip we headed west and went as far as the Rocky River.  There
were a lot more waterfowl and gulls to the west.  Waterfowl were dominated
by red-breasted mergansers, bufflehead and common goldeneye.  Gulls were
mainly ring-billed, but with a few more herring and Bonaparte's.  There were
no large Bonaparte's gulls here either.  Highlights on this trip were
several lesser black-backed gulls, Iceland gull, and Thayer's gull.  On both
trips we saw a couple common loons and a few horned grebes

A couple people asked me to post my shots of the Thayer's gull  I have
posted a couple shots at:

http://www.rarebird.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=5280&PID=15678#15678

John Pogacnik
4765 Lockwood Road
Perry, OH 44081
(440) 259-2751

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