My wife woke me just now to see a flock of several thousand of what I believe are blackbirds and grackles (they vary widely in size- but I definitely heard a lot of the metallic grackle sound) that took over the trees around our house in Wadsworth. I didn't get close enough to ID definitively with my camera- but I did get a blurry pic of one with a white head which is a first for me. I've never even seen a flock of starlings that large.
Sent from my iPod
On Dec 22, 2011, at 8:31 PM, Nancy Anderson <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> I went to Villa Angela and Wildwood State Parks on the east side of Cleveland this afternoon. I was there from 1:15 to 3:20pm. I needed the walk but the only interesting bird was the juvenile Black-crowned Night-Heron in the Wildwood woods as I started to walk down to the creek. I had not seen any Night-Herons there in a long time. It circled a couple times then landed on the island because of me. Few Bonaparte's Gulls and one American Tree Sparrow, 30 Red-breasted Mergansers in creek and marina and 60 seen from Villa Angela, 130 Ring-billed Gulls in the marina.
>
> I then went to Sims Park in Euclid from 3:35pm to 5pm. There were 14 scoters, 4 Black Scoters and probably 10 Surf Scoters. I am not confident in saying I saw any White-winged but there could of been one or two. Also, 5 Bufflehead, approx 115 Common Goldeneye and over 200 Red-breasted Mergansers. The Goldeneye were mixed in with Mergansers, Scoters and twoBufflehead (the other Bufflehead far east of park. So many Goldeneye all together in a muddle it was hard to count them all straight out from shore. Most I have seen this season. Also two female Hooded Mergansers further east and one American Coot near the pier, 2 Horned Grebes, and heard the White-throated Sparrow west end of park near apts. (too dark to see it clearly as it hangs around with House Sparrows and kept moving) Followed it over 200 feet.
>
> I hadn't been to Sims Park for about nine days so I also went to Sims Park, Sunday Dec 18th. I noticed that there were no easy to find adult White-winged Scoters - could see no white in the wings, none with the white patterns you see on White-winged Scoters heads, I only saw two that had very dark heads (no white) that looked like they could be White-winged females or young males. The rest were Surf Scoters that also have white patterns on their heads. But then I notice people are still reporting large numbers of White-winged Scoters and almost no Surf Scoters (ebird) at Sims Park so I contacted a very experienced birder who participated with other very experienced birders in the Christmas Bird Count that goes from Eastlake to the east side of Cleveland along the lake Sat, Dec 17th. That person said they only saw one White-winged Scoter at Sims Park on Saturday (12/17) and it wasn't with the usual group of scoters.
>
> Nancy Anderson
> Richmond Hts, OH
>
>
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